Caraway — Restaurant in Wales

Reluctantly, I have to say, as someone who used to work here, the standards have dropped so low that I barely recognize the place. Food was great, service was sadly terrible.

The person who I think is the manager greeted us with a "Good evening!" from the bar. "There are menus on the table" he said. "Sit wherever you'd like." Brilliant start.

After choosing a table, I walked up to the bar to get some menus, as they were unfortunately missing from our table. I couldn't see any staff anywhere. I quickly realized that nobody in the place was wearing a uniform. I couldn't tell if anyone was staff or customers.

A lady walked in to the bar and asked if I would like to order. I made an order for two drinks and two meals.

I ordered food, and the food came out fairly quickly. The waitress said "Enjoy your food, I'll just go and get you some cutlery" because staff made no effort to bring knives and forks to the table before the food was brought out. Small thing, but you get cutlery before your meal in any greasy spoon cafe.

While we were eating, we were shocked to see multiple staff members, one was the same manager (small man bun) comfortably walk outside to the porch to smoke their vapes in plain view of everyone, not even attempting to hide it. One female staff member even vaped indoors and stuck her head between the doors to blow the cloud of vape outside.

Genuinely gave the food 5 stars. The cowboy burger was very good. Good portion size, succulent patty, lovely burger sauce. My other half enjoyed her veggie burger too.

Ordering desserts was a little awkward. I walked to the bar, and two waitresses approached me, and then walked right past me into the cellar. I couldn't believe it. I spotted the manager who greeted us when we arrived sat at the "staff table" and asked him if I could order dessert. He replied with "Yeah the girls will be two minutes."

I wanted to make the point that they had both walked past me, so I replied with "Okay, because they walked right past me a moment ago."

"They're just counting the lines in the cellar." I said "Okay..." and walked back to the bar.

He let out bit of a sigh and stood up to serve me at the bar. I sensed he was a bit annoyed that a customer was taking up his time. I was nice enough about it but I couldn't shake the feeling that he was annoyed with me.

The waitress showed up with the dessert and apologized for "ignoring me on the bar". I forgave her and told her not to worry about it. I wasn't really annoyed at her, I understand she had been asked to do something. I was more concerned about the way the manager acted to be honest.

The dessert was the rocky road sundae, absolutely outstanding too. Plenty to whipped cream, plenty of brownie, lots of ice cream with chocolate sauce on top. Well done kitchen, great mains and great dessert.

The staff did say goodbye when we left, which was a nice touch.

Honestly, overall I see the Caraway as somewhere that could be much, much better if the standards were lifted. The food is good and the drinks selection that Marstons offers is definitely its USP, but it's let down by its management unfortunately. They let staff vape in view of the customers and they're all sat around on the table near the kitchen in view of the bar and front door. They're obviously content with that level of service and it's a shame...

Visited on the 17th with family. There were 9 of us and ordered separately, 3 orders. This took the barman 15 to 20 minutes to do this. Then we had a wait of about 45 mins before the food arrived. I'll only comment on the worst meals. My niece ordered the rump steak medium to well done, no mushrooms, jacket potato and peppercorn sauce. It arrived the meat was medium rare, mushrooms and chips. No peppercorn sauce. It was cold. Asked for the sauce 4 times and was eventually bought out with no apology just put on the table with ' there you go' . I ordered sirloin steak medium rare. It was medium, the food was cold especially the peas. My granddaughter aged 7 had the pasta dish. This was an extremely small dish. The club sandwich had very little chicken in it. The fish and chips were cold. The steak and philli baguette very grissly. No one came over to ask if everything was ok. When we finished the 3 children wanted pudding, all had brownie asked for it warm but it was hardly warm at all. While we were waiting for the pudding no one came to clear the table even though it was very quiet, one waitress was more interest doing her hair in the mirrors. I was piling the plates when the pudding s were being bought to the table or there wouldnt have been room. Still no one asked if everything was ok. All in all a very unprofessional set up at the caraway. Staff need some very serious training. Extremely disappointing meal. 1 star for service purely because it was bought to the table. No we didnt complain at the time as my brother in law isnt the type to complain as he doesnt like a fuss. believe me I...

I recently visited with family members and was extremely disappointed. We'd visited due to being advised that there were good children's facilities and vegan menu. On looking at the options on the main menu I chose a jalfrezi curry that said there was a 'vegan option' available. I chose it as I believed I'd get all the extras advertised with it and when ordering it wasn't advised otherwise. Two other family members ordered meat curries and when the curries arrived the server had to lean her face into my curry to see what it was and then served them. One curry arrived with one helping of pita/naan bread and the other curries arrived with two helpings of the same on one plate. I asked the server if the breads were vegan and was told no, even though I said it had been listed on the main menu. This confused me as I couldn't understand why one curry had arrived with two servings of bread. She seemed a bit frustrated with me and didn't like the fact that I was questioning it and and then in no uncertain terms told me that the dish of salad was for me! Other places I've visited have managed to serve all the breads with the vegan meals, so I was a bit disappointed to say the least. My sister looked for the play zone that's advertised and was very surprised to find that it consisted of a small area that looked a bit like a doctor's waiting room, complete with a small table and chairs. Not exactly what you would call a play zone and not what she'd expected from the description. Needless to say we won't be...