CHARCOAL GRILL — Restaurant in County Westmeath

I had a genuinely disappointing experience here. The food was, at best, mediocre. I ordered the butter chicken ,the chicken was dry, and the side of rice was bland, nothing like the rich, flavourful dishes I’m used to from the Middle East (Dubai and KSA).

The worst part, however, was the service. I arrived with my wife and patiently waited to be seated. No menus were given to us, so I had to go to the front desk to ask for them , something I’ve never had to do before in any restaurant. When the waitress finally came, she apologized, saying they were “very busy” and “short-staffed.” I could see the stress on the staff ,one waiter was tossing menus onto tables in frustration, another was pacing around holding his head in despair.

I noticed some customers were seated, not attended, so they decided to leave.

It took a long time for the food to arrive, and when it did, they brought the wrong order for my child (goujons instead of nuggets). By this point, I wasn’t even surprised.

A big sign saying “Cash Only” felt like a red flag. At the end, my change was given entirely in 50-cent coins (€10 worth ), heavy pockets full of coins. I should have believed my instincts regarding such businesses.

It was clear to me that this restaurant has serious management problems: the staff are overworked, probably underpaid, and completely overwhelmed. While eating, I checked other Google reviews and saw multiple complaints about finding hair or other things in the food. Thankfully, that didn’t happen to us, but I was on edge the whole time.

I didn’t bother asking to speak to a manager, none were in sight, and I got the sense they were fine letting the chaos run unchecked. Nobody even asked the basic hospitality question: “Was everything okay with your meal?”

I should have listened to my friend who warned me about this place. Next time I’m in Athlone, I’ll definitely choose one of the many better...

We ate here before and decided to go when my wife was feeling a bit down to cheer her up. As soon as we entered, the waitress stopped us and told us that it was 25 past 10 and they were closing at 11. I said does that mean we can not eat and we should go? she said that is up to you. I am just letting you know. The next thing she said that she has cleaned one side of restaurant and for that reason we should sit on the other side of the restaurant where already she had packed 3 tables with people. I said I would prefer to sit on the other side with my family because it is very crowdy. She said okay and then sent other waitress who started to sweep that side where we were sitting. Made us really uncomfortable. The food came which was not too bad to be honest but while I was eating. The waitress came and said could you please, pay now because we were counting the register after 2 minutes of serving the food. They made me to go to the ATM to get the money because they did not take cards. I came back and started to eat again. Now the waitress is saying to the other waitress if she mopped the side where we were sitting which added extra pressure and it is not even 11 yet. They were banging the plates and laughing loudly and also making mistakes and saying Oh my God loudly in frustration which made us feel as if they were angry on us but there were other people present on other tables at that time. Very poor service but the...

Has been my best place to go in Athlone since many years and I still love the food at Charcoal grill. My review is about service and customer handling which I experienced today 20-Dec, 10:30pm. Since I wasn't up for dining today hence ordered veggie pasta which my husband picked up from the place. When I opened it at home, it had steel wool piece inside the pasta which needless to say is dangerous if I had eaten without looking at it. When I called them about it, only thing I expect is a 'sorry' which to my surprise was missing. Lady on the call offered refund if i return food but no sorry. I decided to go back to restaurant and exchange my order but was shocked to see they had no sign of apology. It's a human error which can happen by anyone but least you expect is an apology. I explicitly called for chef to talk and he was too busy (I was the only customer at that time) to come out of kitchen and say sorry to customer who had been served a steel wool. Asking for their names, duty manager and lady waitress told they wouldn't even say their name or chef's name to me.

Well, this is epitome of attitude and customer mishandling when you chose not even apologizing rest assured.

Taste aside(which is great), I would doubt on quality and cleanliness of restaurant after today's incident and off course the service has declined since I had been fan...