New Moon On The Quay — Restaurant in Bristol

Absolute Nightmare, don't go on a busy night!

Originally booked for the Clifton restaurant, we then received a call informing us the table had been confirmed by mistake and we could be moved to the harbourside restaurant instead, bit of an inconvenience but ok.

I then received another call informing us that a deposit was required for our table, this wasn't mentioned whilst booking or anywhere on the website. I was hesitant to pay over the phone but apparently that was the only way.

We arrived at the restaurant for 8 o'clock thinking a table would be reserved and ready for us after placing a booking in advance and paying a deposit. Instead the restaurant was full to the brim and we were told to wait in the cold outside with another 3 groups of people who also booked for 8 until a table freed up. We were provided with a menu whilst waiting so that gave us hope that we would be able to order as soon as we sat down.

20 minutes later we were sat at our table and told someone would take our order shortly. 30 MINUTES LATER (Now 8:50) somebody takes our food and drink order. We ordered 6 tapas dishes and a bottle of wine (Whilst placing the order we were told what wasn't on the menu instead of 30 minutes before when we sat down, that was frustrating).

50 MINUTES LATER (Now 9:40 - 20 minutes to close) after not recieving any food and also being quite tipsy from drinking the bottle of wine on an empty stomach, we received two dishes. Spicy prawns and cheese wrapped in aubergine, both decent tasting but I can't give an honest review as I was pretty angry/drunk at this point. Next crab cakes were brought out, we never placed an order for crab cakes and instead were brought out as a replacement for octopus that we ordered. We received no communication that this change was being made nor were we asked if it was ok to swap them before they were cooked.

At 9:50 with ten minutes to close, the manager (I assume) comes over with the bill and informs us that our other 4 dishes would not be coming, very apologetic and blamed lack of staff and how busy it was for the poor service. He then tried to charge us for the bottle of wine and 2 tapas dishes out of the 6 we ordered AND THE CRAB CAKES WE DIDNT ORDER. I was very offended by this as this is the worst service I have ever received in a restaurant, the food/service we received did not justify the full bill. After a few complaints the food was then removed from the bill and we only paid for the wine.

The whole experience was frustrating and disappointing, a lot of things could have been done differently. Earlier in the night they could have let us know that we wouldn't be getting our full food so at least we could go somewhere else and grab some food so we wouldn't be going home hungry.

I understand that this was the last night before lockdown, they were understaffed and this wasn't a normal night, however there was a severe lack of communication and respect for us as customers.

I will not be trying either restaurants again. Very Very disappointed to...

The bizarre (and hungry) night

Upon arrival, a waitress gave us the longest introduction ever recorded in an English restaurant. It was literally a five minute monologue outlining every detail of the menu and the order process. Very intense and unnecessary.

We ordered about 20 minutes in and were told that food comes out when it’s ready and not all at once - fair enough this is tapas after all.

About 40 minutes later a delicious plate of prawns arrived. All good.

20 more minutes go by and nothing else arrives. We ask the restaurant to get a move on but we are again told it comes when it’s ready.

So we asked whether we could at least have the bread we ordered as surely this doesn’t take an hour?

Bread comes but nothing else. We are in last chance saloon now and give the restaurant five minutes or we are walking.

Cue the manager, for yet another weird and drawn out interaction. She spent five minutes telling us how unacceptable the service had been, but didn’t seem to be giving us any resolutions. I had to firmly ask her three times to stop waffling and tell us what she is doing to sort it out.

She then told us how complex her day had been - I appreciate that some people have bad days, but should you be telling your customers this? Am I meant to just accept this as a reason for receiving no food? Either tell us food will be here soon or give us the green light to go.

10 more minutes go by and we decide enough is enough. We get up and walk out.

Yet more apologies, but hilariously they make us pay for everything we had consumed so far and offer no discount.

Genuinely worst experience I’ve ever had, anywhere in the world, in a restaurant. From sitting down to leaving was 1.5 hours and in that time we ate two prawns and a slice of bread each.

The manager who came and apologised should genuinely resign as she was so out of her depth and it was sad to see someone with such a lack of control over their job and restaurant. And she really needs to work on how to apologise to customers - less waffle, less about your problems and more solutions.

Went next door to spitfire which we would highly recommend. And they served us in a...

Reserved a table online and in the special requests said that we would have a pram with us. When we arrived they didn’t ask our name and seemed to struggle to find our table stating that there were a couple reserved, surely ours should have also been reserved? We ended up on stools at the front of the outdoor area which was fine as the view was lovely and we could put the pram in the shade. When we arrived the toilet was out of order for maintenance but she said this was getting fixed which was fine.

After a while my 4 week old baby needed changing, I asked if there was baby change in the one toilet the restaurant had but they said no. I asked if I could use the empty seating space in the tent at the back of the restaurant to again be told no, I asked where I was meant to change my baby and was just given shrugs and looks from a number of staff members, I said I had specified we had a pram and they should have said they were not child friendly if there was no where for me to change my baby. Someone then suggested I could use a sofa at the back of the restaurant which was empty as everyone was outside but it was very half hearted. Someone then said there was a chair in the toilet that I could use so I had to kneel on the floor in the dark bathroom to change him

Food was nice enough however a little expensive for what it was. The price would be more justified if the service was better, no one came to offer us more drinks after taking our first order or to ask if our food was ok which it was however We would have easily had another couple of drinks and dessert if any one had bothered to ask. I also had to go in and ask for the bill.

Location however is lovely especially on a nice day and the wine and food was nice however I probably...