Ciao Ciao Cafe — Restaurant in Wales

Such a shame - things have certainly gone down hill since it's changed hands. Mikey's was a great place to go as a family - we visit every year when we holidaying in Aberystwyth.

However, when we arrived this year it was a shock to see that Mikey's was no longer, but we thought we'd give them a try anyway.

Initial thoughts are that it seems to have lost the warm feel that Mikey's used to have. The decor has changed, as have the tables and the layout. The constantly flickering ceiling lights didn't help either.

The serving staff were polite and friendly, but the food took an inordinate amount of time to arrive and it was bland "back street cafe style grub" rather than the hearty home cooked meals that Mikey's used to provide.

The staff visited our table twice; once 10 minutes after ordering to tell us that the kids' burger and chips wasn't available as the "burger looked past its best and the chef didn't want to cook it due to his concerns regarding food hygiene". At this point we changed the order to macaroni cheese - 10 minutes later we were visited by the staff again who explained this wasn't available as the chef had just walked out. We then chose a hot-dog just to the meal over and done with as quickly as possible.

The food took so long to arrive I had to leave the cafe to go and put some more money on the parking. When I returned my son and I received our hot dogs (this was after my wife and daughter had already finished their meal). The hot dogs weren't actually traditional hot dogs, but rather two breakfast pork sausages served in a dry bun.

The serving staff didn't charge us for the hot dogs which was a nice gesture but I'm afraid we'll not be returning any time in the future.

I think if you want to survive in the competitive hospitality business then you...

Avoid this place as if it has covid

The restaurant was empty on a Friday night, while the pizzeria down the road was fully booked the entire weekend. Red flag. Should have paid attention

We ordered 2 pizzas in what labels itself an Italian restaurant. Italian pizzas are well known for their neapolitan dough, fresh tomato sauce, and simple toppings. Usually cooked in a wood fired oven

The pizza that arrived was nothing like this. The base was shop bought, you can see the perforations on the bottom, a telltale sign. The sauce was not fresh, neither were the toppings. I'd hedge my bets that the entire thing was taken out the fridge and chucked in the oven.

When we complained to the (very lovely) waitress, she said the chef was the owner and pre bought the bases as he's on his own in the kitchen. Quite a feat to already be struggling to cope with no demand. We said we'd pay for what we ate (1/2 a pizza)

When the owner arived, with his already fragile ego battered, his first comment was that I have a problem with taste. Yes, the problem is, I have good taste. The fragile ego took more of a battering when, upon him commenting he's had no complaints all evening, I looked around the empty room remarking 'clearly!'

The aptly named 'ciao ciao' should wave 'bye bye' to being able to compete with any local...

The service was very good and our waitress was super friendly however it doesn't make up for the quality of food. It was almost £7 for a bacon sausage egg bap; the bun was poor quality and stale, there was one tiny crap sausage, half a piece of bacon and an over cooked egg. The full veggie breakfast was also expensive compared to other places in town and the mushrooms were overcooked, the veggie sausage and hash browns were nice though. I felt the need to write this review because I felt so ripped off by the sandwich which probably cost far less than 50p to make. There are much nicer and cheaper places to get a decent breakfast in town and I just feel like it was an all round poor effort.

Hope that you guys up your game in the future, a reasonable portion size would be a good start because the service from the waitress was lovely. Also when we went to pay there was a huge sign on the till saying minimum card payment £20!!!!! (Minimum card payments are illegal btw) Although we split the bill and the waitress didn't have a problem with us both paying £12ish...