Synge & Byrne The Junction — Restaurant in Northern Ireland

Went in at 4.20 with my partner and young son. Waited five minutes to be served, which wasn't too bad, but upon being served was rather abruptly told that the store was closing at 5pm and asked if I still wanted to order.

Naturally, with 35 minutes till closing I still wanted to order, so I did. After repeating my order three times to the cashier I stood and waited for five minutes.

Eventually I returned to my seat and the food, without the drinks was brought to our table. It was also brought without cutlery.

We asked for cutlery which was brought and waited patiently for our drinks and began tucking into the food. After my first bite of pie I realised it wasn't the pie I had ordered, but decided not to mention it as we didn't want to inconvenience the staff, who were all seemingly in a mad hurry to close.

With the food nearly finished and the repeated cries of "I am completely done with this" and "I'm at my wits end" from the lady sweeping the floor in slow motion starting to annoy us, I went to the till and asked for our drinks to be served in takeaway cups. I did this to release the staff members from the hell of employment, an employment of which I'm sure they applied for and gleefully accepted.

I was told the drinks would be brought to our table and they were, one in a takeaway cup and the other in a ceramic cup. Losing the will to live at this point I downed my coffee and left. I...

Below average at best. Visited Saturday 11th Jan at 2pm. Wasn't overly busy and you could tell, the staff were so lax it was almost like you were interrupting their day just by being there. I had ordered a chicken and bacon ciabatta for myself with potatoes and pasta, a ham and cheese sourdough for my wife with a double portion of coleslaw, an apple and cinnamon square, a raspberry and almond slice and 2 cokes. The food was average at best Apart from the raspberry and almond slice which my wife enjoyed, but the sourdough was far from okay being toasted that much that it would have shattered the glass window if thrown, honestly it was painful to eat it was that hard so she left half of it, no glasses or ice offered for the drinks either. A customer sat at the next table over from us was offered her tray bakes to be heated with cream but we weren't offered their either For it being quite quiet the staff seemed more interested in talking to customers than cleaning tables so it overall had a dirty feel, this coupled with the milk jugs for coffee having dried and crusty milk on them added to the feel.

Can honestly say this is the first and last time I will be in synge and Byrne. Substandard food and service for a...

This establishment has a raft of issues which are, to me at least, clearly a result of very poor management. The menu boards have no prices on them and it soon became clear that they aren't being used and that the items listed on the boards aren't actually available for sale. There is a menu at the door and at the till and you have to find these and ignore the large boards behind the counter. I tried to order 3 different lunches but each one had items missing, and I eventually asked them to substitute items so that I could order something approximating what I wanted. From personal experience, the lack of foodstuffs, right from the moment they open their doors, is an ongoing issue. We then had a cup provided for tea that was dirty and had the residue from a previous customer's hot chocolate in it. The staff replaced the cup and the tea, and they were pleasant enough, but they are ultimately nonchalant and the low standards are a norm. I don't know how the place stays open - the Synge & Byrne in Newtownabbey is leagues above this...