Jolly Sailor — Restaurant in Wales

What would have been a lovely evening if not for one incredibly rude manager. Other staff all lovely - but I'd give it a miss until ownership changes!

EDIT: The owner's response to this review should tell you everything you need to know. Verbatim, in case they attempt to delete it:

"Thanks for the feedback, but really, stop letting that woman walk all over you all! Damn. You must all be walking on egg shells. Not going to change anything because of a spoilt princess having a tantrum. However many of her family she pesters to post things. 👍👍"

For context; 'that woman' is my sister-in-law who was already in a fragile state after a particularly stressful (birth)day. Also, she had been brought the wrong dish, which she tried a small amount of but unfortunately didn't like. On raising this, we were told that it was too late to do anything about it. Further, despite the fact that we did not eat the meal that we hadn't ordered, the manager insisted on charging us for it. As such, we retracted the £16 tip we had otherwise intended to leave for our (lovely) waitress, whereupon the manager announced loudly to the waitress and the rest of the room that we were taking her tip away. This left my mother-in-law extremely upset.

In the interest of fairness, we had been moderately (15 mins) late arriving, owing only to unfortunately missing our motorway exit. She appears to believe this justifies her behaviour. I had tried to phone ahead the instant we knew we would be late, but no-one picked up - when I pointed this out, the manager shrugged off all responsibility for this. As such, this is how you can expect to be treated if you are slightly delayed arriving to an 8pm booking.

I don't know what the manager must have been through to become such a nasty individual, but I'm afraid she is certainly not fit to be running a restaurant, or any customer-facing role.

Happy to confirm that all above opinions are my own. 👍👍

EDIT 2: I have since received this further response:

"Rude Landlady or rude customers? There is only so much abuse I will tolerate. Again this is another review which obviously you were asked to write for another family member who is not taking any blame for her own actions which is a shame. Like I have previously stated thank goodness for CCTV"

My SiL - on being told she would not have her incorrect meal replaced - dropped one f-bomb unambiguously not directed at any member of staff - and immediately removed herself from the situation by going outside to calm down. This was not gracious behaviour and we apologised on her behalf. However - and I really can't believe I have to explain this - her behaviour does not excuse yours. You were the professionals in the situation and you failed - miserably - to act like it. If you do indeed possess CCTV it will verify the above claim. And again - nobody asked me to write this review. I feel a responsibility to highlight to others the callousness and incompetence that you have oh-so-helpfully demonstrated in your responses. I will say no more on the...

Edit: Wow. Not only was my birthday ruined by the rudeness of the manageress but I'm now being accused of being a bad mum and not understanding autism. My son has a diagnosis and I am undergoing one myself plus I teach in an autistic school! I was not having a tantrum but an autistic meltdown from being abused when it was their error for not giving me what I had ordered. Also, it was nothing to do with the size of the Seabass. I love Seabass hence ordering it for my birthday meal. It was the fact it was extremely salty and had an awful flavour plus was not what I had ordered. Also, my brother-in-law (who wrote his negative review before even telling the rest of us let alone me instructing him to!) rang through my order so if it was not available you should have told him at the time! We were all made to feel uncomfortable and my entire family were upset not just that evening but following all the online abuse since. How dare you say that I'm the embarrassment when it's clearly your lady manager.

Original post: We went here for my birthday meal out and to do the quiz but it ended with both my mother and myself in tears due to the downright rudeness of the lady manager. Yes, we were late after 3 cars all driving from various locations in Wales (and not being able to park anywhere close enough for my disabled dad and pregnant sister) but we did try to ring ahead only for no one to answer. Seabass was ordered off the menu and, on arrival, tasted nothing like Seabass. The waitress then said they were out of the usual Seabass so had given me the special in a disgustingly salty paprika sauce. We explained that this was not what we thought we'd ordered and she said she'd send the manager over. Rather than apologise for their error, she started shouting at me for being late. It was the final straw after an incredibly stressful day with our autistic children in all the traffic jams and so I got up and left. The others enjoyed their meal but at the end, my mum thanked the waitress (who was lovely!) for removing the Seabass from the bill, only for the manager to come and put it back on! I work in hospitality myself and we would never dream of doing this! My family had left a sizeable tip for the waitress but mum felt that if she was being charged for a meal that I'd literally had 2 mouthfuls off that she'd have to use the tip to cover it. The manager than accused mum of being mean for removing the poor waitress's tip when technically it was her that had done so. In contrast, we've come to a lovely accommodating place this evening who actually know how to treat their guests. Would definitely avoid if you're likely to be late as you will get told off like a...

What a confrontational manageress! I have never written a bad review but have only ever once before experienced such rudeness in a restaurant. The website states that the dinner time menu is served from 6.00 - 9.00. Nowhere does it state that the kitchen closes at 8.30. I was with a party that ordered 7 meals from the main menu just before 8.30. We did not know that there was a specials board until after we had ordered. Six meals were as described on the menu but the seventh was definitely not a whole seabass grilled in lemon butter. It took me two attempts to get the lovely waitress to come over to speak to us and we were all courteous and polite to her. She then stated that the whole seabass was not available. Had she made this clear when we ordered, I would have changed the order to steak. The waitress did apologise for changing the order to peppered seabass but this was definitely not what was described on the menu that we ordered from. The manageress then came over and was extremely confrontational and verbally abusive. She refused to have a rational conversation about the order itself, focussing on the kitchen closing at 8.30. It was extremely embarrassing for us as customers since she was initially the one making all the fuss and people were staring at us. My daughter felt she was under attack so she uttered just one swear word and left. There was no "angry, abusive swearing" directed at the manageress and definitely no "crying on other tables" as claimed by the owner in response to other reviews. I did not enjoy the rest of the evening because I had been made to feel so uncomfortable by the manageress. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 states that food ought to be as described on the menu and you can refuse to pay for food that is not as described on the menu. Since the peppered seabass remained uneaten I should not have been charged for it, but I was. I paid the bill under protest because I was paying by card so could not deduct the cost of the wrong order. I was left with no option other than to remove the tip to cover this charge. If this lady has any ounce of decency I hope she will give the £16.00 she charged me to the waitress and chef who both went...