Jabula, Ellesmere Port,

Came here for a friends birthday today and I must say the food was delicious, the service was amazing and the effort they put in for a birthday is phenomenal. I would recommend this place to anybody, and I'll be going for my birthday for sure.

The price was a little much, but due to the amount of food and, in some cases, the fact we have stuff like Crocodile and Ostrich, that's to be expected.

£75 for 3 people: one average starter, three average mains, two defrosted desserts, two beers, two diet Cokes and one fizzy water?? You get better value at Pizza Hut.

We visited Jabula in Ellesmere Port on Friday 23/9/11

My cousin who is from South Africa originally booked the table, for us and our mothers. I don't live too far away from Ellesmere Port, but the restaurant was easy to find and parking was close by and secure.

When we stepped inside the restaurant straight away you felt the warmth friendly atmosphere, we chose our drinks and food and enjoyed watching the ships drive up the canal.

Our food arrived 3 of us had Prawn Cocktail, whilst my cousin had Crocodile Bites for starters, they are quite a generous starter and we all cleaned our plates. For mains I had Steak (I am not that adventurous with food) by cousin had the Springbok, my mum had the Salmon and my auntie had Duck. Again we all scraped our plates.

For deserts we had a toffee cake, malteser cake and and two had milk tarts, we rotated these deserts as they all looked so nice, so it was nice to try a bit of everyone else's.

There were drums that were playing in the restaurant, and it was someone's birthday on another table, they had them up dancing and playing games, all tastefully done!

The layout of the food is stunning, the food was beautiful, the staff are friendly, professional and only there when you want them, certainly not in your face! There was also no rush to hurry us out, once we had finished our coffee's. It cost £124 for four of us, I thought that was very reasonable for 3 courses that I thoroughly enjoyed.

I will definately be visiting Jabula again. Check them out on facebook!

Ali

What an awfully outdated restaurant! I dine a lot around Chester and I've found this to be one of the most poor and run down restaurants I have ever visited. As soon as you walk in you feel like you've been transported back in time, the table cloths were stained and the colour scheme was sickening. There were cheap, tacky throw away paper napkins that you can buy from Costco pointing out of the wine glasses. There weren't enough wine glasses for all of us on the table and no attention to detail. When we rang we were promised African drummers on the Friday night, unfortunately there were none. We were served by an array of different waitresses, some nice but not authentic. The service was slow, the drinks were overpriced (I think £4.80 for a pint bottle) and the food was below average. The Game Africa meats were so small and were covered is some odd sauce which masked the botched cooking displayed. The piece of Croc was about the size of my fingernail although my wife had the pasta bake which was horrendously big, too big. She's a big eater and ate about a quarter, it's not professional cooking. The music was monotonous and by the end of the meal the restaurant was packed full of rowdy teenagers. I had heard good things about this restaurant in the past but it isn't worth the effort. What a waste of breath!

It was an excellent atmosphere, really friendly and food superb will be going back for certain. It was my birthday and they could nt have treated us any better. They explained when I asked about different dishes and sauces thoroughly and the boerewors were gorgeous so if you want a friendly, happy, helpful restaurant with great food pay a visit, I highly recommend Jabula.

If you've never been to Jabula you need to read this!

I have experienced some of the finest restaurants not just in the local area but right across the country however nothing has prepared me for the experience that is Jabula. The missiz and I decided to go out for lunch today and wanted to try somewhere new. I've heard the radio ad's in the past for Jabula and have recently edited the listing in the directory so thought we'd give it a try.

Every (and I do mean every) detail is attended to from the decoration and ambience of the restaurant to the friendly but professional service, exquisite presentation even down to the decorative dressing on the plate leaves you feeling you have just arrived in restaurant heaven!.

I opted for the Crocodile to start and the Ostrich as a main and Cheri had Frikkadel (Home Made Beef Meatball) to start and Kubu (Deer) for a main. Everything was cooked to perfection and literally melted in the mouth. The taste was something I have never experienced before and it is definitely something I want to have again and soon!

Talking with the staff after the meal (obviously they were not aware they were being reviewed for a local magazine) it seems that we have not yet experienced everything Jabula has to offer. I'm told the place comes alive on a Friday night with live entertainment whilst you dine.

Jabula is situated on the bank of the Manchester Ship Canal (Next to Ellesmere Port Boat Museum) which lends itself to give tranquil and relaxing surroundings. Add all of this to the very reasonable price and the result is an experience that it really is worth travelling for miles to get.

The two of us went for my partner's Birthday, I mentioned in passing to the staff when I booked that we were coming for his birthday.

When we arrived they had decorated our table area, sang happy birthday to him in both English, Afrikanas and Zulu and produced a lovely birthday desert complete with candles.

The Restaurant itself was superb, we were made to feel very welcome

The food was excellent, the ostrich was cooked to perfection and the presentation was amazing and make sure you try a Don Pedro

Prices were very reasonable and nothing was too much trouble for the staff

There was no service charge added to the bill and tips were descretionary

We had a thoroughly enjoyable time and would always recommend Jabula

Hi.I arranged a birthday party for my partner and it was the worse service i have ever recieved.The drinks took for ages and i got more veg than meat.(far to much veg).Also they wanted to hurry us up as they had the table booked straight after us.Couldnt believed she said that to us. The bill came and she said i can put the tip on the pdq card machine.she stood over me so felt abit awkward so i gave a tip, but i didnt realise they already added there own tip on my bill.Cheeky.Do not use.These people are arrogant.I do have a really good south afican friend and he said they are from a part of afica who are arrogant and not very nice people.Please dont put money in these people pockets and go somewhere where the service is excellent.(harkers in chester)

We visited Jabula for the first time in April 2010 for a family birthday. From the booking stage until we walked out of the door at the end of the evening we were given excellent service. I was asked if we were celebratig an occasion. It was my husbands birthday and our table was docorated with a banner and balloons. The serviceat the table was excellent, we di not have to wait long for anything. The food was als excellent and well presented. The entertainment was good and there were surprises for the birthday boy. ( I won't spoil that bit for anyone planing to vsitfor the first time!) I can't believe that someone wrote a earlier review saying hat itwas expeniveand poorvalue for money. It was a cut above what you can expect in alot of very average predictable resataurants.

We visited The Jabula Restaurant last Sunday (7th March 2010) to celebrate my dads birthday we were a party of 11 including my 2 grandchildren (2 and 5) and must say it is the best eating experience any of us have had for a long, long time. The staff were South African born, happy, helpful and very knowledgable. They made sure we were all extremely well cared for and made sure we had a lovely afternoon.

Now for the food WELL!! FANTASTIC !!! Well presented,beautifully cooked and served with panache :) we all had something different and there was a lot of trying a bit of each others haha It was superb.

We tend to eat out a lot and all agreed this is the best experience we have had in a considerable time and we will be returning to Jabula and i cannot recommend it enough.