The Golden Lion — Restaurant in Wales

Booked a table for 7 people and left a note on the booking that it was for Elisse’s 15th birthday. Phoned a few days later to ask if I could drop off a balloon and some decs for the table, and a cake to be brought out later - they said absolutely no problem. I dropped these things off and apologised that it was a day early, but they said it was fine. We get there about 10 mins early- the table was laid but no sign of the balloon or confetti. I asked where this was and waiter says ‘do you want me to bring it out?’ He brings the balloon out still in the carrier bag, so I have to get it out at the table. He then says, ‘shall I bring the cake too?’ - loud enough for Elisse to hear. I tell him no thanks, we’ll have it later. Starters arrive fairly quickly, but mine is missing. 2 of us have pâté, and there is a huge bowl of pâté and 2 tiny pieces of bread. They ask if they could please have some butter and some more bread, and also mention that my starter is missing. My starter comes after about 5 mins, along with about a teaspoon of butter, and no bread. They wait 10 mins for someone to come past to ask again for the bread, they say they will bring it out. Another 10 mins goes by and they try to clear the plates, to which my mum says they are still waiting for some bread, and the waiter rolls his eyes and walks off. It eventually comes and they come and clear the plates lightning quick as soon as the pâté is finished. The mains come out within less than 5 mins. The manager brings a lot of the plates out and starts being quite effusive and overly friendly. Food was ok, we all finish, they come and clear our plates, asking if we want anything else, we say no. I decide that I’ll just go and get the cake and do it myself at the table, as I didn’t really want them to mess it up. I go and ask at reception for it, and a lady says she’ll go and get it. The manager asks if I want them to bring it out with the candle on and I say I’d rather not. I very calmly tell him that we were quite disappointed that none of the stuff I brought in was put on the table and it was a real shame, and he just sort of shrugs and says ‘I’m sorry about that’. I’m still waiting by the kitchen 5 mins later when the lady comes out, clearly at a loss as to where the cake has been put. I hear her ask a waiter where it is, and she tells me to sit down and she’ll bring it over. They bring it a few mins later. We get up to pay the bill at the desk, and whilst my mum is paying she mentions to the manager that it was really disappointing that they said they would decorate the table and nothing was done, and that it really spoiled the surprise for Elisse’s birthday - and he quite snarkily says ‘well I’ve apologised three times there’s nothing else I can do’. My mum tells him that it’s not really the attitude to have, and that we wouldn’t come back. He says ‘well that’s up to you’. My mum says (which she shouldn’t have!) ‘well we’ll just leave a review on Facebook then seeing as you’re not even bothered’ and again he very snarkily says ‘you do that’. As my mum is walking off he starts saying ‘oh boo hoo’ and waving his hands about - my mum turns back around and asks if he’s laughing at her, and he waves his hand in her face and tells her to ‘go away’. We were polite with them despite all the cock ups, and we simply wanted an apology for the fact they had been so disinterested in accommodating our booking, despite making out on the phone that it would be no problem. And ok, there wasn’t much the manager could do after the fact, but he was just so blasé about the whole thing and gave the most insincere and disingenuous apology I’ve ever heard. And I think the way he spoke to my mum as she was leaving is absolutely disgraceful. I think if they focused as much on staff training and customer service as they do their social media pages, then these sort of things wouldn’t happen. We were really looking forward to celebrating Elisse’s birthday, but I’m absolutely appalled, and I definitely would not recommend the...

I sent the following complaint to them last year with no reply from them. Not great and such a shame. We used to go there all the time but haven't since.

