The Stone House — Restaurant in Newport

Visited on the 3rd of April for an evening meal, Upon arriving a welcoming bar server quickly brought us over to the bar to allocate a table to our booking, she took us over to our table and explained to come up to the bar for drinks and food ordering- Shortly after sitting down we went to the bar to grab some drinks, Served by what was believed to be some form or manager who was pretty quickly dismissive and wasn’t happy at all, absolute bundle of joy, Name tag was Rhi (assuming a shortened version of the name). she asked for ID which was no issue of course as this is policy, one of us however after returning later for some more drinks she was asking who the drinks were for and asking to see the people on the table with an attitude- I understand policy however is there really any need to ask to see who they are for on the table before allowing them to be sold, especially with the attitude put on, saying things like ‘well it’s not being given to you then’ and ‘doesn’t matter you won’t be getting served them’. After food, going up to order desserts with the bundle of joy herself once more was a hassle as with almost everything she did, Saying addons such as ice cream cannot be removed or swapped, Personally I’ve never known a fudge cake with the ice cream being baked inside of it especially since it arrived simply put ontop of the cake however I don’t think she was really the type of person to even attempt to help or look into what you were saying, rather walk off and deal with the next person she had to in order to get some pay. Ordered a menu item that also came with a coffee which was told will be brought to the table, after which 15 minutes it still hadn’t shown up, we popped up to the bar to see and got a response from the lady saying she had to deal with something and that it was at the end of the bar simply pointing at a coffee mug, no saucer stirrers or sugars at all. Was also barely warm after having been left for a while.

Additionally one of the most recent 5 star reviews is from the lady that actually served us with such a hassle. It’s her shown on the since removed profile picture and same name as on her name tag.

With all due respect the food and atmosphere was lovely thus the 5 star rating for them. All props to the chefs as food was lovely and other young lady and rest of the team who served us on the bar as everything was great- she got the tip instead- thank you Tonicha. Besides what was mentioned, Everything to do with the food and drink and atmosphere was brilliant in all fairness to the Stonehouse! Service sells however, The whole experience was simply put off by having staff act like this, which is why an overall would be 1 star.

With response to the edit from the stonehouse, It is unfortunate you see this as a personal attack, however if you were to think about it- any form of complaint against a waiter or member of staff could pretty easily been classed as a “personal attack”- wether it is simple denial to redirect this review towards myself or clear misunderstanding towards this being a personal attack I have removed some pieces of Information regarding this as I do not wish any harm across to your team especially the ones who are great at their job at your establishment. I will not be emailing yourselves and all comments left within this review are simply my experience within the stonehouse. My review was of my whole experience which did just so happen to be mostly affected by one member of staff. Thank you for...

My girlfriend and I visited forthe first time on a Sunday evening and thoroughly enjoyed both the food and the experience.

The food was very appetising with a wonderfully presented quite wide ranging menu with plenty of choices which tempted me which is quite unusual as it's usually fairly easy to make my selection. We both felt that the prices were very acceptable when compared with the rest of the market and all other options right now especially when we did sample the food and enjoy it as much as we did.

The only downside we could see which i admit did annoy me was in the way that they operate allocating the tables and seating.

They have board inside the doors asking you to "wait to be seated"..not an unusual request and we have not problem with it.

However, this role is usually performed by a member of the waiting staff or in a very busy establishment somebody who has been allocated to the job..not the woman who is at the time the only member of staff who is working serving behind an already busy bar so you have to stand around like a pair of spare parts.

Seeing as there were a great many tables I did eventually ask her while she pulling a pint if we need take notice of the "wait to be seated" and i recieved a "yes" reply which i thought was rather frosty and unneeded..and definitely unwanted on my part.

She did eventually give us a table in her rather charmless manner which did prove to be a constant and not an anomoly when i went up to our food..however I will add she wasn't rude and just devoid of any form of personality or form of real politeness.

We were both very pleased with our meals when the arrived both in terms of quality, taste and quantity which was big enough without being huge but definitely not skimpy and underwhelming like many places are these days.

We would be more than happy to return to this restaurant anytime and in fact we look forward to it very much and would urge other people to definitely...

We were regular customers of The Stonehouse but sadly not any longer. Recently they seem to have constant staffing issues. Food is also mediocre.

It is advertised as family friendly but on two recent occasions we have felt hostility from several staff members towards our young children being there (at around 5.30pm so not late into the evening).

On the first occasion, whilst under my close supervision, my 1 year old put one foot over the carpet onto the hard floor of the bar area and a woman from the bar barked out loudly and without hesitation 'No kids in the bar!'. I could clearly read the sign (unlike my 1 year old) and my child was within 1 foot of where I was standing.

This happened on a second occasion recently, and as we were getting up to leave words were had between my wife and a waitress. My understanding is that the waitresses request was not unreasonable, but it was more the way in which it was said and with an overtly hostile attitude, when she could see we were clearly struggling and actually on the way out of the door anyway.

I would like to add that we do discipline, entertain and supervise our children (which was clearly visible to the staff) but its not possible to be 100% on them 100% of the time, and to expect a 2 year old and 4 year old to remain seated for an hour or more, is just not feasible, hence why we choose family friendly restaurants.

We have never experienced this outright disdain for young children at any restaurant in 4 years, including others within the M&B group and we eat out probably twice per month.

To be clear, my issue is not with the requirement for children to be reasonably behaved within a restaurant (which I fully endorse), but the visible disdain and bad attitude towards young children being there from certain members of staff on more than one occasion. A polite request...