I’m peeved off. Very peeved off.
If you follow me on Twitter (which you should: @KayliVee) you would know that I went to Neighbourhood for dinner the other night. There were quite a few of us and the restaurant was full, so I understood that service may be just a little bit slow.
It took 4 requests to the same waitress to get a simple glass of water, we waited about 45 minutes until we made our dinner order, which then took at least 12.3 years to appear, and after asking for the bill, it took another 25 minutes for us to receive it.
What saved the day was the fact that I really did have the very best burger of my life: The Nacho Burger (and I swapped the beef patty for a chicken breast.) The burger was enormous. It was piled high with salsa, guacamole, salad, chicken, nachos, jalapenos, pickles and cheese with an equally high pile of curly fries. The chicken was tender and succulent, the salsa was well-seasoned, the guacamole was fresh and didn’t have that awful processed flavour and the bun was perfectly toasted. It was the kind of burger that would make me order it again the next time I went there. And I NEVER EVER order the same thing more than once. It was that great.
A vegetarian friend had the falafel burger. A burger roll with lettuce, tomato and onion, topped with the largest falafel I have ever seen and smeared with humus and tsasiki. I had feared that the falafel “patty” was going to be dry, but it wasn’t. It was moist on the inside but still crunchy on the outside and had been flavoured well. She said she initially was a bit worried that she had ordered the wrong thing, but was surprised how delish the burger actually was.
There were cheese burgers and mushroom burgers; steak rolls and burgers without a roll. We quite literally sat in silence as we inhaled the food which had finally been placed before us. Neighbourhood, you may get your service very wrong, but you get your food very, very right.
Because my burger was so wonderful I decided to overlook the slow service. I even went to the waitress and complimented her on something or other and then asked her to please ask the manager to email me some info that I needed to write this very blog. But I never got it. A week later I called and asked again, still I didn’t receive it. I called a total of 4 times and then sent an email making one final request for the information, and finally: Yaaaaaaaaaaay!!!! A reply!!!!!!!!!! Wooohoooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“Have a look at our website… (and) Please if you have any further questions give me a call”.
No. I don’t want to. Whoever it was that replied to my email was very nice but after all this time, I really didn’t feel like calling them again. So I gave up and decided to rather just be peeved off.
Neighbourhood make delicious food and I’m not over-exaggerating when I say that it was the most amazing burger that I have eaten in my 22.8 years of existence. One day I will go back but for now I will sit with my arms crossed, my bottom lip protruding, a frown on my face and sulk (and try not to think about the burger of my dreams).
Note to self: Must remember to ask for some fresh chilli, it adds that extra oomph.
Directions to Neighbourhood
163 Long Street
Cape Town 8000
021 424 7260