Scoops Artisan Ice Cream & Dutch Pancakes — Restaurant in Wales

I've been in quite a few times over the past few years, not very frequently, but if I happen to be passing and feeling a bit peckish, or in the mood for ice cream I'll pop in. It's the kind of local cafe where you know that the food will be delicious every single time.

Today, I dropped in for a spot of lunch with my brother, it was a Tuesday afternoon so it wasn't too busy. I had an apple and bacon pancake; the bacon was nice and crisp, and coupled with slightly sweet and tart apple, it makes for a really great combo! He had chicken, chorizo, ham and cheese which he thoroughly enjoyed too.

I particularly like the fact that the owner is a Dutch lady who really takes care to ensure that your dining experience has touches of authentic Netherlands flavour, from the massive bottles of real stroop on the tables, to the poffertjes pan hanging on the wall. Speaking of which, the building itself is pretty small, so it's no surprise that they'd decided to build a conservatory to extend the seating at the back. I'm kicking myself for forgetting to photograph it, but the conservatory frame is made with traditional wooden joinery which serves to further enhance the utterly charming and cosy atmosphere.

We finished off with their homemade ice cream, probably the star feature of this cafe. The selection of flavours tends to be very eclectic and interesting, a bright orange Sea Buckthorn flavour, and a purple/pink Dragon fruit flavour caught our eye. We had tasters, and both were delicious, but evidently we weren't feeling fruity as I plumped for a Stroopwaffel flavour and my brother chose hazelnut.

Mine was a classic vanilla base with real chunks of stroopwaffel mixed through. Whilst delicious, I wished there was a stronger ribbon of cinnamon caramel running through, not necessarily more waffle, just a stronger flavour so that it can really stand out against the vanilla. The hazelnut ice cream on the other hand was completely flawless, the flavour was deep, rich, nutty and not overly sweet.

So... highly...

We visited the cafe 27th of August, myself, My husband and my son. When we arrived, the cafe was pretty busy. It was advised that we could reserve the next vacant table and come back in 10/15 minutes and that was exactly what we did. On arrival we were seated, ordered our drinks and were advised there would be a 30 minute wait if we ordered pancakes. I was happy to be advised of the waiting time and for us the wait was no problem. The pancakes were really good (savoury), worth the wait, my only disappointment was not having enough room left for a sweet pancake! The main reason for the review was to give credit to the lovely staff, they were brilliant, hard working, informative, helpful and really friendly, nothing was to much trouble. It makes all the difference to be made to feel welcome. It's small and popular cafe, so, where possible, a bit of flexibility doesn't go a miss....

I've visited this cafe many times before and really enjoyed my visits there. But recently I went there with some family members and the whole experience was incredibly disappointing. When one of our table ordered a gluten free pancake, we heard the chef say, with quite a lot of disdain "Urgh, another awkward one". The food was alright but not as good as it used to be. When we went to pay, we were waiting for quite a while. There was one girl at the counter doing orders, ice cream and the till whilst there were two other members of staff just chatting in the kitchen. They kept looking over at us and then just went back to chatting. I've worked in face-to-face customer service for years, and the work ethic here was awful. It's such a shame how friendly and welcoming this place used to be - I doubt we'll...