The Rhiwderin Inn — Restaurant in Newport

Very disappointing.

Myself and a friend went to the Inn at Rhiwderin for dinner today (20th May 2021), very excited for a meal out after so long! What we got was extremely disappointing. The Rhiwderin has been our favourite place to eat for many years with good reliable pub food, quick friendly service and good sized portions at an affordable price so this was not what we expected! The new owners seem to have done a lovely job of refurbishing the pub inside, but sadly the service and food is just not what it was.

First of all, it took an hour for our food to arrive. Our order was taken promptly and drinks arrived quickly. The pub was not busy with many empty tables and a lot of staff standing around doing nothing or walking back and forth and looking around. In addition the menu was very limited, I assume due to covid. I ordered the gourmet burger, and my friend the sirloin steak, along with a side each of cheesy garlic ciabatta.

The food itself was quite poor. The gourmet burger consisted of a very dry beef patty, some congealed (what looked like) plastic cheese and two leaves of wilted lettuce where the burger has been put in straight off the grill on a brioche bun, with no sauce. With this was some onion rings which I did not expect having specified no onion, a small basket of good quality chips and an unidentified pickle type condiment. The steak was requested medium rare and arrived medium, it was also completely coated in pepper. Again it came with a small basket of good quality chips, along with the mushroom and tomato as advertised and a peppercorn sauce. The cheesy garlic ciabatta had a good amount of garlic, but hadn't really been cooked, the bread was dry and the cheese not really melted or browned. It looked like it may have been microwaved and briefly grilled?

No sauces or salt/pepper etc was on the table (covid?) or offered on delivering the food. Upon getting the attention of a member of staff salt and two small sachets of ketchup were provided.

Initially we had two soft drinks on ordering our food. By the time our food had arrived we had both run out of drink. My friend finished hers slightly before me and was offered another, however I was not offered anything on finishing my drink. This made the extremely dry burger extremely difficult going, and I even resorted to the water bottle in my bag at one point!

At this point we were not interested in dessert, the bill was brought quickly and they arrived to take payment promptly.

All in all we will not be bothering with the Rhiwderin again, which is a real shame as it has long been our favourite place to eat but unfortunately now seems to be trying to do gastro pub type food, but with extremely poor quality - I've had better burgers from the local industrial estate burger van! To top it off, the bill for our two single course meals was nearly £50. We appreciate it's difficult at the moment due to covid, and I could have accepted quick friendly service with less than ideal food and a cheap price tag, or a long wait for top quality food, but this was just...

Unfortunately I am having to give a 1 star. I visited here the 22nd of November 2021 to be greeted by a lovely lady who showed myself and my mother to a table even though we hadn't booked. My mother can't drink Pepsi of any sort and rhe only diet soft drink was Pepsi. So that wasn't an option. We both ordered our food to which I was told the steak I had ordered was not up to quality so wasn't available. This sounded promising. 5 minutes later the lady returned to tell me they didn't have my starter either. So none of what I actually chose. Fast forward. The patè had a weird moisture on it like it had been defrosted overnight. We could deal with this. Still tasty. Fishcakes were delicious. Then onto the main. My mother had lamb shank that looked severely over cooked. Took one mouthful of her mash. And it was stone cold. Hadn't seen a microwave in its life. Absolutely disgusting. Clearly wasn't made fresh that day either. The lady took it away. Brought it back 3 minutes later in a different bowl partially warm and claimed it had not been in a microwave. 100% had. I then turned to my steak. Sirloin-rare. It was grey top bottom and straight through like it had been cooked in a microwave. By this point I took it back to the bar myself and declined any further offers of food. My mother had to wrestle her lamb and needed dentures by the time she had finished it was so over cooked. Microwaved and extremely poor quality. My steak was refunded as I literally had not eaten any of it. However after serving my mother freezing cold mash that had come from 'the wrong pot' in the words of the lady. There was no further discounts. Now I am very happy to pay for decent food at a decent price. But it's extautionate poor quality. Poorly cooked and service was not the best. The bill and car machine were at the table within 60 seconds of refusing rhe dessert menu. The rhiwderin was highly recommended to me by a few people. However it turned out to be an utter disappointment and I will not be...

1st time visiting for Sunday lunch. Roast potatoes were cold chicken was pink in places. Told staff about this but didn’t seem bothered. Ordered dessert to only be told they didn’t have the option that a majority chose. Rather than being told when given the menus. 2 desserts were ordered with sorbets. But were given ice cream instead. When the bill came we were charged full price for the meal where the chicken was pink. And even charged for a sticky toffee pudding which wasn’t even on the menu we had. And We hadn’t even ordered one. It seems there is lack of communication between waiting staff and the kitchen or the other way around. This would not be good for people with food allergies. Can’t blame it on being busy as there were only 2 other tables eating at the same time. All in all. For £13.95 per roast dinner. You get a few slices of meat 3 cold potatoes a small side portion of veg between 3 of us. Paid extra for mash and pigs in blankets. Originally wanted cauliflower cheese but didn’t have any. Was charged £3 for a small ceramic dish with 2 scoops of mash in. Again to share between 3. So not great value for money at all. I can agree with other comments about being rushed out. As we were finishing our desserts waiting staff were just hanging round ready to usher us out. We were the last ones in the restaurant and as soon as we walked out. We were followed by the manager who I’m assuming who was waiting to go home. I like to support local businesses rather than big chains. But I’m sorry this has put me...