Slug & Lettuce - The Friary Cardiff — Restaurant in Wales

We went to have a festive meal there, which was booked and paid in advance, and it was probably MY WORST EXPERIENCE in Cardiff. To give you an idea, it's the first time I'm writing a review with less than 3 stars (and believe me when I said I would give 0, but the minimum here is 1 star).

First impressions about the place weren't good: the music was incredibly loud there and the light so down. It looked like you were in a discotheque and it was impossible to have a conversation with your friends. There was a moment in which I even couldn't listen to the waitress, saying her "Excuse me, I can't hear you well. Music is really loud". She only said "I know. Sorry", without doing anything else for solving the problem.

On another hand, the service was slow as a slug. They really honor the name of the place. We arrived there at our time but they didn't serve our food until over one hour and a half later. The service was so slow that some of the dishes weren't hot when they were served, just a little warm, and those who received their plate should eat quickly and not wait politely for everyone at the table to be served. If you waited a little, your food was completely cold. Some of us had already finished eating when others had not yet been served.

But the worse thing was when the staff told us we had to leave the table in 5 minutes because they needed it for another people who booked it. They were extremely slow serving our food but, now, they wanted we rush for leaving when they were still serving the desserts! Finally, they forced us to leave the table, we had to finish our drinks standing and two of us didn't get the desserts (which is so unfair because they also pay £32 for a menu that included just a main dish plus a dessert). One of the people in the group went to speak to the manager about this and his answer was asking him for writing an email. This happened in the first week of December. A month later, he is still waiting for a solution, as he has only received a generic email.

Regarding food, honestly, the menu didn't worth the price: £32 for a poorly cooked steak with fries and an ice cream that actually was a simple Magnum lolly ridiculously served on a plate with a flower on the top.

Conclusion: Bad atmosphere, improvable food and unacceptable manners to treat diners. We will never back to this place and I will let my friends know about this...

We booked here for a bottemless brunch for 16 people, for a 21st we pre booked 2 month in advance.

Deposit paid & they requested an upfront food order because of the amount of people. I did so & there are 2 gluten free people attending and made it very clear in my email what orders where gluten free & what were normal.

I had to call the place multiple times to receive the final amount to pay upfront & also deliberate on what orders where GF and not.

We then arrive with the bill already paid upfront, the table was cramped and not enough room for 10 let alone 16.

We complained and were originally told they weren’t able to change the tables. We then were moved to a table which was laid out better. This table still did not have enough seating for the 16 of us leaving us to grab a spare table and add it on the end ourselves.

There was then 2 members of staff who came over questioning our pre order of food stating they could garauntee it was gluten free which is ridiculous & should have been stated prior in an email when deliberating about pre-orders.

We then had a server come for drinks orders who was extremely rude and had poor manners. At this point we had been let down enough so complained asking for a refund, at this point the told us that they were no longer going to serve us our food order anyway and just give us drinks. I asked for a refund as I’d paid over £600 for this table & preorders to which she told me will take 7-14 days to process which is awful considering they take it from your bank immediately.

The manager didn’t have a clue & the staff were so rude and didn’t care about our upset. We decided to leave with a refund and go elsewhere. Would not...

If I could put no stars for everything I would! 16 people pre booked for a birthday brunch over £600!!! They crammed us into a small corner with not enough seats. We asked for the tables to be rearranged but the staff weren't interested! We finally got moved to another area and they still didn't give us enough tables to sit. The waitress was rude and abrupt. They tried charging for food that we had already ordered and paid for. They then decided to refuse to serve us!!! After nearly an hour we worked away. The place is scruffy, the service is diabolical and the staff are rude and unhelpful. Now 14 days before we get our money returned and we've had to go else where and spend more money. I will never ever recommend this place, do not go and waste your time.

Thankyou to Turtle Bay for fitting us all in with a moments notice.

Do not use abuse as an excuse for your actions, at no point were we abusive, asking to move tablets to accommodate us so we all had a seat and space to eat was a reasonable request. It was your choice to refuse to serve us because in reality you knew you couldn't find appropriate seating although this had been booked well over a month ago.You are all about crushing people in like sardines and bringing the money in and not about making an enjoyable experience for the customers. Even a gentleman sat next to us agreed it was disgusting behaviour the way we were treated. If you can't cope with a complaint about your service's you are in the wrong job role. I expect an apology for that comment !! I shall be taking the matter higher up...