The Mine Neath Town — Restaurant in Wales

A total disaster from start to finish.

Having seen the social media posts online, my friend and i immediately made a reservation for the next available Friday. Throughout the week, the anticipation was building and come Friday the night it was bursting from the seams.

Off we set a 1 hour drive straight to the heart of neath Town. The closer we got the more the mood and excitement grew.

When we first arrived, there was a couple lnfront of us having an issue locating their reservation. Thankfully, we didn't have that problem.

We were promptly taken to our seats by a welcoming member of staff who took our drink request i had a Madri and my friend a Coke. Sadly, this is where it started to fall apart at the seams. The drinks took about 10 minutes to arrive and by that time we had already placed our food order, we both got the 'special mixed grill' Finally the drinks arrived, the Madri was a decent pint but unfortunately the coke was tasteless almost like a pathetically browned soda water.

The wait for the food was quite long, although that could have easily been excused if food was as we were expecting, but boy, we were in for one of the biggest let downs I've had dining out.

When the food arrived, it was impressively displayed on a long, thin piece of slate.

Immediately, you could notice the sad, grey colored steak lying on top of the fries.

The steak was cold, dull, and tastless. Accompanying the steak was a small selection of ribs, the meat was tender and juicy, but as the theme of our night would go, it too was tastless. The southern fried chicken offered a little hope. The two smaller pieces were perfectly seasoned and juicey, but unfortunately, yet again, the breast was overcooked, dry, and sad.

Now on to the good stuff. The fries were golden, crispy, and seasoned with care and attention! Finally, a positive! Next, we had the onion rings, again crispy fragrant and tasty.

Having voiced our concerns after the meal to the waitress she informed what I believe was either the owner /manager who in all fairness listened to our criticism, told us he would pass the feed back on to the kitchen staff and offered us roughly 33% of the bill off. He was extremely kind and helpful.

He is the only reason this isn't a one start review.

I don't expect this review to single handily ruin this restaurants reputation, and I wouldn't want that, but having sat and thought about leaving a review, I felt as though it was only fair to share my experience.

Food 0️⃣ (For the price advertised you just expect so much more than some nice chips and onion rings)

Price ⭐️⭐️

Variety ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Service ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Seating ⭐️⭐️

Atmosphere...

I ordered takeaway from here and collected myself. We had been looking forward to this for a while after seeing all the reviews online. All I can say is that it was a pile of stodge! What a disappointment and an expensive one at that! We had 1 portion of salt and pepper chicken, and 1 portion of half salt and pepper chicken and half butter chicken. I will admit that it was my fault that I didn't read the salt and pepper chicken was soaked in a sauce, and it really is completely drowned in a very over powering sauce. But as for the butter chicken it was completely overcooked, dry and hard to the point it was inedible. I complained and even offered to return it, but I was told that they had checked with 5 other customers that had ordered that night and it was fine! I run my own business and this is not the way I would deal with my customers. The salt and pepper chicken came with a huge pile of fries which were also completely doused in the sauce, and a portion of rice. For some unknown reason the half butter chicken had only chips and no rice. Basically we paid £18 each for a bed of chips with a portion of chicken thrown over it, which I can get far better quality salt and pepper chicken from my local Chinese takeaway for £6!! Final conclusion is that this seems a bit of a novel place, where food is rushed, slapped together and people seem to appreciate quantity over quality, which it certainly isn't quality.

EDIT: NOWHERE in my complaint did I threaten to write a review!! I will post my complaint here if you would like me to. I totally understand what bad reviews can do to a small business and would never want to harm a business. I hardly ever write reviews, but the way you dealt with my complaint by basically telling me I was lying about the butter chicken, as others had said it was okay, was unacceptable to me. I thought about writing a review for a couple of days, and thought it's only fair that I should be able to air my feelings. I am a very nice person thank you. And the "small" cake business to which you are referring is just my sideline/hobby. My husband has run his own successful business for the last 28 years, and we have hundreds of happy returning customers. PLEASE reread my message of complaint! And my review! I admitted I made a mistake about the sauce on the chicken, but I still feel it was very overpowering and the food is not worth the money. I was more annoyed about being called a liar about the butter chicken which again was inedible due to being dry...

📌 Wayne's Eats - Local South Wales Food Blogger (Instagram/Facebook Review)

There is one restaurant that I keep returning to, year after year and a restaurant that has never let me down 👏

📍@themineneathtown

That's right party people I am talking about the one and only The Mine, on this particular visit I am at the Neath Town restaurant ⛏️

➡️ Today's Menu:

🧆 Rustic Meatballs

Beef Meatballs cooked in rich tomato passata.

🐟 Crispy Battered Sardines

Sardines battered until golden and crispy, served with a garlic and herb sauce.

🍔 The Pizza Burger

Two giant beef patties, layers of melted cheese, spicy pepperoni, Parma ham, tomato passata, brioche bun and served with fries.

🥩 The Beef Cob

Giant fluffy cob roll filled with chive mash and and slow cooked beef, cooked in rich beef gravy and served with triple cooked chips.

🍰 Lotus Biscoff Cheesecake

🍫 Mint Aero Brownie

🍽️ Review:

As I said at the start I've got a long history with this business and I can honestly say this is one of my favourite restaurants, it's the sort of food that made me want to become a Food Blogger in the first place! Every dish is bloody incredible! 👌

I don't know why I ordered starters as I knew our mains were gonna be massive but they just looked so good though, the Rustic Meatballs in particular were delicious 😋

Our mains were just insane...I opted for the Pizza Burger and this is as amazing as it sounds, it was a big beefy, cheesy and messy burger that ticked all the boxes!

Although my burger was incredible, Hayley decided on the Beef Cob and well this was just out of this world good! This was the winner of the night! Super tender beef cooked with a rich gravy in a fluffy cob filled with chive mash. It was ridiculously good!

No surprise here, as always highly...