Food Poisoning from eating out

One of my colleagues runs a guest house in Cape Town. She was just telling me about her guests, staying in her guest house, who ate out at a really expensive restaurant in Kalk Bay on the Cape Peninsula last night. They were up vomiting all night. A call to the restaurant did not elicit much sympathy.

She is really upset on behalf of her guests. How do restaurants view their responsibility to serve fresh food which does not cause their patrons to get ill?

Actually it happened to me a number of years ago, visiting Mauritius and staying at one of the five star hotels on the island. They had a buffet on the beach one night. Everything looked great but nothing tasted as good as it looked. That night I was really ill. In the morning I fainted and hit my back as I fell. Had to come home in a wheelchair. Not a great ending to what should have been a romantic idyllic holiday.

I did not think to take action against the hotel for supplying me with food that had made me ill. I just assumed I had been stupid to take a chance and eat food which had had enough time on the beach buffet to go off before it was eaten.

What do you think hotels and restaurants should do to compensate their guests in such circumstances?

Jason Dodo on The Grace in Rosebank

One of our web users sent us this review:

It's great when a hotel really lives up to it's reputation. On a quick visit to Johannesburg for a family wedding I stayed a feew nights at the Grace. It really is comfortable and homely and the service is great. I didn't eat many meals in the hotel but everything I had was delicious. Well prepared, fresh ingredients. Can't really ask for more.

Jason Dodo - March 2009