Tir a Môr — Restaurant in Wales

We booked an afternoon tea for a baby shower, 8 weeks in advance, including one vegetarian option (pre-ordered at the time of booking and deposit). Unfortunately, the veggie option was completely forgotten, meaning we had to wait for it to arrive while everyone else already had their food.

When we were seated, the table was dirty and actually sticky. I had to ask staff for a cloth, but instead of cleaning it, a young member of staff just handed me the cloth to wipe it myself—not really the level of service you expect when booking something special.

Before we were seated, we waited in the bar area. We were told we couldn’t order drinks at the bar as it was table service only. The host was working alone and clearly stressed, which led to mistakes. I had to repeat our very simple order (2 pints of Peroni and 2 alcohol-free Peronis) three times, and it still came out wrong. The language barrier also made this quite difficult.

Once seated, they also forgot to bring the tea that should come with afternoon tea. We had to go and find someone to ask where it was. For the price charged, I was disappointed to find that only one small cup of tea or coffee per person is included.

The food itself wasn’t up to scratch either. The bread was stale, and the cakes tasted like a cheap multipack you’d defrost from Costco, not freshly made.

Overall, the experience was very disappointing, especially for a special occasion we booked so far in advance. The service, cleanliness, and food quality were all below...

Recently we booked a table at the Admiral and found that very few items on the menu were actually available, but the food was good and service was excellent. Prompted by this we booked again and had another meal at the Admiral, and the triple cooked chips we had last time were eagerly awaited. I ordered the haddock and triple cooked chips, that wasn't available on the previous visit and this time it was available. So i thought that everthing would run like clockwork, but i was in for a shock. The triple cooked chips that i had enjoyed so much before were replaced with what i could only describe as inedible part cooked potato wedges with skin on, when i asked about this i was told this was all they had. Had they told me this as i was ordering i would have chosen another item from the menu. To make matters worse, the fish was just dumped on top of the mushy peas coating the whole underside of the batter with wet mushy peas, so all i could taste was the offending peas over the fish. The so called 'chips' were discarded by all and placed on their own plate and all three portions amounted to one normal portion. Unfortunately as seen this was another poor showing for the Admiral at St Davids Hotel and Spa. PS., I have just cooked myself Youngs battered haddock with McCains crinkle cut oven chips, and had a better meal for only £2.50 and not had to pay £5...

Time for an updated review of Tir a Môr.

This is the hotel restaurant at the Voco. Now, normally I don’t go for hotel restaurants much. All a bit average.

This place though. This place is very different. A proper restaurant with a proper menu - seasonal dishes, really well cooked, served in decent surroundings.

I’ve eaten here maybe half a dozen times in the last year and it has always been excellent. High quality stuff.

Beautiful fish cake with poached egg to start and tender pink lamb on a bed of greens for main. Wonderful. The barra brith bread pudding for dessert a revelation. 😎

The staff here are very attentive and the service is excellent overall. Definitely worth a visit. Not cheap, but you wouldn’t expect it to be. Reasonable.

There’s a decent bar here as well if you’re after drinks. 1980s classic Grolsch is available on tap, alongside Asahi. Well done.

Nice terrace outside. Got a bit of an 80s vibe too. Had a few nice nights there. Unfortunately just past the time of year to enjoy it...