I’m normally very fond of this gourmet pizza chain, which has several branches throughout Johannesburg. However this particular meal was not the best.

The location and ambiance are fine – the restaurant spills out onto The Zone plaza, and it’s located adjacent to several other eateries such as Tasha’s and Haagen Dazs, so there’s plenty of buzz and activity. The interiors are high-ceilinged and inviting, with brick walls, hardwood floors and a giant yellow-tiled pizza oven dominating one corner.

The service started a little slow – it took a while to get the waiter to take our order. The menu included a huge list of creative – and sometimes crazy-sounding – pizzas, such as the Funky Monkey (chilli, chocolate and banana) and the Sharp Shooter (anchovy and roasted red pepper with capers and olives).

I ordered the pesto pasta with cherry tomatoes, mozzarella balls, fresh rocket and lemon zest, and my husband got the James Brown pizza: grilled chicken with barbecue sauce, bacon, guacamole, cheddar and red onions. It took quite a while for the food to come out – maybe 20 minutes. The pesto pasta was alright – not overly flavorful, but acceptable – but the pizza did not have a trace of barbecue sauce anywhere on it.

We brought it to the waiter’s attention, and instead of adopting the attitude that the customer is always right, he argued with us and claimed that there was indeed BBQ sauce in there (we couldn’t taste it). We took the issue up with the manager, who admitted that this pizza was probably not prepared correctly, and sent it back for a re-do, but not after first explaining that the BBQ sauce was meant to be applied on the crust, not on the chicken (even though the menu clearly states that “grilled chicken with BBQ sauce” is one of the ingredients). 30 minutes later we got our replacement, but at that point we were so annoyed (and late for our movie) that we wolfed it down and ran.

Unfortunately this type of mistake is not uncommon in Joburg restaurants, so I didn’t let it color my perception of this particular eatery. I just wish the waiter had had the decency to admit and rectify the mistake more quickly – an hour and half in a ho-hum pizza joint is more than I care to spend, no matter how chic the decor.