The Black Cock Inn Caerphilly Mountain — Restaurant in Wales

Review is based on lunchtime/afternoon trade & visits prior to & after lockdown. Last (& not to be repeated) visit 14th October 2021. The business model, which from the accounts appears to be successful, seems to be an offer of decent beers, wines & spirits together with food at relatively low cost with a reasonably interesting selection. The location is pleasant & the ambiance is good. Sadly in order to achieve this, the customer is required to have a high level of patience as staffing is usually 1 person behind the bar & 1 person in the kitchen. As a result you should be prepared to wait for up to 10 minutes (sometimes longer) to get attention at the bar & up to 90 minutes for food orders to arrive. Depending on who is cheffing, you may not actually get what you ordered & it may be lukewarm or cold. My last visit was the final straw as I watched the 2 staff struggle to cope with a pre booked table of 12 & 6 other diners. Our meals arrived 90 minutes after we ordered & 1 was incomplete. During this time 4 people arrived at the bar & left after waiting about 10 minutes for service which didn't arrive as there was no one behind the bar - the 1 server was busy serving the diners. It could be so much better with more staff. We...

Definitely wouldn't recommend on a Sunday (we have been previously a while back and it was fine but today was terrible). We booked a table for 3pm on a Sunday, arrived just before 3-it was busy but there were seemingly a fair few staff and we were seated fairly quickly after a bit of table cleaning. We waited until around 3.20 before we had to prompt them to give us a menu. They eventually took our order around 3.45 and it didn't arrive until well gone 4.30. Basically 1.5 hours from arriving to getting food! If we hadn't put our card against the booking we would have left. To top it off, instead of serving me my ordered potato and leek soup, they served me up a bacon and cheese sauce in a soup dish- I refused it as I'm vegetarian. To be fair to them they comped our starters and one of the main courses but there was zero apology or acknowledgement of the their service being well below par. People were seated after us and ate two courses before we had even had our...

As part of our pre meal drinks, I ordered a large beer that was never brought to the table and was not included on our bill.. The bottle of wine was dumped on the table but no attempt was msde to open it for us. The service for the starters was far from quick and my soup (Tomato & Basil) was "hot" but you would not burn your lips on it.

Eventually, the main courses arrived and was of an acceptable standard. However, after we had completed our main course, the relevant plates remained uncollected for over 30 minutes although they all had been moved to one end. This also meant that we had not been asked if we wanted any desserts and due to the delay, we had decided against it. My son went to the bar to ask for service and our bill and I complained over the service that we had received. Our criticism was acknowledged.

Whilst it is possible that they may not wish that I patronise them again , I can save them the bother by stating that that...