Dylan's Criccieth — Restaurant in Wales

During a stay in Criccieth, Wales we came across Dylans. A seafood restaurant right on the beach front. Perfect, we thought. Mrs S rang them up and booked in. We arrived at the restaurant and realised you can't park your car on the premises unless you are disabled or only for staff! Not too much of a problem as there is a beach front car park just outside the premises. But that's when I realised it was a pay & display car park! 😬 OK, so it's a one off and there is nowhere else to park, so we bought a ticket and went in. The chap that showed us to our table was in a bit of a panic as to which table to sit us at? After about 5 minutes of us being stood about with our dog & him pressing keys on the computer and mumbling, he showed us to a nice table in the corner with an area where our dog could sit/lie down. I was surprised to see the restaurant was almost empty when we went in. With the chap panicking I thought they must of been full so couldn't understand why he was flustered? We were given menus and we both chose the Blade of Beef, with chunky chips, mushroom and comfit tomato with a peppercorn sauce. Not cheap at £24.95 each but, when we have the dog with us, we normally stay in our accommodation rather than fuss trying to find somewhere dog friendly, so this was a treat! 😋 We also chose drinks. I had a pint of IPA at £5.75 a pint 🤔 and my wife chose a large glass of Pinot Grigio wine, which came in at £10.05 (for the glass, not the bottle)!!! 🤑 When our meal arrived we were surprised to see how little food there was on the plate (for £24.95). The beef portion was tiny, the chunky chips were in a tiny (immitation) frying basket, the mushrooms was just ONE mushroom and the comfit tomato seemed to me to be just a cherry tomato cut in half that had been shown the grill for 2 mins!! And the peppercorn sauce well, that came in a thimble sized jug on the side! Not a great start! But hopefully it will taste good? 🙏🏽 The beef was decent enough but gone in a few bites unfortunately, and the peppercorn sauce was tasty but very sparse, needed more! The mushroom was good but again, not enough annoyingly! The tomato was, insignificant to be honest, it was that forgetful I can't remember what it was like! However, my real bug bear was the "chunky chips". These things were not only few in the basket, but dreadfully tough, lumps of hardened, crisped up, teeth breaking, impregnable with a fork lumps of potato (I think), but they should of called them "chunky cardboard" because once I had eventually managed to break one up and taste it, I may as well of been chewing paper! Dreadful things and my guess is they were frozen rather than fresh? Either that or they had been cooked more than once! I cook better chips than that at home and I'm not a chef!! Absolutely awful things!! 🤬 My wife left some of her chips as she disliked them as much as me but as I was very hungry, I battled my way through them and almost suffered broken teeth! We were just going to have a main course each but, as we were still both hungry we decided to give dessert a try! I chose fried fruit pie with vanilla custard. My wife chose dark chocolate tart. When it arrived, mine looked nice. However, my wife's tart looked burnt around the pastry top and the chocolate middle looked to be congealed? 🤔 I tucked in and although the pie was tasty enough, it was nothing special, just like the pies you can get in McDonalds in the cardboard cartons for £1.99 This was £8.75 though!! The custard was nice & flavousome. However, the tart my wife chose was completely inedible!! The chocolate wasn't congealed, it was burnt! And the pastry was burnt and a hardened crisp! Awful.... She left it! That was the final straw. We told the restaurant we would not pay for the burnt pudding! They agreed and knocked it off the bill! But we were still charged almost £73 for a very poor quality meal! Never again Dylans,...

Disgusting & Dangerous – A Serious Warning

At first glance, Dylan’s in Criccieth has a certain charm with its art deco exterior and listed building status. But like putting on a pair of glasses, the closer you get, the worse it looks. Only the “D” and “S” were lit on the sign, outdoor tables and chairs looked unusable, and rust and peeling paint made it feel more like a dilapidated Pontins than a restaurant.

Inside, things didn't improve. You're met with a large bar, worn floors, tired furniture, and a soulless, sterile atmosphere. Our table and chairs were sticky and clearly hadn't been properly cleaned—stains and marks everywhere, and the floor was no better. I’ve experienced better hygiene at motorway services.

Starters: We ordered sea bream and "hot honey" chicken tacos. The chicken tacos looked like a 99p fast food burger—dry, bland, and dumped on shredded lettuce. Absolutely nothing “hot” or “honey” about them. The sea bream tacos were slightly better in appearance but badly overcooked and chewy.

Mains: After waiting what seemed like 30–40 minutes, the burger was fine—hard to mess up—but the chips were a disaster. Over-fried, oily, dark brown, and hard. It felt like they were cooked in old oil and had been refried several times - they were dark brown. The portion served with the ribs was 75% chips, most of which were left untouched.

Then it got worse. That night, I suffered severe heartburn—something I’ve not experienced in years. My partner, who ate the ribs and tacos, began vomiting violently in the early hours of the morning and continued for hours. She displayed classic signs of food poisoning: vomiting, diarrhoea, stomach cramps, fever, and total exhaustion. She was bedridden the entire next day.

We are now following official food safety guidelines and reporting this incident to the relevant authorities.

I’ve been to Dylan’s in Menai Bridge twice before and left disappointed both times. I made the mistake of giving the Criccieth branch a chance. Never again.

As for the positive reviews? The only explanations I can come up with are: (a) generous alcohol consumption dulling the taste buds and the senses, (b) generous alcohol consumption killing off any potential harmful bacteria.

We don’t drink—so unfortunately, we got the authentic experience.

If £4.95 for a Coke doesn’t put you off, maybe the potential of food...

We often enjoy visiting here as the food is always cooked to perfection and the location is amazing. However, sadly, the location of your table can make or break your whole dining experience. As we are a middle aged couple, (who've children have grown up and left the nest), we always ask for a quieter table when booking and come as late as possible to avoid busier periods, but this request always falls on deaf ears and it seems they prefer to seat you where it's more convenient for them. This usually means next to big party's who are loud or lots of noisy children in the main room. This then makes it difficult for me and my husband to talk over the rabble, let alone enjoy our meal without indigestion. We often have to literally beg to be moved elsewhere, which may mean the staff have to be put out a little and clear a different table to set up for us, which we do really appreciatte. We understand it's a family restaurant, but it would be wonderful if they could consider couples a little more too, as often a couple having a 3 course meal with drinks plus a bottle of wine, can spend more than a family with young children. How about allocating an area where there are just a few tables for 2 set up in the events section where its often quieter later in the evening, or even easier, please just ask staff to at least read the "special booking requests" and actually put themselves out and try to accomodate these, especially when they have been informed it's a special occasion. On the plus side, if you are a couple and get a decent table away from the noisey rabble, the waiting staff are very attentive and polite and ensure you are looked after. The chefs are wonderful and we have never had one bad meal here. We would visit much more often if they considered couples a little more and actually read the special booking requests and put customers requests ahead of whats more...