Alfred's Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Wales

My No. 1 most disappointing restaurant experience. I booked Alfreds for my fathers 60th birthday celebration last Thursday. I called around a week before and booked a table for 11 people. I explained it was my fathers 60th birthday party and asked if it would be ok to decorate the table with some balloons, banners, table confetti etc. I also asked if we could bring a cake to be brought out with candles/sparklers etc. at the end of the meal. I was told this was fine however they may need a deposit and would call back if one was needed. I didn't hear back from them so called a few days later to check the booking was still in place. I was told it was and also checked again that it was ok to bring the cake and decorate the table etc. Again I was told this would be fine. On the day of my fathers birthday an extra person wanted to come so I called to ask if we could add another person to the booking and make it 12 instead of 11. I was told this was fine and also checked again to make sue it was ok to bring the cake and decorate the table. Again I was advised his would be fine. As agreed my wife, children and I arrived a little earlier than the rest of the party and started decorating the table. A member of staff stood around for a while watching us with a disapproving look on her face but said nothing and eventually walked away. At this point I went to the bar to get some drinks and no sooner had I done so this member of staff came back and in a very rude manner told my wife that we were not allowed to decorate the table as it will "stain the table" and that "we" would have to clean it up. I came back from the bar and explained that I had called on 3 occasions and had been advised it would be fine to decorate the table with plastic confetti, banners etc. The member of staff didn't acknowledge this and demanded that we clean the table. If I had been out for dinner with just my wife and kids I would have left immediately at this point and taken my business elsewhere after being treated so rudely, however as it was far too short notice to arrange another venue for my fathers 60th birthday celebration I decided to stay for the sake of my father. I did stress again that I had been given permission on 3 occasions to decorate the table however I was willing for her to remove the decorations if she wanted to. Her reply was "I'm very busy" and she left. I have never been expected to clean tables before as a customer in a restaurant. Was I expected to fry the steak myself too? Perhaps peel the potatoes for the chips? I sat down with my wife and children and waited for the rest of our party to arrive. They arrived about 10-15 minutes later and just as they were about to sit down the same member of staff came back, with another younger staff member and shouted loudly "They are refusing to clean the table" attracting the attention of most of the other customers in the restaurant and leaving my father and his party guests feeling more than a little awkward. They were then forced to stand around waiting whilst she angrily removed the plastic birthday table confetti, slamming and banging the places and cutlery as she went whilst my fathers party guests looked on in amazement. The younger member of staff she had brought along to assist her looked as if they were about to die of embarrassment. She then left leaving no decorations on the table (apart from a small section around where I was seated) and for my fathers party guests to re-set the plates and cutlery themselves. She continued to be rude to us for the rest of the evening, brought our steaks minus the sauces we had ordered and when we asked for the cake to be brought out, she slammed it in front of my father on the table. The decorations/sparklers we had provided were nowhere to be seen. This was 100% the worst experience I have ever had in a restaurant made worse by the fact it was supposed to be a special celebration...

Went for lunch yesterday, menu was very meh. I did giggle and send a pic of said menu to my daughter cos our joke is vegetarians get offered tomato and cheese slop and vegans get offered mushroom slop and believe it or not, they had both on the menu! Woohoo! Nothing on the starter menu I really wanted, so had the salad bowl. My dad and our friend had salmon and pate respectively, dad said salmon was nice, friend left some of the pate, huge chunk of pate, not a lot of toast! Salad bowl was ok, was a lot of mayonnaised stuff, but I enjoyed. Mains were boiling hot when they arrived, I had the vegan option, mushroom stroganoff, was ok, dad had fish and he said it was beautiful, the friend had steak and she said it was cooked really well but her pepper sauce was a bit on the thin side. Staff were super attentive but not overly so. On to beverages, no alternative milks available, now I'm lactose intolerant and a vegetarian, and with health issues which limit some foods and totally banned others, so dad had a latte which he said was first class, friend had diet coke and I had to have water as I'm not allowed caffeine or any citrus. We had more drinks during the meal, another latte which wasn't as good as the first one, friend had dc and I had an apple juice. After our meal we had dessert, well nothing on the menu was dairy free, so dad and our friend had dessert, dad wanted the sticky toffee pudding but it doesn't come with custard, my head is still boom about that! So he had the chocolate fudge cake and friend had the cheesecake both said they were nice, I opted for a decaff coffee. Can't think of anything good to say about the decaf coffee, I added sugar, which isn't something I usually do, but it wasn't a good experience. I feel a bit mean giving 3 stars, but it definitely wasn't 4 stars, more like a 3.5 or 3.75. The meal was pleasant enough, but I had amazing company, the atmosphere was ok, bit loud, staff were lovely and really professional, I'd eat here again even if I know already I'm having...

Absolutely will not visit again. First used the disabled access lift for me and my baby/pram, got out at the top to find a whole dumping ground of boxes, high chairs, napkins, anything that could be dumped in the way was there, I had to move things in order to create a path to get through, which isn’t ideal for anyone who is a solo wheelchair user, health and safety was out the window. The conservatory was boiling with no blinds and air con that didn’t work, when we asked if we could open a window we just got a rude ‘no’. I ended up having to strip my baby off into her vest because it was so sweaty and warm and stood out on the fire escape for air as did other guests in the room. I ordered a fillet steak cooked rare, when it arrived it was medium to well-done, tough to cut through so I asked for a new one as I did ask for it rare. Staff were abrupt and full of attitude to tell me I’d have to wait however long it takes, which wasn’t an issue I said that was fine. Only to have the rudest manager come tell me it was rare and that ‘if you wanted it cooked very rare you should have asked for blue, I’ll make you another but I’ll charge you’ with that I took it back as I was already stressed dealing with a small baby who was warm and tired by this point. But in reality the steak was cooked right through. We were a large party and another family member ordered medium, to which his was ‘very rare’, along with other members also having incorrect cooked steaks and issues with their meals. My father also bought a round of drinks in which he was shortchanged, when he asked for the rest of his change he had it handed back to him with attitude. I went to get a high chair for my baby and they were stacked and filthy, not one of them had been cleaned, covered in sauce and chips or sticky. I ended up using Milton wipes to clean the whole thing myself before I allowed her to sit in it. Overall not a nice experience, rude staff and management. Wouldn’t be going...