Market Square — Restaurant in Northern Ireland

My dog was drenched in oily sauce — and the staff laughed at us. Today at Market Square, I experienced one of the most upsetting incidents I've encountered in 10 years of living in the UK.

We ordered four dishes. When a 14 year old waitress served the food, she poured an entire bowl of oily hot sauce all over my dog, completely soaking him. Despite the freezing weather, I had to clean my shivering dog outside with water. I stayed calm and understanding, treating it as an unfortunate mistake.

While my husband went inside to wash the dog's clothes, he witnessed the waitress laughing and mocking me in front of the entire team — even imitating how I called out for my dog and how I tried to clean him. This public humiliation was deeply insulting and unprofessional.

When I calmly raised my concerns with the manager and owner, no genuine apology was offered. Instead, the owner dismissed my experience, claiming I was "over-sensitive" and "making up stories." He defended the waitress by saying, "She’s only 14, it’s her second day here, and she's local — I know her parents," completely missing the core issue: a collective lack of respect, professionalism, and basic empathy from the staff.

When I expressed how deeply insulting the experience was, the owner's response was, "You can leave". He took our untouched food away even before we left the table.

Mistakes happen in any business — but mocking a customer’s distress, especially after causing it, reflects a serious failure of training, leadership, and values. As a business owner myself, I would never tolerate such behavior from my staff.

As Asian tourists, we felt particularly disrespected and unwelcome. It is hard not to wonder whether racial bias influenced the way we were treated.

If you are a minority, or if you simply expect basic respect, professionalism, and empathy, I strongly advise you to think twice before visiting Market Square...

I'm not "qualified" for food here for lacking a sense of "humor" so the owner confiscated my food although me and my friends were polite and gentle😢. But it was actually brand-new expirience that the restaurant owner and his team provide circus performances🎪. Unfortunately, I rate their performance 1 star because they didn't make me laugh at all🙄.

To be honestly and politely, before I start my “talk show” (because the owner said I was "making up stories instead of telling truth"🐷), I still affirm that some of the staff and the female manager were angles who protected customers' fragile heart.

Now, What I'm going to say is the owner, an bald short old man (sorry but I'm trying to imitate his behavior to us because I trust he will take it as "funny" and no offense) . The thing was the whole team made a serious mistake in their work: they were found to be imitating and mocking and laughing at customers behind their backs! We "see it, say it, but not sorted". The owner refused to apologize and removed all the food we hadn't eaten yet without our permission and asked us to leave, insisting that he thought "it was funny" so they imitated, and we were "over sensitive", there is no way to apologize to us.

I strongly recommend those circus performance enthusiasts and "Karen's Dinner" lovers from the US and "Shachihoko-ya" lovers from Japan to have a nice try since they are the only heir after Karen's went bankrupt in the UK. The only thing they need to improve is to perform in front of everyone instead of hiding in...

We recently dined at Market Square Cafe in Bushmills, and while the food was lovely and our serving staff were friendly, our experience was marred by the attitude of the manager.

There were six of us, including my mother, who has leg problems and uses a cane, as well as my two elderly aunts. We politely requested to sit at a table with a bench for their comfort. Unfortunately, we were told no, supposedly because the cafe wanted to keep the table available for multiple groups. At the time, the cafe was nearly empty, but we understood and accommodated ourselves at another table.

However, as the cafe started to fill up, we noticed another group of four people who came in later were allowed to push together the exact tables we had requested. The took the entire bench area without any issue. This double standard was disappointing and made it clear that the manager didn’t take our needs, particularly those related to disabilities, into consideration.

Overall, while the food and service were commendable, the lack of empathy and inconsideration towards those with mobility issues left us with a sour experience. We hope the management reconsiders their approach to customer care...