The Stores — Restaurant in Wales

We were looking forward to a celebration birthday meal to be sadly disappointed. We decided to have a drink at the bar before going in to our table. We waited to be served for a while and eventually asked and we ordered 2 cocktails. Our partners were ignored and we had to ask several times before they got served. Our cocktails arrived and tasted very good. We both used straws to drink them and then suddenly my friend felt something in her mouth and spat it on to her hand and it was a shard of glass. On further inspection we found two more larger pieces of glass at the bottom of her glass. She became worried that she may have accidentally swallowed some glass and we wondered if we should call medical advice. We decided also to let the owner know as we were concerned that the glass may be in other glasses as well. We noticed all the glasses had been stored right away up so the chances of a smashed glass ending up in more than one glass was fairly high. We found the owner and explained what had happened and showed him the broken glass we had found in our drink. He was apologetic, but showed no real concern about the seriousness of the situation and just said he would tell the bar staff. He looked very uncomfortable, but offered no support or care. He was eager to get away from us and ushered us into the restaurant and took away the glass and broken glass. My friend was scared and felt she should have taken a photo of the evidence just in case she ended up with any medical emergency. We asked to see the glass again but this was denied. We sat in the restaurant in shock and the owner came over and asked us if we were ready to order our meal and did mumble another apology, again with little genuine feeling or concern. We eventually decided to leave without eating a meal as my friend was still distressed and we were all worried. We were all disappointed and saddened by the attitude we had encountered. Mistakes happen and accidents happen, but they must be dealt with in an acceptable way. Clearly there is no plan or strategy to address negative or potentially dangerous incidents so please beware! Thankfully my friend has today had no I'll effects and let's hope that continues 🙏. It's a real shame the owner did not care enough to ask our names and show some interest and care to see if she was ok. We shall think twice before going back which is a real shame as it is lovely to support new ventures in the village and would urge the owners to re think their customer service strategies and have a proper response in line for similar...

Really hoping this place can improve. Been 3 times now hoping that I previously just got unlucky but I can safely say that the service sucks. Zero personality or attentiveness and you just get ignored when you walk in regardless of whether you have a table booked or not. The front door is in full view of their bar where there is usually a staff member making drinks but nobody ever acknowledges you or says “someone will be with you in a moment” or anything so you just stand there for ages wondering what to do. When they’re finally ready to acknowledge your existence there’s no politeness or apology for you waiting. The pizzas have gone down hill unfortunately. They were good when it opened but the love is gone. The dough is flat and has no volume to it. It’s like eating cardboard. Execution is bad and just seems thrown together. It just misses the mark. The venue is really lovely and the outside area has been done really nicely. Been to the deli a few times too and it looks great and the stuff behind the display cabinets is actually quite nice like the sausage rolls and stuff. But the staff don’t look like they want to be there. They don’t look after the tables so there’s no sugars for the coffees and the napkins aren’t topped up etc. the coffee is average. there’s a large young man who works in there who was also sometimes on the outside bar during the summer who has the worst people skills in the world. He’s just rude. No idea why he’s there he clearly hates it. The female staff members seem much nicer. If this place brushes up on the basics and learns to have a bit more attention to detail then it could be amazing. But at the moment it’s bang average and it’s not cheap enough to be so. It’s got the right idea but it just falls short and I’ve left pissed off 3 times now so probably won’t be going back. Such a shame. Great branding, great idea and so...

I read the positive reviews about this place and as we were staying close by thought I'd try it for breakfast... I walked in and thought oooh, now this looks nice! Approached the counter where there were two people making drinks, both saw me, neither acknowledged me so after a very long 3 minutes of them ignoring my presence I interrupted them and said, sorry to interrupt but I just need to know whether to just take a table or I need to ask if I can be seated... they told me I could sit anywhere. I sat at the table but no menus ... not a problem, I'm facing the boards behind the counter so I can see what's on sale. I waited 5 minutes for somebody to come to my table to take my order - by now there are four staff behind the counter. I get up and go back to the counter and again, after waiting to be served I asked for a bacon bap and what ensued was like a scene from The League of Gentlemen! Oh we dont do that here!... I could let you have a croissant with ham, cheese and bechemel though?... or a mortadella ciabatta with egg mayo?.... erm... you can't just do me a bacon bap with HP sauce??... No, sorry were not that kind of establishment. Needless to say, I swiftly left, went round the corner to Lola's where I was warmly welcomed and served what I wanted and enjoyed every morsel! So, if you want to be ignored, scoffed at and generally made to feel like you dont belong give The Stores your hard earned cash and be grateful for the privilege!

NB - I gave the food a 5* because it did look delicious however, I didn't actually eat any of...