SANParks.org Forums

This news about the restaurants is not encouraging me to visit them.

Last year we visited Skuks restaurant several times and had the buffet.
Now, I'm a rice freak, so anything with that goes down well.
The ragouts were tasty, especially with the rice.

Not that fussed about the salad bar. Hé,
I didn't climb tot the top of the food chain to eat green things, but even that was reasonable.
We had no complaints, especially as with the buffet, you don't have to wait to be served.
Yes, maybe a bit pricey, more than we pay here in Blighty for a carvery, but then, you're on holiday and everything is more expensive.

If the quality is now even less and the prices higher, I'll have to do some overtime to pay for it.
I had hoped on my next visit, in September, to sample the wares of Berg en Dal and Lower Sabie, as looking for wild life always makes me hungry.
But this time, maybe I should skip LS' restaurant.
It's good that Nkuhlu is nearby and their buff pasties are great!
I'll have to get a few of them for my evening meal, as rice with chakalaka and spam get boring after a few times.

I'm not braaing.
Certainly not on my own and not after my initiation into the braai meal last year (readers of my TR will understand)

I have enjoyed my meals in Kruger in the two years previously.
I know it's not haute cuisine, but in general adequate.

Hoping for a decent meal in Kruger,
Mike

Had a pie with chips at Satara and it was good
All toasted sandwiches were nice
Best at Olifants
The buffet we had at Satara was nice, although a limited selection.

The only thing which could have been better were the chips

We went to the Kruger for my 30th B-day at the end of Feb, needless to say Selati Restaurant didnt make me feel very welcome, or special.

they:
-Didn't have our booking (made 3 days prior)
-Didn't have half the menu available
-My SO's food arrived without half of the food mentioned on the menu (we were told that they were out of stock and the onions would take to long to caramelize)
-Didn't call the manager when I asked to speak to him.
- Sent the manager to the wrong table, when I finally spoke to him after I asked a second time
-didn't give me discount, only said we could have the drinks on the house.

When we finally spoke to the manager, he was very apologetic, informed us that we had been misinformed about the chicken not being available and I did receive an email (written in the worst possible English on my return home).
I must admit, going to the treetop restaurant a few days later was a much more pleasant and welcoming experience.

I would not recommend Selati to anyone, especially any foreign guests and the prices are mind blowing, especially seeing that your meal will arrive without half of the sides.

Its really sad, it made be feel embarassed to be a South African

Fee, I couldn't agree more with you!!

In the last week I have been to Letaba twice, both times over lunch time.
The restaurant was dead quiet, the one day there was one other table occupied and the last time no occupied tables.
I think this has a lot to do with the new liquor rules.
This might force them to jack up service, quality and adjust the menu prices or they WILL be going down.


Watershed, you should try making veggies on the braai, it is great. What I do is place a helping of veggies in open tin foil, fold the sides up making a "dish", put on your required spice, pour on a little beer or any other liquid, even fruit juice, close and seal the foil and place this on the braai grid a while before you put the meat on. Once the meat is done you will have the best veggies ready to eat.

Must say the first time we went to Selati, we were Extremely impressed.
The second visit about 8 months later, let's just say didn't go according to plan.
It's really a shame that such a great place has spiraled downwards so quickly.
IMHO-The success of a restaurant lies completely on one thing - Management.
Truly hope that Selati can recover from this bad innings

Visited P/kop restaurant December.
First visit again to P/kop in 8 years.
Really impressed about all the upgrades.
Restaurant also looked really neat, great service & food!

Hear hear Fee!!

Years ago when SANParks still had proud ownership of the restaurants people used to queue at the door to be seated!
The food was great, the service excellent, the managers well trained, professional and proud of their restaurants.
Now it is a sad situation!

SANParks SHOULD get rid of these parasites...if the restaurants don't make money then SANParks don't make money as well!

GET THEM OUT, take back our assets, improve services, appoint experienced and motivated managers and whoop-whoop you will see the customers flock back to the restaurants happily spending their money on excellent food and good service!

Maybe things are changing I hope so

Has anyone ever seen the LS hospitality manager - I didn't even know that there was such a person.

The LS restaurant manager is actually a very helpful guy - helped us with a non-restaurant related problem (when he did not need to) in December when we couldn't get hold of the LS Camp Manager late in the evening because of problems with the cell phone reception at LS. Can't remember his name unfortunately - not good with names...

I have had the Lower Sabie restuarant manager come ask us about service

We did tell him the honest truth about how long we waited for our food, and delivered our opinion that the food was very good. This was near Christmas in December

Unfortunately, to a degree the Management of camp restaurants are hamstrung by head office policy.
Menus are strictly determined by head office, along with price.

