David Lee

Review of Bron Eifion Contry House Hotel

Eating as a large party, we had been asked to preo...

Eating as a large party, we had been asked to preorder from a set menu. No issue. However, we were also made to pay in full two weeks before.

Having now had the Bron Eifion experience, the cynic in me is minded that they take the full balance, as they will refuse to refund and money, regardless of service or the food.

Generally the service was slow, with a huge lag between the service of the first meals and the last. People ate so their food didn t get cold, and those who had been served had finished their meals before the second wave of meals was even served. This isn t ideal, but as a large party, something you sometimes have to swallow.

The real issue was with the kids meals, specifically the tomato pasta, ordered by three children ages 3-8.

My daughter took one mouthful, and spat it out, saying it s spicy . I looked over the table to see the other younger children in the party having the same reaction.

I tasted it to check she hadn t just eaten a bit of black pepper, to find that the children s tomato pasta was indeed spicy. Too spicy even for me. It was not black pepper, and almost had a cajun flavour that I could not put my finger on.

The meals were returned immediately, and replacement of sausage and mash requested.

The pasta was taken away, only to return 10 minutes later, having been told that it was no longer spicy.

Staggeringly, the pasta wasn t spicy now, as they instead served the children three bowls of pasta, stirred into tomato ketchup.

We approached the deputy manager, and complained about the replacement meals. No other food for the children was forthcoming. I gave my daughter my meal to finish, as she was by now very hungry. Again, no service check.

Skipping to dessert, my daughters fruit salad with ice cream comes out, with no ice cream. I ask 3 times if the ice cream can be sent out. My daughter finishes her fruit salad, and still no ice cream. There were no staff to be found, so my husband had to walk into the kitchen to ask for ice cream for the fourth time. Eventually, 25 minutes after the fruit salad sans ice cream was served, a replacement bowl of ice cream was sent out.

After dinner, we approached the deputy manager to state that we expected a refund for the children s meals.

He refused to refund the the meals, and instead said he would give a bottle of wine.

I declined and said I wanted a refund, which the deputy manager refused on the following grounds over a 15 minute argument in the main bar area.

1. He would not give a refund, as the pasta was not spicy. There was no spice in the pasta.

I asked him to go and get some pasta and we could taste it then and there. He refused. I asked him to bring out the chef, and he refused as the chef has gone home .

The onus is on the kitchen to taste the food, and if the customer is wrong, to raise it immediately. He said he wouldn t do that as why cause a scene at the table by coming out to tell us that we were wrong.

Regardless of the spice, the kitchen had then served us tomato ketchup. He would not issue a refund as it wasn t me that did that .

We hadn t asked for a refund. We asked for alternative meals, and these were not provided, with no explanation.

He stated they weren t entitled to something else as the original food was fine.

This cyclical argument went round and round, with the deputy manager reiterating the pasta was not spicy and the tomato ketchup was acceptable.

He failed to appreciate at any point that this wasn t a shake down where the kids had eaten 3/4 of the food, and we d sent it back to try it on. It was returned immediately, uneaten, and an alternative requested, not a refund. It was the disgraceful way the complaint had been addressed in serving them tomato ketchup which was the real problem.

In the end, the duty manager said the three meals would be refunded. All in all an absolutely appalling evening, which all could have been avoided with a bit of basic training in customer service.