Kaspa's Barry Island — Restaurant in Wales

Turned up the day before at 14:30 to the shutters down and a sign that said that they would open at 14:00…. Tried the next day and came in, was told there would be a long wait which is always the case as they are chronically short of staff always and the “temporary training of staff” is always permanent. Told us to sit down and thought oh okay, we will wait. Saw there was one person in the queue and they were taking orders so got up and started to queue too, at the front of the queue another person jumped in and said they were in the queue…. even though they were sitting down. We apologised to them as they said they had been waiting 30 mins to order and had been told to sit down? Not sure how you can queue sitting down but hey ho was still apologetic to the person as he had been waiting. No interjections from the cashier who may or may not have told him to sit down to wait to order, instead she just stood there as he shouted….. They claimed that they had 2 tables of 10 people come in on an unbooked table which was the cause of the stress and the hold on taking orders. What do other companies do during a rush!? They also started turning customers away at 17:20 when they advertise close at 22:30. We have had so many naff experiences here with an hours wait for dessert food which have been not too bad, but this one puts the nail in the coffin. Food often missing on Deliveroo orders which is bad but we knew what to expect there. Never again. No improvement in a year and a half of being local to this Kaspa’s. Perhaps some business management, training of staff, better rates of pay to help retain staff and just some sense of organisation is needed. Perhaps stating the man who said he was already in the queue (whilst sitting down?) should make his order instead as we didn’t mind waiting would have been good, or to take orders and explain there will be a wait for them like any competent...

Update: after a chat with the manager we returned the following week. The place was like a different venue! All the staff were busy, we were greeted and seated instantly, all tables were clean and being cleared in a quick time and the food was lovey. We will be returning, and I have edited my rating to reflect the vast improvement the staff and management made in such a short time.

Visited yesterday to celebrate some good news with family. On arrival 3 people standing around behind the counter, just looking into space. After 10-15 minutes a girl came over and told us to go find a table and come to the counter to order. We looked for a table as many had not been cleared or cleaned and had stacks of dirty plates on them complete with leftover ice-cream. We were going to order but a man from an adjacent table was told his family would have a 40 minute wait! My son went to ask at the counter how long the wait on food was and was told we need to order before getting a time, asked staff again and told vaguely "not too long". There was a horrendous noise coming from the ice cream machine in the front window and another family my husband knew were only given part of their order with their child not being given their ice cream. Both our family and the family on adjacent table left without ordering, as did another group of around 5 girls. Management seriously need to shake it up and train the staff in good hospitality, customer service, and hygiene...

For context, I've been to three different Kaspas across the UK (Barry, Cardiff and Swindon) and all seem to come with their own quirks and perks. Hopefully you might find this useful.

I'll start by saying the food was good. I don't think it can be helped that an icecream parlour next to the sea would be busy - this is not the reason for 4 stars, you can't help that. My wait time was 10 minutes and absolutely no big deal. Taste was not a bother either, each branch creates the icecream a little differently.

I also think the staff are pretty nice. Given the pressure of such a busy location they have the front line task more than cardiffs one or swindons one which is always quiet.) I don''t think it's really fair to rate on that basis.

My only concern really is that the rented venue feels too small / cramped. It felt quite crowded and close together -- perhaps the layout needs to be re-arranged? The Swindon one is massive and gets way fewer people per day - I'd assume location costs are a thing.

One general advisory is don't overorder. One sundae is usually enough, and the waffles are tasty but very filling - that goes with a lot of stuff here. You''ll also probably get brainfreeze if you eat too fast.

Still recommend over the general icecream, unless you're...