The Old Swan Tea Rooms — Restaurant in Wales

What a terrible experience. The manager is extremely rude, both to her staff and to customers. The waitress on the till asked for assistance from her, to which she was told very abruptly, “I’m busy” - although she appeared to be the opposite! After ordering a sausage roll and two jacket potato’s, the sausage roll was soggy and inedible, we asked to pay the extra and upgrade to a third jacket potato. The manager proceeded to become very defensive regarding the sausage roll as it had apparently been baked in-house (something I probably wouldn’t have admitted to considering the quality), however as the source of the sausage roll made no difference to the fact it was inedible, we apologised if we had offended her and requested for a second time to pay the extra for a jacket potato. This went around in circles for a while, with the manager not listening to a word we said. Eventually the manager aggressively told us she “didn’t have time for this conversation” and began to walk off. Not only were we shocked, but the poor waitress on the till was clearly mortified by her behaviour, and we had to have a full refund and leave. I have never come across such appalling customer service. After leaving we thought perhaps we just caught her on a bad day, but having read other reviews it appears this was a normal day and the manager is just rude and abrupt in general. Luckily we found a lovely cafe just up the road which I would...

I should have read the reviews on Trip Advisor before going there. Arrived at 4.30 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon; told by a grumpy member of staff that the kitchens closed and that there was only counter service. Fair enough, we only wanted tea and a cake in an amenable environment. The tea arrived accompanied by a micro slice of chocolate shortbread (which cost £2.00). About 4.40, went to ask for more hot water. Miss stroppy was busy disposing of tea slops into the hand wash basin (hygiene regulations?); thought that she had not seen me waiting so attracted her attention, told to "wait a minute". 4.45 another member of staff commenced moving chairs and brushing floor at adjacent table, an operation which seemed to necessitate a lot of noisy banging of brush on skirting board. Politely pointed out that she was disturbing us and asked her to wait until we had finished. Discovered that this establishment had another stroppy member of staff! Told that cafe closed at 5.00 and that she had her jobs to do. Pointed out that it as 4.45 and she did at least move to another part of the floor. Not at all a pleasant, relaxed experience . I though that the days were past when business owners could afford to employ staff who had no idea of what it entails to work in a service business and not to be grumpy to the people who are ultimately paying...

Lovely tea rooms with excellent food and great service. The problem for me is that they are cash only payments. Even though there is a cash point a few yards away, that is not the point. For example, if I want to buy something for£3:99, I would have to draw out £10 in order to pay for it leaving me with a cash surplus I don't need. Most cash points only issue a minimum of £10. Gone are the days of expensive card machines for businesses, with high monthly fees and large percentages taken from sales, with many being able to be bought for about £30 and no contract, the charges only being as little as about 2% each sale. This tea room needs to bring itself into the 23rd century as far as payments are concerned. It already does fantastic trade and may not feel the need to change, but it could do so much more if it offered...