As of my last trip to Kruger (November 2010) restaurants serving the "Buffet Option" were only allowed to sell Pork and Chicken along with a stew option.
Not bad if you only eat there once a year, disgusting if you are fortunate enough to spend spend more than a few weeks a year in Kruger.

We have had a few food poisoning incidents from the cafeterias .

The costs are not the issue.
Systems, quality and the lack of value for returning guests is obvious.

It is sad to see staff that have been relying on tips and meagre salaries for years being layed off as visitors are slowly waking up to the fact that it is more worthwhile bringing all you supplies in from outside the park and self catering.
Even as we do for 2X 2week trips a year.

The only meals that we eat at restaurant / take away facilities are our breakfasts really.
This trip we had a full breakfast at Afsaal for R38 which was great!
At Pretoriuskop we had a variety of toasted sandwiches.
Out of 6 sandwiches, three were delivered to our table as ordered the other three were incorrect.
Filling was absolutely minimal e.g. a toasted cheese & tomato had one and a half very thin slices of tomato on the whole sandwich (both halves) and cheese was fine on one half but almost nothing on the other half.
Toasted chicken mayo was apparently tasteless...
At LS some suckers again went for the toasted sandwiches (suckers) and got the same quality.
Others went for a chicken burger which was slightly better (I must admit).
The prices of these sandwiches did not compare well to Afsaal either, as a toasted Ham & Cheese was R31.99 and was half the amount of food that we got at Afsaal for R38.
At Afsaal the coffee is also included in the price of a full breakfast whereas we paid an extra R10.95 for this at camps.

I'm afraid there is no comparison - Afsaal won hands down!!
I suppose that it also goes to show that Afsaal was busy and yet there was almost no queue at Pretoriuskop and there was none at LS at all -
And this on Easter weekend!!
This should be a real moneymaking enterprise and yet it seems that no-one cares

During our trip we ate at the restaurants at different camps - and we didn´t have any reason to complain.
I must admit that we mostly had burgers but we also had breakfast, sandwiches and salads.
The biltong salad at Letaba was actually excellent and had a lot of biltong.

Only at the restaurant at Satara we were a bit irritated about the very limited breakfast offer (we could only chose between the expansive buffet or one standard breakfast) but beside that no complaints at all.
We also found the service attentive except for only one occasion.

I wouldn't say that the restaurants are cheap but smaller dishes like burgers and sandwiches are reasonable.

In October 2010 I visited the Kruger for the first time in 12 years since I moved to the UK.
Prior to that i used to go the Kruger often and when I was a young warthog i would go with my parents at least once a year.
I decided to bring my fiance to the African Bush for the first time for the real classic safari experience as she is Polish.
Before we arrived i told her tales of my childhood of how the restaurants were and experience of old time formalities and traditions of the culinary kind (including a wine steward and cheese and wine served afterwards on the patio.
I reminisced about how the head stewart would call the camp to dinner by banging a drum.

Well we arrived at Letaba (my fav camp of days gone by) and walked to the restaurant for dinner under the African sky the excitement grew... until i saw the sad sorry state of affairs the restaurant had become. Considering i was paying in rand with the might of the UK pound behind it, the prices were the same as you would find in London (once again the RIP OFF SA brigade had jumped on the band wagon due to the world cup!!).
Service was terrible with a "can't be asked or do I really have to serve you"
let me tell you in Europe this service would not be tolerated at all

Breakfast used to be a real treat as i remember and you had a wide choice and the kreemy meal used to be the best,
Alas no more, this too was a sad tale of woe and overpriced to death.

There was a time when they used to use the meat from the animals culled in the restaurant.
buffalo pasties were great.
I remember even their burgers were made on site from the venison of the day.
Again this tradition had died a death and had been taken over by the mundane same boring rubbish that was served at all three camps i stayed at, all lacking in variety and difference

When you ask somebody about their stay somewhere, one of the top three things they comment on is the food.
I.e you will remember the sea food if you went on a holiday to the med .
well i remember the food as being dire and dull.
The KNP is not making any sort of impression of the good kind to the international tourist.
The KNP is supposed to be SA's jewel, something worth showing off as an experience of a life time, which it is for the most part, but the catering is a real let down and does not meet the mark on the international stage.

I am going to the park in Dec this year for 9 days, not because of the food, but because of the bush and how that has a spiritual hold on my heart which i must say has been reignited since my last visit .
This time however I am stocking up at the supermarket and doing the self catering thing, once bitten twice shy, no more will i fall prey to Compass groups lack of respect for the consumer

New management and a new menu introduced

over here