The Cripple Creek Inn — Restaurant in Wales

SOCIALLY CRIPPLED CREEK

Having eaten here a year ago and really enjoyed it, i thought it would be the perfect place to take the family for my mother's birthday meal. When calling to book the table , I stated it was for 7 adults and 2 kids and a baby. On arrival, going by the lady at the front of house's reaction, you could've sworn we rolled in with a nuclear submarine rather than a pram. To most people, that ' surprise ' would be relatively easy to accommodate, but she handle that situation as if she was attempting to disarm an explosive device with 10 seconds left on the clock. As we were seated, we could cleary see her sighing and moaning to other members of staff about the terrible situation we thrusted upon them with our presence. Perhaps leaving the baby in the carpark would've appeased them. So thanks to the grave inconvenience caused by the silent, sleeping baby , this naturally resulted into us receiving very lack luster service. The other woman at front of house couldn't wait to take our orders rapidly, didn't even try to mask her frustration. We was all unhappy with all the staff's attitude except for the two young lads . But i knew at least the food was going to be quality. It wasn't . In fact, it perfectly complimented their attitude. The steaks were as tough and unappealing as the two older woman at front of house, my seafood platter was just bland with zero flavour. Nobody came to check if everything was ok with our meals, clearly they didn't want to interact with us unless they absolutely had to. The excuse for the tough steaks ( that looked like they were carved straight off freddy kruger's thigh) was because they were rump cuts which are chewier, and the source of the meat itself. The eldest woman did strike the steaks from the bill and i guess she deserves a little bit of credit for kinda trying to smooth things over with us prior to us complaining. But my god if she had the powers of medusa i would've be set firmly in stone. For the prices they charge, you expect quality. All the female staff could do with going to a petting zoo or having a spa day and lightening up. I appreciate that it must be a stressful job, especially in the heat, but if you're in the hospitality business, it pays to hospitable, not hostile. It's a no...

I would like to start by staying that I never leave negative feedback normally, however today I have so irked by the obtuse person i spoke to on the phone today.

My wife and I have been to the Cripple Creek many times, and on the whole the foods is great, we have on occasions had the odd bad dish but it would be unfair to say the food was anything but good.

The service isn't to the same standard as the food, and we have felt the need to complain on a couple of occasions. But when the service is good its very good, i think that when the restaurant is busy it lacks a little organisation.

However today I had the worse customer experience that i have had for a long time. I had friend unexpectedly tell me they were visiting, so i made a quick call to see if i could get a reservation for 19.30. The person that i spoke to informed me that somebody was 'copying' the diary. (or words to that effect) and she would call me back when she could get her hands on it, in approximately 15mins.

I waited and waited, after 3hrs, i called back, i have forgotten the name of the woman who answered, but attitude was appalling. I asked her if she had any tables at the time I had requested... She said she only has availability early evening or later in the night. At this point, i didnt have a problem, it was me booking late.

However I did suggest to her that it would have been more appropriate for the pub to have called me back when they knew there was no availability.. This is where she seem to lose any sense of customer service or indeed politeness. She over talked me, so i couldn't explain what had occurred, informed me that she wouldnt have expect anyone to call me back until the end of the shift. (i am assuming that this was at 18.00, so would have left me no time to make alternative arrangements)

The called was finished by her saying 'we are not getting anywhere here, so i am putting down the phone' and she did!

A shame that i wont be going back, however there are many other great Pubs/ Restaurants in the area, The Hardwick is down the road and is highly recommended, slightly further afield there is a number of excellent places to eat in Crickhowell, my favourite being...

So I remember the crippled creek to be absolutely beautiful, we used to come as a family and the service and food was second to none. I came this evening and I was shocked at how different it was, the service was non existent, I had to go and get someone to clear our starters & had to go and find someone at the end to come and give us the bill. It just seemed like nobody cared and we were a problem being there. The food was not the best, I had pork ribs to start which were warm at best and a little dry. The pork chop for main was a little tough and the pepper sauce it came with did not taste of peppercorns, it was really unpleasant and ruined the plate for me. Honestly I am absolutely gutted because I have such amazing memories coming here and I raved about it to my fiancée and good friend who I took with me. I did not mention anything to the wait staff as the one especially with the glasses (girl) was super rude and even rolled her eyes at the table as she was walking away as we asked her to clear the empty glasses from our table (basic stuff). In my opinion service for me is such a big thing, you can have a great plate of food somewhere but if your service was crap you wouldn’t go back, people will return based on the experience and the service is such a vital part of any place.

One more thing to add - I asked for mint for my fiancé’s drink, the girl with the glasses brought out a bag of mint given to her by a chef which 90% of the bag was rotting and black, she picked out 3 green leaves and put it in her drink. For me this is pretty concerning and clearly has no idea of food hygiene… also the chef who gave her that bag needs to have a word in his ear because you can not use that to...