The Dragonfly — Restaurant in Newport

This may seem harsh but 1 . we rang at 2pm from Holidsy inn next door we were told no space until 5pm ? OK booked for 5 when we arrived pub 25% full at best 2 tables eating 2 waitress sat us down on a table for two no room at all, she said I will give you a couple of minutes and come back. we moved table ourself 3 waitress left with her coat on ?? We sat there 25 minutes seeing a couple off tables fill up and get their drinks I had to go and ask for service 3 we were given menus and ordered drinks and then waited another 10 minutes for the waiter to come back with drinks and take our food order 4 we order pie of the day, we asked what it was beef in red wine my wife asked for the triple cooked chips has she does not like garlic mash potatoes. 5 food arrived in Twenty minutes at that stage we had been there 1 hour 5 at least it looked good, the guy left us with an “Enjoy” my wife said immediately the chips are cold when I queried she said like warm Both pies were very very hot, my potatoe mash like Linda’s chips cool tasty but cool. The broccoli was over steamed and when use the fork it fell to bits. The crust on the pie was very tasty and the liqueur was good 6 the beef was very tasty BUT 50% of Linda’s and almost 40% of mine was full of gristle and unbeatable!!! 7 we told the waiter when he returned and before we said it he said it’s gristly!! Obviously not news to him 8 We said we would see dessert menu When we ordered 2 sticky toffee puddings he apologised and said they had run out!!! We gave up and asked for the bill Summary poor service, poor food quality and no real apology I think the staff are hardened to complaints I thought that food pricing was zoK for a meal I could eat but at £9 for a beer and a bottle of coke hefty on the drink prices We used to live near the pub 10 years ago and it was iwned and ran by another company and was much better. Green King need to look at their competitors...

The food was good but unfortunately the experience was not great because of my vegan order being messed up twice. I was with a group of friends and one of them is vegetarian while I am vegan. We both ordered the same main but I asked for the vegan option of the vegetarian meal on the festive menu. When it arrived mine had a Yorkshire pudding on the plate and hers did not so it was clear they had mixed up the vegetarian and vegan. When we asked the waiter about this he got confused and kept saying that the vegetarian option was the one without the Yorkshire pudding because vegetarians don’t eat dairy, which is clearly the wrong way around. I am not blaming him as an individual for making this mistake, but I think it’s important that staff are trained properly to know the difference between different dietary requirements.

Then, when we ordered dessert, my friend and I once again ordered the same option but I asked for the vegan option and they arrived identical, with whipped cream on the side. This time it was a different waiter and when we asked about this he said it wasn’t put through as vegan on the system (even though I explicitly said vegan, and had already had the previous issue with the main!). Eventually it was sorted and I was given the vegan version (with vegan ice cream instead of whipped cream) but there was no apology given. I do not think this is acceptable and would expect the restaurant to take dietary requirements more seriously.

While we were asked if we had any allergies, we were not asked about dietary requirements. I’d like to think allergies would be taken very seriously because a mix-up like the one we experienced for someone with an allergy could result in a fatality. Having said that, I still feel dietary requirements should be taken seriously too, as mentioned, and should...

We were told we had to choose from the festive menu and have 2 or 3 courses. I ordered the 'fondue' which was actually a mushroom and cheese gratin (on the the normal menu), my sister ordered the festive prawn cocktail with smoked salmon ...no smoked salmon (on the normal menu). When we added it up, those dishes and our mains were more expensive in the festive menu than if we had chosen them from the menu separately. We complained as these were not festive and from the original menu. They tried to being our mains out three times when were still eating our starters... The third time, I said our plates hadn't been cleared and we didn't want to try and fit it all on our table. They took them back a third time. Then they cleared our plates and instantly put down our mains. We like to have a break between. As soon as they were put Infront of us we knew they were not looking warm. We both had the trio Sunday lunch. The beef looked nice but cold, turkey was dry looking and the pork belly... Well the skin was not crispy and in fact was just a gelatinous mess. We are keen cooks and would not serve that at home! The cabbage was actually raw and had dark brown over cooked sprouts in it. Disgusting. We did not even eat it...not one morsal. Also, my sister and her husband were without cutlery for the ten minutes we inspected our food. The waitress came over and we couldn't hide our disgust, we knew it wasn't her fault and in fact she looked embarrassed to be giving people this food. The manager then came over and apologised saying that he just turned up for his shift. He was very apologetic and comped our whole meal. They knew we weren't there to take the Mick, as we did not eat any of the main meal. So disappointing and we left very hungry. We over heard many others...