With all the restaurants in the Sea Point area full, my friend and I tried the pool lounge at the President for lunch. Lovely surroundings, wonderful views, gorgeous gardens, but the food was terrible! In such a lovely place one would expect good, healthy options on the menu, but all we saw was dish upon dish of fried, crumbed, stodgy fast food served with deep-fried chips and bread. A banter's worst nightmare. Even the promising "seafood platter" turned out to be fried, battered and processed.

After pleading with the poor waitron he finally agreed to bring us something off-menu: yellow tail with veg and steak, pepper sauce and veg. I won't go into all the detail, but between getting no sauce, waiting for sauce and getting the wrong sauce, reheated steak with sauce, and sending everything back because it was reheated, and waiting for a fresh batch of veg, sauce and steak, my friend eventually ate her food an HOUR after it was first brought to the table!

After complaining to at least six staff members, and being promised to have things rectified, we eventually caught the eye of Mynhardt, the Food and Bev Manager, who listened, understood, and apologized profusely.

It was not a good experience at all, but was redeemed by the fact that we were offered dessert and drinks, and upon enquiring about the bill were informed that everything was taken care of by the Manager.

Thank you, Mynhardt, may things go well for you! You are an excellent ambassador for the President!

This was an embarrassing experience. I told my partner I'd take her to an hotel I used to frequent way back in the 60's & 70's called the Queens Hotel. Driving to where I used to enter the parking lot I found it built on so as it was a nice warm sunny day I suggested we walk up a slight incline to the other entrance I remembered. We arrived at a barred entrance to what turned out to be apartments! I asked the guard what had happened to the Queens Hotel and he told me he'd never heard of it but the President Hotel was right there where I'd left it all those years ago!!! So, yes, I got the name wrong and the area had become so built up I didn't recognise anything. The President Hotel of yesteryear was an oldie. Comfortable, cosy, and more to my taste than the current one. However, the hotel has had a makeover and is now very modern. The cocktail bar I remembered is long gone and has been replaced with a new style cocktail bar complete with the inevitable large screen TV for sports fanatics. It is spacious and bright and looks out onto a swimming pool where guests were relaxing. I ordered two 500ml beers which came to double the price I'd been paying at other establishments, R54 per pint of draught. I guess that's the going rate at what I assume is a five star hotel. It was a relaxing experience but as the air conditioning wasn't working too well I was glad to get out into the fresh air again. My partner loved it. I never did find the queens hotel as it only existed in my mind.