The Cliffs Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Wales

After my father visiting the week before and complaining about bad customer service I thought I would give this place a 2nd chance. Used to love this place. First the positives. The decor is lovely, a lot of thought and money has gone into this. The bathrooms are clean but didn't have any soap in although plenty of hand moisturiser! The bar was well stocked. My experience. I was not greeted by any staff and had to enquire about getting a table, it was lunch time and quiet, so quiet two members of staff sat at a table doing paperwork. I was told to pick a table, someone will be over with a menu. We sat down and waited. After an awkward period of sitting waiting we we're presented with a menu on a piece of paper and a small chalkboard with a special on. I was dining with my young daughter and there was no mention of a child's menu so to this day I am unsure if they do one. I was told the waiting staff would be back to take my order. A large party arrived taking the waiting staff's attention away from us and prehaps that's why they didn't run through with us how to place a drinks order. I had to leave my daughter sat at the table on her own as I didn't want to come back to our table taken but as she's only 7 and I could not see her from the bar I felt very uneasy about this. I complained to the bar staff whilst trying to get a drink, she agreed it was not good then proceeded to serve another customer who was after me further down the bar. I had moved around the bar to gain her attention in the first place as there was a big post in her line of vision. When I informed her that I was next she told me she was serving. The gentleman she chose to serve was a bit embarrassed as he had seen me stood waiting before him. Surely after telling bar staff I was worried about leaving my daughter they could have served me or had someone come over to take drinks orders. I gave up at this point and returned to collect my daughter who asked me why I had been so long as the two staff were still sitting at the table and why couldn't they help. If it's simple enough for a 7 year old to understand why is it not to the management.

Regarding the paper menu. It contained a selection of sandwiches all roughly at the £6+ price point. I have no idea if they came with anything as the menu didn't explain the dishes.

I also didn't eat. This review is not about the food but the terrible service.

My dad's visit was the same he is classed as disabled and uses a crutch to walk he was told to get his drinks from the bar then order his food at the table. Watching my dad walk with his crutch is quite obvious that he would struggle to make his way to and from the bar with drinks but he was never offered assistance. Even when he got to the bar and pointed this out he had to ask for assistance getting his drinks to the table. My dad is a proud man and asking for help doesn't come easily. Please give your staff some disability awareness training. He asked for vinigar to go with his fish and chips and got it in time for his last mouthful.

Bad service can be rectified easily and drinks need to be ordered from your table. Unfortunately I will not be giving this establishment...

We went on their Thursday steak night - this simply means if you want a steak it is £5 cheaper than on other nights. When you put this into context it means the price for the rest of the week is massively over the top.

My best description is of an overpriced café combined with a rugby club and a holiday camp! Transport café tables and grubby chairs as well as shouting children completed the picture. Surely children should not be playing tag at nearly 8pm inside a licensed premises?

The wine list is also way overpriced for what is on offer. Come on - £19.50 for a bottle of South African plonk is definitely extortion and that is their cheapest!

A saving grace is that the staff are very pleasant and helpful but lack a certain level of thoroughness such as asking if you need anything else (rather than putting your plate before you and rushing away) or asking if your meal is ok (preferably before you have finished it).

Finally we breathed a sigh of relief when our food came with not much of a wait and it was piping hot and extremely tasty, as well as being served properly. They can actually cook a steak properly for me - bleu/very rare (this is becoming a scarce skill with some amateurs claiming it breaks health and safety unless it is served cooked through!)

Overall this place appears to be offering more of a family fun pub environment rather than a restaurant fine dining experience.

Do go and enjoy the family atmosphere. We won't return but we do recommend The Cliff for families and...

Appears to be highly over-rated. The food was ok, not amazing. Service was less than adequate. We were seated promptly upon arrival, but that is where the service stopped. We waited 15 minutes for our drinks order to be taken. We then waited a further 20 minutes before we had to stop a member of staff and ask them if we could order. The table next to us (which was larger, we were a table of 3, they were table of 8), had their order taken first although they arrived 10 minutes after we had. We ordered the Duck Pizza, Mussels and Kids Chicken Nuggets. The duck pizza was thrown together, and although tasted ok, but obviously cooked in a rush with little care taken. The mussels were a huge disappointment, very small, the quality of them was poor (and probably frozen). The liqueur was fairly tasteless. The kids chicken nuggets were fine, you can't really get them wrong. We then waited another 30 minutes for our plates to be cleared after finished and another 15m minutes waiting for someone to ask if we'd like a see a dessert menu, at which point we gave up and walked over to the counter to ask for our bill ourselves. The waitress then stated that their is a 10% service charge automatically added to the bill and to confirm if that was ok, I politely declined and we won't be returning. Be warned, I'm sure that sometimes the service is great and its a very busy place, but the lack of attention to detail from a service and food perspective is letting what could be a fabulous spot...