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We visited the Pot and Kettle for a family lunch and found them to be very friendly and accommodating.

There was a range of seating areas to choose from, most of the outdoor and window seats with superb views over the aptly named Valley of 1000 Hills. We were able to take a table at a covered area very close to the big wooden climbing frame (which kept our preschooler busy) and on request, an outdoor heater was fired up for us to help keep the winter chills at bay.

They were able to provide a highchair for our toddler and a children’s menu for our preschooler with reasonably priced children’s meals. All the children’s meals came with chips but we were able to request that they were exchanged for vegetables.

All the adults in our party had sandwiches which came with chunky (over-salted) potato wedges and a side salad (exchanged for vegetables on request). The sandwiches were good and the veg was quite tasty so we forgave them for the cool temperature of the creamed spinach. The cappuccino I ordered was really bad despite the Lavazza logo displayed in various places, but the verdict on the other hot beverages ordered was favourable.

As a special note, the Moms and Babies room was out of this world! It included a range of baby toys, multiple soft mats, couch, rocking chair, and camp cot. One imagines this could come in handy for evening visits with an infant if you brought your own baby monitor.

The restaurant includes an area with lots of crafty items for sale, and there are also some shops off the parking area outside selling other locally made craft and good quality leather goods.

Depending on what you’re after will depend on how you rate Billy’s on different nights of the week. We’ve been there lots of times and the experience can vary wildly from night to night.

On our most recent visits both times we just went for drinks and picked off their cocktail menu. On our first visit, we went on a Tuesday and while there were quite a few other people there and a number of diners, the atmosphere was really chilled and laid back. We took a couple of empty seats at the bar and ordered our cocktails, then sat back to watch the bar-tenders doing their thing, juggling bottles and looking slick and cool as they whipped up various drinks. Our “Cookie Crushers” (personal favourites involving ice cream, Romany Cream biscuits, chocolate and mint liqueurs) were delicious and throughout the ordering and drinking we were able to sit and chat quietly, a great opportunity to relax and wind down.

We thought we’d try the same trick the following week but being on holiday, we didn’t think about what day it was, and we accidentally went on a Thursday.

It was approaching 10pm but the place was heaving with people having a good time after work, and we could hear the music pumping out from about 20m away. Sitting outdoors was the only option as far as being able to chat (not a problem in Durban’s balmy climate), but first we had to order our drinks.

When we finally got noticed at the bar and ordered our cocktails, the bar tender’s face turned a little pale. (We subsequently heard from friends that ordering cocktails is really not the done thing when it’s that busy.) As it turned out we had a rookie bar tender who didn’t know how to make our drinks anyway and it all went disastrously wrong, including the bar tender accidentally knocking over the blender, spilling the alcohol somewhere where it didn’t belong, and shorting out their fridges and display cabinet lighting. I kid you not. On the plus side, it provided something entertaining to watch which was good, as the music was far too loud for us to enjoy casual conversation.

The drinks we were given were all wrong – the Cookie Crusher got banana liqueur in it, and my “Flying Gorilla” did not include fresh banana as specified on the menu but rather an overdose of banana syrup – ick! – but still, we let our bar tender off as we’d clearly ruined his night.

So would we go back? Yes. But not at the end of a week or when a big match is playing, because that kind of “excitement” is not what we’re after when we go out for drinks.