The Fat Boar — Restaurant in Wales

We visited the fat boat in mold today (18/6/2023) for a Father’s Day meal, a treat from my wife and 2 children. The waiting on staff were excellent and the person who bore the brunt of my complaint, however we were very disappointed in the quality and standard of the food coming to the table. The food took a long time to arrive and we wished it never. Some arrived burnt (children’s garlic bread, we asked and received a replacement) one order was sent back 3 times as was incorrect and then a hair was found in the food halfway through it. The standard of the ‘house burger with a foot long sausage’ was shocking with a skinny tasteless burger with what I would describe as 2 chippy sausages put on the bun and that was priced at £17. The turkey roast came with veg on the side ‘cauliflower cheese’ and that came as broccoli cheese with no explanation or apology and there was a sizeable gap between the 2 parts arriving at the table. We ordered a kids ‘tomato pasta’ only to be told 20 minutes later that they had none and could have pasta and cheese in its place, a suggestion from myself to add a cheesy sauce ended in a bowl of macaroni cheese. They were also out of a lot of certain foods (especially deserts) and the waiting staff were constantly apologising to people that they didn’t have certain deserts after taking their orders. All very disappointing.

We did visit earlier in the month and this was a completely different experience to that, hence why we returned.

The service staff were fantastic and took our frustration and complaints on board (I understand they are not 100% to blame) They then told us that they are 2 chefs down due to illness, if this was explained on arrival it may have helped us understand the delays at least.

We were invited back assuring our next visit would not be the same. This is now...

We visited for Bottomless Brunch in January and had a great experience. We were sat upstairs, the service was outstanding, we were waited on from start to finish and left a tip that hopefully reflected the great time we had.

Based on that, we booked again to go 7th June, paying a deposit of £10 each beforehand.

The experience was completely different from start to finish. We were sat downstairs and had to find someone to ask for more drinks, on a number of occasions. The food platters were reasonable but not as nice as in January. The event had been advertised with "frozen cocktails" - this wasn't listed on the paper menu on the table on the day. When my friend asked, the gentleman said that he could get them - but it was obvious he wasn't wanting to include them, despite them having been advertised.

At the end of the session, my friend went to settle the bill, to discover that the "sober" place we had booked for me as a non-drinker, was the same cost as everyone else. In January it was £5 cheaper, and I'd considered it good value based on the great experience we had.

I don’t think it's reasonable to pay £32 for half of this platter and 2 Diet Cokes? Maybe I'm a bit out of touch, but I think it's excessive. I certainly won't join again - it's obvious that alcohol is more expensive than soft drinks, and more alcohol would be drunk, so why wouldn't it be cheaper?

In addition, a Diet Coke had been added to the bill separately at a cost of £3. The waitress did offer to remove this when it was pointed out, but we just wanted to leave, as we were disappointed in general with the service.

We won’t return - a real shame when so many have tried to support the Fat Boar since its forced closure for hygiene a...

You can see I don't only review places that are bad but this place did not live up to expectations. Upon arrival we were told there were some issues in the kitchen and could only do drinks. After I said 'I've made a reservation & you could've called to let me know' they then said 'oh no it's fine'! On the website your asked to choose where you would like to sit so I chose upstairs restaurant. However upon being seated we were shown a table downstairs, I mentioned this and the waitress replied upstairs was usually kept for the evening..... what's the point in offering it then? We ordered sticky sausages & meatballs & garlic bread for starters and bacon chop & salmon for mains. The starters were great, very tasty indeed but the mains weren't at the same standard my wife's noodles with salmon contained hard bits as if they weren't 'soaked' enough or maybe had been over-nuked. My bacon chop came with frozen chunky chips & hard poached eggs & quite bizarrely with salad! Ordinarily that wouldn't be enough for me to write off an eaterie but it was compounded by sub-standard hospitality. When you've shown someone to their table ask if they'd like a drink. I had to mention drinks after the waitress had taken our food order. I also had to ask for milk for my tea, neither did anyone come & ask if everything was okay. Don't get me wrong the ladies were pleasant enough but a professional waitering service was definitely absent. For a venue that's pitching itself as a gastro business it's got a lot of potential but failed to hit the...