Moelwyn Restaurant and B&B — Restaurant in Wales

Booked a break here, to relax after an extremely difficult time due to illness and death of a close family member. Unfortunately, it was booked very last minute (due to late funeral arrangements) so we did not have a lot of time to do thorough research on the hotel / B&B, or the area. We know that Trip Advisor ratings need to be analysed, as friends and family can put on 5 star ratings for anything. With more time, to review all the ratings, maybe we wouldn’t be writing this review now!||1st Morning / Day: Went down for breakfast at 9am, which had been the prearranged time with the female owner. Another 2 fellow guests also arrived in to the breakfast room just after us. No one was about except a gentleman sitting out on the veranda. He came in and we asked him if anyone was about. He tried to phone the owner, but it went to voicemail, he then tried another number(s) and eventually got someone on the phone. In the meantime, he got his wife up out of bed, on her day off (she worked elsewhere, we understand) to make tea / coffee, and start the breakfast, until the owner turned up. The A4 sized menu stated that there were gluten free and vegetarian options, but the lady told us all that they weren’t available and handed us all a copy of a smaller A5 sized menu. The male owner eventually turned up, and apologised for the lack of service. ||2nd Morning / Day: The female owner was in the breakfast room, when we went down for 9am. However, there was only Wheatabix packs on the table. When asked was there any other choice, she went in to the kitchen and found one small pack of Cornflakes. She told us that was the only cereal she had. For the cooked breakfast, she only had 2 slices of brown bread left, then it had to be white bread, or nothing.||While we were getting ready to go out for the day, I heard a noise at the door and opened it to see a towel and other toiletries left on the floor outside the door. The young lad had just walked away, so I asked him if there was a bathmat there. We had left one down the previous morning to be replaced, as requested, but he advised that the bathmat was in the wash. We never did see it again.||We went out for the day and, when we came back to our room in the evening, the blinds on the side window had come off the wall. The window had been open slightly and we can only guess that the wind had blown them down. We were just grateful that this did not happen while we were sleeping, as they would have landed on our face / head in the bed and could have caused injury!||3rd Morning: Came down and again, no one about. No Breakfast had been left out and the tables had been rearranged. Again, the gentleman who had been sitting on the veranda on the first morning came through and asked was there no one about. He then tried to phone both the male and female owners, but the calls went to voicemail. He then called someone, who we presume was the mother, and got through to her. We overheard her saying something along the lines of ‘for G*ds sake, not again! Tell them someone will be there shortly’. After a while, the female owner turned up and apologised, apparently she had slept in, the Internet was down and her alarm clock didn’t go off. At this stage, we declined her offer of breakfast and said we were leaving as it was much too stressful to go through this every morning. As we had nowhere else to go, she did offer to ring around, but we declined, saying we would either sleep in the car, or change our booking to get home.||Positives: The location is right at the beach and very convenient to the town. There is no blind on the roof window, so you can lie in bed and look up at the stars. However, you might need to bring an eye mask if you don’t want to wake up early as, on the long summer days, the sun shines right in onto the pillows (and your face) in early morning. There is free parking available, although this is on street, or a few spaces for public parking, beside the hotel. Be aware that these spaces might not always be available, particularly at busy times.||Negatives: Apart from the breakfast issues, there was a constant smell of sewage in the bedroom and it didn’t matter if you kept the windows open or closed. There was a soil pip right beside the roof window. However we can’t blame the hotel entirely, as the smell was also outside, in the car park and right down to the beach. We suspect there must have been a sewage outlet near the hotel.||This was one of the strangest places we have ever stayed in, there was rarely anyone about the place and, while they did have a bar, we never used it as there was no one to serve us. On Trip Advisor, this hotel is listed as no 5 out of 6 hotels in the area but, looking at Google, it is a ‘Restaurant with Rooms’. ||Fortunately there was a lovely bar just up the street, which also served good evening meals. We became regulars there, before we left the area.||We also found it strange that, apparently, there were 2 couples who ‘lived’ there, but did not partake of breakfast. Also the owner also seemed to complain about other guests who had left and were not welcome back. No doubt she will say the same about us although she did say we would be welcome back. Is this perhaps the reason that no one else was staying in the hotel / B&B, during periods, despite the town buzzing with holiday makers? ||Locals had told us that the place used to be very good, but the previous owners had retired / taken a step back, and that they noticed that the place wasn’t as busy now. Sad, as it could have so...

Our meal at the Moelwyn Restaurant was very disappointing. We placed our order of 2 starters plus 4 mains and with no food by 30 minutes a party of 8 arrived. Once they placed their order they were told everything is cooked fresh so it will be about 25 minutes wait. We assumed this applied to us also but that message was not shared with us at all. That being said how long do Fish Cakes and Soup take?

After almost a 50 minutes wait for our starters I had to ask what was with the wait only to be told our waitress had not put them through but our mains were conveniently ready to come out. While 3 of us had ordered the same item, the Pork Belly, my pregnant wife had asked for an alternative sauce with no alcoholic content. When the food arrived the waitress had no idea which one had the alcohol free sauce so she went back to confirm. Apparently the chef had taken alcohol from all of our food just to be safe. This may have been part of the reasoning behind the long wait but again, nothing was communicated with us.

We had no complaints with the food itself, it was good. The pork was tender and the sauce was nice. We didn't have desserts as we just wanted to leave by that stage.

Upon arrival of the bill we were shocked to see that my mum's Half lager shandy cost the same as a pint of lager. £2 for the Lager and £2 for lemonade?! Absolute joke.

The staff were somewhat apologetic for our wait but that was where the customer service ended, after both myself and my wife expressed our irritation they were sheepish and went back to ignoring us. No complementary drinks or desserts offered. We had no expectations but it would have been nice.

If you make a mistake then its fine, these things happen, but at least own it and take steps...

To start by getting the biggest negatives out of the way, I would not call this a hotel. It doesn't even offer a breakfast following some previous event which caused internal flooding, and apparently from messages on reviews, is taking a very long time to repair.|It is, however, a great place to get a room, at a reasonable rate, with a great location and fantastic view.|Lots of free parking outside, and overlooking the Criccieth harbour, the views of crashing waves are priceless.|We were welcomed here by a solo representative, who was occupying the former dining room working on his model. Very nice chap, who told us all we needed to know and pointed us to the room.|Room, and most of building, appeared quite dated, and in need of a major revamp, but otherwise clean, and room was vary spacious.|Basic tea and coffee making facilities are available in room, with a self service top-up station for those needing more tea, coffee, milk or toilet rolls.|Bed was large and very comfortable, but we did choose to spend both nights with the window open. I have previously been told that recorded wave sounds can be relaxing - I can assure that live wave sounds are also pretty good.|Lack of dining facility can be partly addressed by neighbouring cafe (Swn y Mor) and coffee shop (Blue China) who provide a very presentable breakfast, and partly addressed by nearby pub, Prince of Wales, which has good drink, very good welcome, and great selection of main meals (see separate review).|Overall, we enjoyed our stay, but can't help feeling that the Moelwyn could be so much more without a huge amount of effort or investment, and would be able to better capitalize on its...