Craigside Inn Brewers Fayre — Restaurant in Wales

Dined here Saturday 20th January with 2 other adults and a toddler. Faulty Towers doesn't cover it. There were no tables of 4 available, and some of the restaurant was shut off, so we had to sit at a table for 8. I went to the bar to order. Huge queue with 2 staff members serving. Eventually, I went to place my order only to be told the curry deal couldn't be ordered till after 6pm, my fault for not reading the menu small print. Then, I had to spend time explaining to the member of staff that what I was ordering was cheaper on the 2 for £10.99 offer and spearate curry deal and not with the 40% off mains voucher for all meals. I also wanted smaller portions for family members. Said ok it's 5.45pm now, place my main order and I'll come back to order the curry deal at 6pm. Paid, then said, "Can you bring my daughters starter out as soon as it's ready." The server checked the bill, and he hadn't ordered the 3 course kids' meal as I asked, only a main course. He then had to refund that mistake and reorder what I originally asked for. Went and sat down, then went back to the bar at 6pm. Again, a huge queue, only one server, who seemed to be new, no idea how to pour drinks, and the other staff were serving food and doing drinks orders for tables. Finally placed the curry order. My daughter did get her garlic flatbread within 15 minutes, but it was totally dry and inedible. The first meals arrived after 30 minutes, and the curry another 10 minutes later as the server did chase it through due to all the hassle ordering at the bar. The food was decent cheap pub grub. However, everyone's chips were soggy, and my daughters beans were shrivelled and dry, and the chef had put green parsley all over her meal, which she picked off. Had to ask for my daughters ice cream sundae as no one came to clear the table. The girl brought it out, and something fell off the glass dish on the way over. When questioned, she said, "It was the flake. Do you want another?" Obviously, yes, and she did go back to the kitchen for a replacement. The dessert had no sauce as described, only ice cream and a flake. We adults decided not to have a pudding as we'd lost the will to live trying to order and wait on food being served. The restaurant was also stiffling hot and it was uncomfortable to sit for...

I honestly am very disappointed about my visit today. We dined outside as we had our dogs which was fine. It was an okay day. The tables weren't clean and there were empty tables around us that hadn't been cleared away. This was the first bad impression I got as no one seemed to be checking on guests outside. My father went into the restaurant to order at the bar which is fine I totally understand that working in hospitality myself. We waited over 30 mins for our food to arrive and that's when things turned worse. When ordering my father told them about my allergies and when the food came out it had things on their I couldn't have. They took it back in and brought out a new plate of food which I was assured was freshly made. Freshly made or not the food was luke warm at its best. The plates were cold and there were items missing from the meal. The chips I had were as if they had been sat on the pass for 20 mins as they were suggy and luke warm.

I got on with my meal as I'd had enough of waiting around and the rest of my family had nearly finished theirs.

We then decided that two of us were going to have pudding so again my father went into order at the bar. We waited over 20 mins for a cold sticky toffee pudding and an ice cream... This was very disappointing and ruined our afternoon if I'm honest.

The final issue was that not once did someone come and do a check back on our table to make sure we didn't need anything or that everything was okay. As stated above I work in hospitality and I 100% understand how hard it can be especially on busy or long days but this should NEVER impact customer experience. The staff we saw seemed very uninterested in their jobs and has completely put us off.

Another note is that the outside area also looks extremely neglected. Weeds everywhere, over grown bush's, rubbish just scattered around and gave the outside look of the restaurant a very bad impression.

We expected more from this chain as we often dine at other chains and have never had this experience before. I think management here need to be looking into how their staff are acting when on shift and how the restaurant is being run as this has left a very big impression on us and we will not...

I gave this place two stars only on the basis that it was one of the few places that didn't require us to make an advance booking for a table, and sadly, when we were shown in, I could see why. The place had a very tired feel about it, and the lethargy seemed to spread to the staff who had little or no clue what they were doing. After waiting an aeon for service, a dispirited looking member of staff took our order and went away while we waited another few centuries for our meal to arrive. My starter (cauliflower in light batter bites with a piri piri sauce) was excellent, at least the chef was on the ball, if the waiting staff weren't. The wait in between courses continued indefinitely until someone finally remembered we were there and the mains appeared. The chef had gone home at this point and left someone who shouldn't be in charge of a cooker, in charge of a cooker. My OH's steak appeared with some sort of congealed sauce nailed onto the top of it. Scraping it off only bent the knife. My mum kept making faces each time she took a bite of her meal. My dad stoically worked his way through his, but again, someone else must have made mine because my chilli non carne and rice was really nice. In fairness, the desserts were all delicious too, even though there was another long wait until someone realised we were still there. When we complained about the length of time it was taking for food to arrive, we were told Covid and staff shortages were to blame. I'm only surprised Brexit wasn't part of the problem. Maybe they forgot about that one. A disappointing visit, and no, we won't...