Cefn Mably Arms — Restaurant in Newport

Updated Review First and Last Visit. Birthday Meal for my Mother in Law. Waitress got my drink order wrong, I politely told her, to which she sighed and didn't apologise (made me feel like it was my fault). After ordering our food, (first people in the restaurant) food took 30-40 minutes to arrive! I kindly asked if I could have mini poppadoms with my curry instead of Naan to a different waitress and the drinks waitress shouted over from behind the bar, no you can't do this! I don't see why not, as then she offered the table next to us poppadoms instead of chips with their order. So I don't know why I was refused?! We were never asked during our meal how everything was, despite there being plenty of waitress staff on shift. During our meal unfortunately, a member of our party spilt a drink and I went to another table to get a napkin and the drinks waitress, told me not to use napkins from another table! I think she really had it in for me from the offset to be honest! Not a great evening from start to finish, won't be returning and won't be sharing good reviews either. Overall such a disappointment for a birthday meal, and lack of customer service. Especially, after reading such good reviews online prior.

Response from Cefn Mably Arms via Email I have just seen the review that you have left for us, and although we take all reviews positively and do our best to change things to prevent any unsatisfactory service or quality issues I do not agree with the review. Our Curry night deal is competitively priced and premium quality wines have been bought in bulk to be able to make a cost-effective option the house wines are quality and are priced at £24.95 yet the wine that you requested was not included in the deal and was far more expensive so we would not be able to change this without operating at a loss. And in line with all other hospitality outlets the deals are fixed and not flexible. You could have requested poppadom’s and mango chutney, but the additions would be chargeable. To compare with other tables paying full price and not taking the cheaper meal deal is not a reasonable observation and changing Nann bread for poppadom’s is something we can offer when items are purchased outside a meal deal. The waitress was correct to offer you a cloth to clean up a spillage as opposed to removing napkins from a laid table and as far as I can see from the camera footage this was dealt with promptly and effectively as the table that the napkins were taken from was booked out and the customers were on the way to that table. The checkback was carried out by our waitress and everything was said to be fine at this point, and it was at the checkback that you had spilled a drink and requested a cloth to clean up. With regards to an excessive wait for food where you claim that you waited 30/40 minutes I have checked and from point of order to food being delivered was 27 minutes and when food is cooked from fresh not reheated from frozen this is well within expectations especially when you had ordered a well-done sirloin steak, we cannot cook this any quicker sorry. I have reviewed all footage and can not see anything that would support this poor review but is also in line with all other reviews that you have posted. I am sorry that you feel that your visit was compromised by poor service and we will look to make changes to the wording on our meal deals for future clarity. Regards Ben

I responded with disagreeing and staying the waitresses lack of customer service throughout our meal, which is also evident in several reviews and not just mine

Reply from Cefn Many Arms Like you said it was the first and last visit and you were here Wednesday not Tuesday but let’s not split hairs Thank...

We've been eating here for a couple of years, but tonight will be the last time. From our very first visit, we have been greeted with welcoming smiles. Tonight it felt like we were intruding. The barman asked if he could help us with all the warmth of a corpse. I said we had booked a table, and he pointed to the table next to the toilet door and said that's it. He then told us, they didn't have enough menus and he'd bring them over when they had printed them. We sat down for a while and then eventually went to the bar ourselves to get a drink. When the menus arrived we were told there was no sirloin steak and no Tbone steak. Looking at the menus, there were other items missing from what was advertised on the website as well. We ordered our food and it arrived in good time. That's the only positive in this review. The king prawns were miniscule and the hoy sin sauce was massively over salted. The mains were worse. I had pork medallions that I couldn't cut because they had been overcooked. My wife had chicken chasseur with 3 tiny pieces of chicken and a massive amount of over cooked mushrooms. The veg were rock hard and cold[ I like aldente veg, but these were raw]. Neither of us could finish these meals. I called the waitress over and very politely explained our concerns. She took our plates and said she would tell her manager and the kitchen. She came back within seconds and said, yeah, the kitchen said sorry. I asked where the manager was and she said, he's not here anymore. The bill was duly paid, in full, and we left. Cefyn Mably Arms was our go to for birthdays, celebrations and sometimes just a lovely quiet meal for the two of us. With genuine regret, it no longer can be. I gave them the opportunity to talk to us about the poor experience, but they chose to put the young waitress forward. We have recommended this restaurant to friends and family since we found it, no more. Cefyn Mably Arms, really, what...

Long review … We are as a group of 7 here on Saturday. I can see one of our party members has already wrote a review. To which a reply was made falsely accusing us of not paying for drinks and lying about food and service! Firstly I was the person who booked the table for 7. Never was I advised that a chair would be placed on the end and we would be squished in. Never mind because only 6 of us ended up attending. Secondly it was quiet when we first arrived and still we had to ask the bar staff if they could take our order as we were ready. Two members of our party did complain as they were in fact served gravy and not peppercorn sauce! (We all tasted it, no doubt in our minds it was in fact gravy). To add a positive Me and my husband shared a Chateaubriand which we both said it was lovely, along with another party member ordering a pie which was also complimented on. Every other party member left half their plates and had issues. Thirdly a service charge was added which we all in fact stated we wasn’t happy with it and we was advised that this as well as the saves will be taken off the bill. Sauces was taken off but service charge was still on there and we didn’t notice until after it was paid! We paid individually as couples so three payment, we ended up paying almost £50 in service charge!! As for the reply where you said drinks wasn’t paid for this is in fact untrue as we each went through the bills with the manager Ben, I think an extra soda a lime had been added on which we in-fact noticed the mistake and updated them it was actually a wine. Lastly since our meal on Saturday 6 out of the 7 of us have had upset stomachs. We used to really enjoy food here as it was classed as a treat but unfortunately it’s no longer what it used to be. Disappointed with both our experience Saturday night and further the response to...