Otter — Restaurant in Wales

Booked in on 15/09. Party of 13 (4 children, 9 adults) to celebrate a joint birthday (age 4 and age 12) on arrival, one of the duty managers (Aimee) advised we all ordered together at the same time to ensure our food comes out together; which we did. She also advised a 45minute wait which was fine by us. The first two starters came out after about 20minutes, then nothing. We got the attention of one staff member who went to check. A different manager came over (lady, short, dark hair tied back - wet look) to explain that the order hadn't gone through as a multi order and she would update the kitchen. By this point, my sister and brother in law had finished their starters and we hadn't even received ours. Some 10-15minutes later, the rest of the starters and 2x kids meals arrived. That was all we had because no one came back to check on us. We saw a different waitress and asked her to check on our meals, she didn't take our starter plates away, and when she left, she never came back. We asked another waitress (Carys) for a refund, and she went to check with manager, she came back and said that it wasn't possible because there was a 30% promotional offer on, and she went on to say that manager offered a voucher for next time. We told her we wouldn't be back and we wanted to leave. By this point it was 20:15pm and a manager finally came over. We explained we were fed up of waiting and to cancel our order to which she said "oh, so we'll just bin the food then?" we explained how long we had waited and she kept telling us how busy they'd been and that it was the waitresses fault for not clearing our plates and telling the kitchen. I found it appalling that she blamed the waitress, and it wasn't exactly busy (we witnessed a few tables being serviced regularly and at one point, watched a table of 4 have starters, mains and desserts!!). I asked her "are you the manager" and she replied "I'm one of them, there's a few of us on tonight" - oh great I thought, so why did not one manager come over??!! Why send the waitress to be the messenger when we first complained? Why did the kitchen not notice a party of 13 had starters for almost an hour and a half??! Aimee and the other manager were at the bar giving our refunds and not one of them apologised. They were both incredible rude, defensive and dismissive. At one point, the shorter one shouted at me "we've been busy, it's not our fault you ordered starters" !! I was gobsmacked. How can you employ such management who possesses such a demonic attitude? As we were leaving, one table (sat on the round table near toilets) approched me and said "I can't believe how she spoke to you, she was so rude". we left the premises at 20:40 and headed to Mcdonalds (which by the way, their staff were incredibly accommodating & welcoming, which cannot be said for the managers you employ at The Otter. Your only saving grace was the waitress Carys, what a...

I was really disappointed with the manager on shift today.

Firstly my husband asked if there was a certain ale on draft, and the young man at the bar said no. The female manager interjected and said its never been on tap, which my husband explained it was on when we came in the past. She said "well we have not had it on tap since forever".

He didn't reply and we had our food. Which was lovely.

However towards the end of our food the waitress was serving the table next to us their meals. There was an issue with one of their meals, and the female customer explained she'd asked for different sides. We saw the lady pass the plate back to the waitress.

A few moments later, the manager came over and said that she had unacceptably been rude to the waitress, who was crying, and asked her to finish her food and leave immediately.

The customer explained she wasn't rude, and she's upset if the waitress is upset. But the manager insisted that she must have done something wrong to make her cry.

The atmosphere for the surrounding tables was really uncomfortable for atleast 10 mins whilst the manager continued to speak over the customer. The customer asked if we witnessed her shout at the waitress. To which I explained she certainly didn't shout. I then explained to the manager that it was poor customer service to tell someone to leave only hearing one side of the story. She tried to explain that the staff member was not crying for no reason. To which I said, even if the customer was shouting, it's poor management to not ask her what happened before effectively kicking her out. The manager huffed and turned her back on me.

In the 10 to 15 min loud, uncomfortable discussion, the customers food went cold... her family had finished their food, so she asked for trays to take her meal away and then left.

I have never witnessed a manager treat a customer so appallingly as I did tonight. The customer, luckily, didn't get upset or irate. She just packed her food up, grabbed her crutch and left. Yes, your manager was totally unprofessional towards a disabled customer, and made multiple patrons uncomfortable with her abrupt, argumentative and condescending attitude.

I really hope if this woman gets in touch that you rightly refund her for her meal (the manager offered to replace her meal, but not refund).

I also hope this member of your team is spoken to about her behaviour. It was unreasonably handled and certainly ruined my evening. I was out celebrating my 40th birthday with my children and husband, and it was such a...

Visited on Saturday 2nd Feb 2019. The place was very busy, we found a seat to the far right as you walk in. Unfortunately there was a strong smell of cannabis and body odour. The manager with glasses came over to us with crocs on and took our order for drinks after around 5minutes. After waiting 10minutes for the drinks I went to the bar, the drinks had just been poured so I took them over. I wanted to order food at the bar but the manager would not allow this and said he would take our order at the table after he'd took 3 other tables orders before us. I was disappointed as in the past have ordered at the bar for quickness. 10minutes later he took our orders. I ordered a steak and ribs and asked for the steak 'well done but not cremated'. He wrote this down, whilst waiting for the food another table became available away from the smell. We moved table and around 10-15minutes after ordering the food came out. My 5oz steak was burnt badly and very dry. I called a waiter over and made him aware I did not order it like this, he said the chef would be unable to cook it as well done without it being like that. So he requested medium to well done I said as long as there's no blood it's alright. He then asked to take the plate, by this time I was starving as we had been in there for around 35-40minutes. I said I'd eat the rest with my family rather than wait and eat alone. 3minutes later he came out and showed me the plate and said that's better, with that he tipped the plate and blood poured out. He said oops I'll take it back. A few minutes later he returned, I cut the steak and again blood oozed out. By this time I'd had enough of looking like complainer since they could not understand well done but not cremated. 2 of my family had the mega smothered chicken which they really enjoyed and one had the sausage and mash. Apparently the sausages tasted as though they had been cooked in washing up liquid. I paid the bill before leaving but will not be in a hurry to return unfortunately. I've eaten here 3 to 4 times in the past year and had good experiences but this time I have been put off.

Thankyou for your response 5 years later. However it is too late. I doubt I will return to your location in the near future as I won the lottery and now eat at 5 star restaurants that aren't to be found in Wales. Good Luck with your...