Ffynnon Wen — Restaurant in Wales

We had a rather unpleasant experience, bordering on discrimination, at a pub we came across on our way back to London today. Since all the pet friendly gastropubs in the area were fully booked, we called this one and were surprised to get a table with table service.

When we arrived, the pub was completely empty—no one at the bar, no pints being poured.

A male waiter approached to take our orders, and we asked for Sunday Roasts. He informed us they had run out, so we politely requested a couple of minutes to look at the menu again. To our surprise, as he walked away, we heard him let out a long sigh—clearly annoyed at the idea of coming back.

Only a minute later, he returned and curtly told us to place our orders at the counter, then walked away again. While this wasn’t a huge issue, it was undeniably rude. Moments later, we noticed that Caucasian customers who arrived after us were being served at their tables. What made matters worse was that we were still charged a service fee, despite having to order at the counter.

After the meal, I discreetly spoke with the young male owner, hoping to share my experience constructively. Unfortunately, he became defensive and insisted his staff had done nothing wrong. I gave it my best effort and left, saying we’d have to agree to disagree. (This kind of resistance to feedback would never fly in London’s F&B scene. How difficult is it to accept an alternative opinion?)

What made the situation even stranger was the owner following us outside, passive-aggressively declaring we wouldn’t be welcome back at the pub.

I almost laughed. The conversation had been calm and professional—my intent was simply to offer feedback, not start an argument. The irony was, we weren’t locals and had no intention of returning to this out-of-the-way pub anyway. We would probably forget about it by the end of the day.

In retrospect, it’s a relief this isn’t our local. The food was averaged, and the service, at best, discriminatory. If only the owner had been more professional and mature, taking a moment to empathise with customers and listen to their concerns. Having worked in F&B myself, this kind of engagement was part of our daily routine.

The fact that every other pub in the area was fully booked while this one was empty speaks volumes about the quality of its food and service.

One thing we did learn from this unpleasant experience: we’ll be appreciating our local pub by James Blunt in Chelsea even more from now on. You don’t realise how lucky you are until you encounter places like this.

I'd suggest the young owner take a humble step and visit our local pub to learn a thing or two. My two cents....

I hadn't been to the venue for a while and then all of a sudden went twice in two days. For lunch with friends on the 23rd of Feb which we received fanatic service from Nikki and the food was delicious. This visit was unscheduled and not pre-booked.

I returned for lunch the next day with family (on the 24th of Feb) and the experience left us feeling so deflated that I had to make a complaint. We booked in advance for this visit (several days in advanced). After being seated, we waited 20 minutes and weren't acknowledged by any staff. One waitress stood next to a table chatting for at least 10 minutes and didn't bat an eye. We finally grabbed someone to ask them for table service, to which they said they would grab someone for us, but still nobody came. We eventually decided to order on via the qr code on the table after 5 minutes. Poor selection of drinks available on the app, so we ended up having to go to the bar anyway to order what we wanted. Once the order went through, someone approached the table to advise us that we had ordered the 'light cheeseburger'... However there wasn't the option for a regular one on the app! When we approached the bar to order the drinks we couldn't get on the app, only half of the drinks we ordered on the app were provided, so we had to go back to the bar to ask for these. Whilst querying the missing drinks, I advised the manager of our experience so far and he was apologetic.

I usually wouldn't have complained but it wasn't as though the venue was particularly busy. From then on, all of the staff were attentive.

The food arrived and it was lovely - no faults at all. Beautiful food and portions. We got to desert, which we ordered via the manager whilst he came to clear the table.

The desserts arrived and looked and tasted wonderful... For the most part. Midway through eating his rocky road Sunday, my father in law came across a 3" piece of cling film/cellophane in his Sundae which he could well have choked on. We called the manager over to advise him, and once again he was apologetic and advised that we wouldn't need to pay for the deserts which we felt was a fair resolution.

Aside from the poor service, we couldn't fault the meal, however it was the service that left a bad taste in our mouths.

On the whole I would return again because there is ample parking, the toilets are clean and the venue is pleasant, I just think it was a highly unfortunate string of events on this second visit that left me feeling...

We arrived early for our table so sat outside to enjoy the weather with a drink. The queue in the bar was about 5 deep and not moving as the same person covering the bar was trying to serve in the restaurant bar. Went to our table and had a long wait for service to order our food. We ordered our food and had been waiting approx half hour to be told they only had one fish so one of our party had to amend their order. Food arrived shorty after this and I was disappointed. I had ordered the ultimate veggie burger which was far from it, missing the bbq cauliflower wings and very over cooked. One of the party had order double up chips and portion did not to be this. The fish look delicious, as did the ribs another person had. The children’s big appetite chilli was an absolute joke of a portion. It was barely three spoonfuls, leaving my niece eating dry rice and nachos, and the chicken dippers on another child meal were very over done. On payment we advised after receiving the final bill we had the 30% off, which the server said we couldn’t use to split the bill. We didn’t want to split the bill and he seemed put out that we wanted to use the discount. The two younger staff were trying their best to cope when the pub was clearly understaffed. This was a family meal of 9 of us, after an emotional morning of scattering my mother in laws ashes to then enjoy a meal as a family at one of her favourite pubs. I was left very dissatisfied and unlikely to return or recommend the...