Andiamo Cape Quarter: Restaurants in Cape Town

Andiamo Cape Quarter: Restaurants in Cape Town

A Disappointing Start to this Cape Town Restaurant’s Winter Specials

Last winter you would have been hard-pressed to find a more ardent Andiamo supporter, it was my favourite of the Italian restaurants in Cape Town. We were living in Green Point and going through an anti-cooking phase. With Andiamo’s special we were eating there, on average, twice a week – often with friends. The special was amazing – R99 for two pizzas or pastas and two glasses of wine. Thus, when I saw their new winter special (announced about two months ago) I was SUPER excited and made a plan to be back there even though we were now living in the southern suburbs.

Check the Details of Your Cape Town Winter Specials

Imagine my disappointment when we arrived there to find that the special was different, the price was still R99 but now excludes the two glasses of wine. This makes the winter special significantly less ‘special’. That was however my fault for misreading – when they advertised the special it was only for two pizzas or two pastas.

The other new addition is that you have to have a ‘La Famiglia’ Card to qualify for specials. But I feel that Andiamo has been a bit sneaky about this. When they first launched their loyalty card program they made no mention of needing to “activate” the card. This activation means that you can only use the card on your second visit (and are therefore not eligible for specials on your first visit). Why I feel that this is sneaky is that there is no barcode or microchip or anything that would need to be activated. So then could it be that there is a back-office function that needs to happen? It seems unlikely as they managed to activate mine immediately with only a first name and a telephone number (presumably taken from my booking – they never asked me for any details) as I was quite firm about not being informed of the delayed activation and insisted on having my card activated immediately. I think since then they have become better at communicating the two-stage process.

*Note: I have just checked their Twitter page and it seems that they have changed this: they are now saying the card can be activated immediately.

The Food at Andiamo

The next disappointment was the meals – the pizzas ordered by friends looked fine, but the pastas were disappointingly average. As often happens with Cape Town restaurant specials, the special was a lot poorer quality than last winter. The pasta I normally order has been excluded from the specials (you know the one: prawn and basil pasta), so my alternative that I’ve ordered in the past was the Al Salmone (salmon and leeks), well, there were plently leeks, not so much salmon, and a lot less of the decadent creaminess that Andiamo used to offer. My partner his staple, the Mushroom and Parma Ham Pasta. This pasta used to be a meal of great beauty, with good quality mushrooms, a decent amount of parma ham and lots of creamy goodness. But this time there was a lot fewer toppings, and they were of vastly inferior quality in a cream sauce that I don’t think was made of cream. It was more of the white sauce variety.

As I mentioned before, this meal took place almost two months ago and may have been an aberration. Also, usually I wouldn’t complain – I mean it’s a special after all. But we have been going to Andiamo for years and the change has only just happened, before we have never had anything to complain about. With all the disappointments taken together it was an experience that has left a bad taste in my mouth. If a restaurant is promoting their restaurant specials, then the quality needs to be the same as their standard menu. I hope that this is just my experience as it would be a shame for Andiamo to have dropped their standards.

Andiamo Current Restaurant Specials

On their facebook page Andiamo has launched their new Cape Town winter specials, they are worth taking note of as they have a number of new options, particularly their birthday promotion!

 

Contact Andiamo:

Andiamo Cape Quarter

72 Waterkant Street, Green Point, Cape Town

021 421 3687/8


[email protected]

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