Rhosyn Restaurant at Penally Abbey — Restaurant in Wales

Lots of potential for this to be a fantastic restaurant but a few basics letting them down at the moment.

✅ setting, views and ambiance - lovely balance of traditional and contemporary decor. Nicely spaced out tables for privacy. Gorgeous sweeping views over Tenby golf course and to the sea.

✅ 2-3 of the dishes we had were truly fantastic. Cut above normal ‘good’ restaurants (cauliflower rarebit, cheese cabbage and lemon dessert). This is why I say it’s got great potential.

Other dishes…. Chicken was delicious (sauce was great) but was a bit salty. Fishcake was close to being fantastic but a touch dry and the sauce could do with a bit more umph

✅ young blonde lady serving food was very friendly and professional

❌ it sells its small plates menu (only one available when we want) as ‘Tapas’ style yet we were pressured about 4 times to order everything up front because “the kitchen prefer it that way”… well the customers won’t prefer it that way and that’s not tapas style. We were promised the dishes would be staggered (I didn’t believe this but chose to not continue debating it) …. Sure enough we had 4 of our 6 plates delivered at the same time.

To sum this up I asked to order some bread and olives to go with our martinis before dinner and was told “I’ll have to check with the kitchen as they like the order at the same time”….. for bread and olives!! That sadly set a very small but negative tone for the meal.

Advice - do what’s right for the customers not what’s right for the kitchen. Either order up front and make sure you stagger it like a tasting menu… or let people order as they go.

❌ aside from the food server the service was a touch lax. Nothing major just basics that tilt a place from good to a great experience. Talked about the pressuring / rushing above. Didn’t ask us how the meal was at the end. When asking for the bathroom ‘oh it’s round the corner’ in a “whatever” sort of way etc. Asked for the bill and didn’t get one for 10 minutes so had to go up to ask again / pay. Small things that wouldn’t cost anything to improve

❌ lamb dish was overcooked...

My partner booked myself, my 11 year old son and my friends afternoon tea for my birthday. Upon arriving, the table was set up for just 4 people (my son wasn’t taken into consideration though it was on their booking confirmation to prepare the table for 5).

My partner had ordered our food prior to our arrival, and was told that they would accommodate my son’s pickier eating habits by preparing plain alternatives for him. When we mentioned this to the waitress, she came back and said that she couldn’t bring out any extra food as it was all pre-prepared. We asked if there was anything for him to eat, her simple answer was no, sorry.

My partner passed his plate and cutlery to my son to eat a scone (it was all he wanted from the afternoon tea selection as the sandwiches were not to his liking) - at this point nobody brought any cutlery for my partner so he was eating straight from the afternoon tea platter.

I physically felt awful eating whilst my son went hungry so I asked the waitress to speak to someone as I wanted to make a complaint. If the restaurant was not going to be accommodating, I wouldn’t have booked at all. She rolled her eyes and asked me to follow her, and walked straight past the desk she expected me to stop at. The person at the desk had to call me back as I was still following the waitress. At this point I burst into tears, and explained how upset I was that not only was my child completely disregarded, they also expected me to eat whilst he watched us.

This has likely been the worst customer service experience I’ve ever seen. Whilst the restaurant did their best to rectify the situation (they charged us for a small amount only, brought my son toast when I spoke to someone else, and offered us champagne which we declined), and though it seems like this was a single waitress issue not a restaurant issue, it ruined our whole day and I left feeling extremely upset.

I’ve just never been in a situation where a restaurant denied a child food. I left hungry as it didn’t feel right to continue the afternoon...

Great meal in a fantastic old manor house which is also a hotel (we didn't stay there). We had a drink in the luxurious lounge first, then moved to the dining room for dinner. They have a 5 course tasting menu which didn't quite appeal to us so we had the charcuterie, starters and mains. The milk bread with charcuterie was nice with nice salami. My beetroot main was a little one note, but my partners crab starter was generous, with white meat on toast and brown meat in a kind of creamy cocktail sauce. My lamb main was well cooked with a nice jus. We needed a couple of sides to fill up and get some veg and the smashed roasted potatoes were really generous and tasty.

We had an after dinner drink and the staff let us wander in the gardens, which are lovely and extensive. With views to the sea in the distance.

Big call out to the friendliest restaurant staff we've encountered for a while.

For the quality and location, the value was...