I had my 40th birthday on the 3rd Dec. Due to Covid we weren’t able to plan a party or anything too large and having been there several times before and completely loved it, we felt in safe hands to book a meal for all my closest family and friends to celebrate my birthday. My husband booked a table for us all and was informed they needed meals pre-ordered and a deposit paid for all people which we happily obliged to. My husband made it pretty clear that it was a special occasion and was called several times to confirm numbers and choices. Upon arrival my guests were shown to a table. First impressions were that it wasn’t great. Right by the kitchen serving doors and tills and could see some lovely more personal tables elsewhere but not a deal breaker. They then realized that the seating was wrong and 2 short. Upon alerting the team they brought over a much smaller pretty substandard table to add onto the end. Luckily two children were in attendance so we could pop them on the end and they wouldn’t mind. Had it been two adults this wouldn’t have worked. Starters came out a little while after which were lovely, some of my party had been to the bar to order drinks at the start. My husband and I were not offered drinks at any point. I called someone over and asked to order drinks which after quite some time finally came out. We had finished our starters by this point with no water or drinks to enjoy during. The lady who served us then decided to put all the drinks (all alcoholic) down on the end table in front of our 6 year olds. Not a great start. At no time during the next hour was anyone offered any more drinks, ask how we were or managed. We then waited for the main meals to come out, all but two arrived. A burger for my friend and a salad for my Uncle. We waited for an appropriate time before I called our server over who immediately went to the kitchen to find them. It was evident that neither had been cooked. Bear in mind we had pre ordered these and paid a deposit for all. We then had to awkwardly eat our meals while two people sat there hungry and wait for their meals. After another considerable time the burger arrived…still no salad. Again evident that this hadn’t been cooked and was now being managed. By the time it was nearly ready we had all finished our main meals. My Uncle embarrassed asked for it to be boxed up to take home as he wasn’t prepared to eat his meal alone. For the food itself, my husband my best friend both ordered a fillet steak med-rare. It was completely charred on the outside, basically burned and so was my friends. It was that bad he felt rather unwell as he had a charcoal taste in his mouth. My uncle, hungry and frustrated then left with his wife and son and the rest of us thought we’d give it another shot and have our desserts. Considering what had happened so far we would have expected a quick service and offers of drinks but no, again we waited for a considerable amount of time before they were brought out. 1 of the orders were wrong (brownie instead of ice cream) and my daughters ice cream was forgotten. After she burst into tears we did our best to make her feel better and asked the kitchen to get hers. Needless to say, what was the first time since Covid that all my friends and family had been in the same room, plus my birthday, the night was awkward, uncomfortable and really disappointing. We didn’t even take a picture as we were too concerned with the meals and chasing staff down. I can only hope things have improved since their refurb, but we wont know as i'd rather spend money...

Visited the golden lion on a Wednesday in November for my grandma's 98th birthday lunch. My grandma had stopped by for lunch sometime before our visit on a drive back from hospital.. she chose to have her birthday lunch here as she had enjoyed her previous visit. However, her second visit was very much disappointing. My grandma is very frail and uses a walker frame. We were seated at a table in a far corner which had little space for my grandma to safely and conveniently seat herself so we requested to be seated at a vacant table in the middle which had better access for her. My aunt had asked a member of staff if they could keep my grandma's birthday cake in the kitchen as it was a surprise for after the end of our meal. Ordering drinks was straight forward and they were delivered to our table promptly. We ordered starters and main courses for the four of us. Some of the cutlery hadnt been cleaned thoroughly and had to be replaced. The starters took approximately 45 minutes to arrive. We asked a couple of times when they would be arriving and both times we were told they would be about five minutes. The starters I'd say were not of the best quality and the scallops did not smell at all nice. The plates were cleared.. we were not asked if we had enjoyed the starters and neither at any point were we asked if we wanted more drinks. My grandma got to feeling very cold as the radiator she was sat next to had either gone off or had not been on at all so I looked at the thermostat to see if I could turn it up for her but was unable to do it so I went to find a member of staff to help, a woman whom I'm guessing could have been a manager had a fiddle around with the radiator with no luck, she disappeared and never came back. I put grandma's coat over her to keep her warm. Approximately 40 mins after the starters had arrived and asking how long the mains would be.. the mains finally arrived. My grandma had Caesar salad, it was ok apart from the croutons were rock hard and inedible. I had the slow braised lamb which looked and tasted inedible.. at £24.95 I expected much better than this. The green vegetables were overcooked. As soon as we finished our mains we had to get ready to leave because my grandma was too tired and cold from the long wait time on the food. We asked a member of staff if we could have the cake back and we received it with no apology on the wait time. As we walked through the restaurant not one member of staff said thank you, hope you enjoyed your meal, please come back again.. no niceities or acknowledgement that we were even there. There were three members of staff stood behind a counter and as my uncle walked by he said thank you to them, one of them lifted his head and just said thanks but that was it. Walking through the bar area to the exit there sat a man and a woman with 4 dogs. The dogs had been drinking from water bowls and there was alot of water on the floor so we tried to manoeuvre my grandma safely around so she didn't slip. The woman tried to keep the dogs out of the way but the man just sat there with a grim look on his face. The only nice thing we could say about this place is that it was nicely decorated with Christmas decorations. The whole dining experience was appalling. Not once were we asked if the food was ok or if we wanted more drinks. And to have to leave without surprising my grandma with her birthday cake was very disappointing. We did tell her about her cake before we left but she just wanted to leave.. and...