Abergavenny Brewers Fayre — Restaurant in Wales

We stayed at the premier inn next door for a few nights and on one of the nights we decided to do the meal deal of dinner and breakfast the next morning.

I was disappointed that it was not table service for dinner. You have to queue up at the bar which was very short staffed. One person behind the bar making cocktails whilst also doing the food orders made the wait to order a long time. There must be a better way?

The restaurant was very family friendly, meaning it felt like I was having dinner in a school dinner hall. Yes it was school holidays, and yes it was about 6ish but would it not make sense to distribute people accordingly to make sure people can all enjoy their meal? Not looking for silence, I love an atmosphere but the noise was excessive and impacted on our meal. We decided to take our pudding to our room and eat it there instead.

The food was below average. Portion sizes were too small and not value for money in my opinion.

Breakfast the next day was alright . We didn’t know we needed to book a table as we were not told and this caused some issues but not the hosts fault just a lack of communication between the premier inn and the restaurant on what to tell the guests.

Food was as you would expect of you’ve had premier inn breakfast in the past; buffet service. Medium quality and fills a hole.

Overall, was just about adequate; not enough to complain but not good enough to go back. The staff are clearly worked off their feet and doing what they can with what they have got. It’s a wider organisation issues which needs to come up with a better plan when staff shortage...

Upon arrival we were greeted by a large sign stating 'please wait here to be seated' we waited and waited, nobody came. I went to the bar to enquire, to be told just seat yourselves. We sat and waited, nobody came to serve us. I went to the bar to ask as there were no staff around, to be told there are no table servers tonight, you have to order at the bar. Nice of the person who told us to seat ourselves to omit that important information. We eventually ordered around 20 minutes after arriving. The food arrived around 15 minutes later. I ordered the smothered mixed grill, my husband ordered the Trio of pies. The trio of pies came with a jug of gravy. It was watery, bland and full of orange floating fat. I ordered a medium steak with my mixed grill, which arrived rare, yet was full of grisle, and tough, and when I finally managed to hack a piece off the edge, it was so tough I couldn't chew it. I sent back. The second steak was cooked better, tasted nice, but I chewed and chewed and chewed and I just could not swallow it. To be honest, the steak seemed like a very cheap cut, and I couldn't eat it. The rest of my meal was OK, but nothing I couldn't have cooked myself, it was so disappointing as we went for my husbands birthday meal. You dine out because its an experience that isn't the norm, which you cant get at home, and you expect quality food and customer service, that's what you pay for. If I wanted to do everything myself I'd have stayed at home! That's not the point of a restaurant. We skipped...

I have given this Brewers Fayer a very generous 1 star for the quality of the food, unfortunately the food would've been far better enjoyed if we received what we ordered and served together.

The service was absolutely appalling. I have listed a number of instances below that took place over a 3 hr period with this establishment at only 25% capacity, I can only assume at full capacity nothing would happen:

My son ordered a meal, a completely different meal was delivered. Whilst the kitchen staff attempted to rectify this issue, the other meals started to arrive. My sons meal arrive some 20 minutes after everyone else had finished their food.

My Granddaughters meal was also incorrect, we immediately sent it away and it was returned some 30 mins later, incomplete.

My wife ordered a dessert after a wait of 50 mins (table still full of main course dishes) and amazingly, this was delivered incomplete. The waitress kind of apologised, stating it was her first week, which seriously made me wonder what level of training and support she has been or not been given.

The staff generally were very poor, they didn't seem bothered by the service we had received and thought it acceptable to provide what was a truly disappointing and on occasion unbelievable service.

There was clearly no management direction, no supervision and no plan concerning how the staff were going to manage the day.

Would I ever go back - NO

Would I ever...