The Jolly Hog: Pigsty — Restaurant in Bristol

Terrible experience but 5 stars because of how much the staff cared about my feedback.

Was seriously understaffed when we visited. There were 2 people waiting on inside and outside service, takeaway orders, and an outside bar.

We visited with 3 adults and 1 child. There were no tables inside so we sat outside although it was pretty chilly.

We were not told they were busy and that it would be a long wait. We weren’t given menus. I ended up going inside and getting them myself. I went back for a kids menu after seeing the main menu saying to ask and had to take a photo of the chalk board.

We ordered drinks and the waiter said he’d bring us some tap water. The tap water never came.

We ordered food. We waited so long that we had finished our drinks and moved to another table under the heaters. By this point it wasn’t very busy at the restaurant but the wait went on and on as they kept bringing takeaway orders to people turning up.

Eventually we were offered free drinks because we had been waiting patiently for so long.

The cutlery came in a heap and we were told a couple of times it wouldn’t be long. But it was.

The food arrived. The burgers were good but the pork wings were poor. Thinly cut pork belly and strips of pork fat that weren’t crispy, just limp and chewy. The fat looked like French fries. Not crackling. Certainly nothing like some of the photos on here!

At no point did anyone ask if the food was ok or we wanted anything else. After a good while I walked in to ask for the bill and was told it would be out shortly after the other server was finished with it. He went back in and obviously wasn’t told because he didn’t come out for us. By this point the person I’d asked for the bill was serving drinks at the outside bar to a large queue of people.

When she’d finished serving everyone (a good while later) she asked the man to get our bill. Surprise, surprise we’d been charged for the “free drinks”, and also a service charge. By this point I had absolutely had enough. It was a cascade of super poor service. No menus, no table water, huge food delay, free drinks offered but being charged, huge delay getting bill, all whilst we were getting really cold.

I was very fed up and let the staff know. Honestly, I can’t recall ever having this poor a service at such a relatively small restaurant.

The outside bar and takeaway orders, plus inside and outside service was way too much for 2 people. But come on. A child sitting outside in the cold for that long and that litany of basic errors…

Still, the last server looked absolutely mortified and didn’t charge us. She 100% cared and I felt awful because it was clear she was trying her best. It’s also clear that it requires more than 2 staff to wait on a Saturday. Please do not put your staff through this over...

Lovely spot for breakfast. Arrived at 12ish on a Sunday and was able to get a spot inside for 2 people, with no problem. Our waitress made us feel right at home, great service, knowledgeable and approachable. It's not massive inside (toilet is outside around the back and requires as code) but it's well arranged to make the most of the space, and had good tunes playing on the soundsystem. I had a breakfast stack and my wife had a shakshuka. We ordered a side of hash browns. I have to say, the stack was top notch! Too often these breakfast-in-a-bun type meals, in other establishments, can be overly salty or dry or both. But not so with the Pigsty Breakfast stack. I was expecting 'good', but I got 'great. The egg was cooked just right, the black pudding was crispy and delicious and the patty/bacon combo packed a salty punch, with the "black treacle baconnaise" really helping balance the whole flavour profile out. Admittedly I had to cheat and eat it with a knife and fork, as it was too stacked and juicy to manage as a burger, but it was no less delicious as a result. The shakshuka went down well too, though my wife said she was glad of the portion of hash browns we ordered or she may have wanted a touch more, portion wise. It's not bargain type prices, but considering how good it was I think it's priced well. Was starting to get busier when we left at 12:45 so I can't comment on whether or not it's hard to get in here at peak times, but I can say we had zero complaints and ended up really impressed with this place, which we chose on a whim when passing....

Lets start with the food. It's not bad, nothing that's going to blow you away - compared to the likes of squeezed it's a disappointing burger and it's overpriced. Nothing wrong with it, just nothing memorable.

The service is the main issue. We got there and there were no other customers. Bare in mind Pigsty is amongst many other eateries in a big outdoor food area. My wife bought a pint of cider from the next door to Pigsty. I was going to buy a pint of the cider in pigsty. Along with burgers and chips for us both you were looking at £50 quid. As we went to order the girl said to us "Sorry you cant bring that drink in here. All we can do is serve you takeaway". So we've bought 1 drink from a their nextdoor neighbour - literally 2 feet away, and we were going to buy 1 drink from them as well as spending 45 quid on food - and they told us we couldn't eat their food at one of their tables when there were literally no other customers.

So we ended up eating our food sat on the pavement down by the edge of the dock.

The whole experience sucked. Won't be going back and certainly wouldn't recommend it to anyone - go to Squeezed you'll get a far better burger and the staff don't treat...