Y Bryncynan, Morfa Nefyn — Restaurant in Wales

I recently holidayed in this lovely part of Wales and two different people recommended Y Bryncynan for lunch/dinner. Unfortunately I did not have a good experience here.

We visited on Father's Day and I was hoping for a lovely meal in a nice traditional Welsh pub to treat my husband. To start, they could not find my booking, even though I had booked online and paid the deposit. The guy who then showed us to our table had a bit of an attitude and beckoned us like we were bold children when we didn't hear him telling us to follow him. Okay, whatever.

We sat down and were delighted to see a vegetarian nut roast on the Sunday lunch menu, as well as some veggie options for kids. Unfortunately when the roasts arrived, they were both literally frozen in the middle and completely inedible. They were sent back (after having to go searching for staff - no one to be seen) and we then had to wait 20 minutes for a new dish - not ideal with two small fidgety kids in tow, but these things happen. The new plates arrived back with apologies, but this time with no roast potatoes. We were so hungry that we just ate what was there, which was fine - if not the most flavoursome food and absolutely drowned in oil. My son's meal, meanwhile, came without the peas that were meant to be included. The waitress claimed not to have heard me asking for peas, but I did order them and they were part of the meal, so...

Then the bill came: not one discounted item, not one thing taken off as a gesture of goodwill. I was actually quite surprised. I don't think I've ever sent a dish back to a kitchen in my life, but both mains were inedible and the replacements delayed (and incomplete!) The waitress then tried to fob us off saying that the potatoes were cooked in beef fat, which is not true - the menu listed potatoes to accompany the vegan nut roast, and they were on the first plates that were served to us. They clearly ran out of potatoes - why not just say that and apologise?

I was left in the awkward position of having to ask whether anything could be done with the bill, out of a point of principle. They then reluctantly gave us a 10% discount. TBH, I did not even care about having the mains comped - I would have been happy if they'd offered a bowl of ice cream for the kids, a dessert, a round of drinks - just some small gesture of goodwill to say 'Sorry, we messed up.' It does not strike me as an establishment that values its customers - or maybe they simply didn't care, because they knew by our accents that we were tourists.

In any case, I cannot recommend this pub and I will not...

I never write reviews and but this was a particularly bad experience. We arrived at this restaurant for an 8pm reservation and got seated. We never got given any menus, we had to go find these ourselves. When trying to order drinks we got told their was not any guiness or white wine, what pub does not have white wine?! So half the party ended up on soft drinks because of this. These then took about 10 minutes to come. When enquiring about food we got told 'I have to warn you the linguine doesn't come with any sauce', something to do with the pasta being vegan? This in itself seems very odd for a linguine to have no sauce, and when looking at the menu before booking it was this that had made us want to book as half the party wanted this so to get 'warned' that it is basically bland was disappointing. The fact that the waitress felt the need to tell us this shows that we are not the first to complain about this. After ordering the cutlery got dumped in the middle of the table in a pile with a bang and left us to set the table ourselves. We also did not get given any napkins which we also had to go find ourselves. When the food was served one meal got forgotten leaving one member of the party waiting another 10 minutes to get their food. We also asked for some butter for the corn and when the waiter came to give us this he said 'I'm just gonna throw this at you, hope you don't mind' and literally threw packs of butter at each person. The food itself was sub par, one tiny lettuce leaf on the burgers, a couple of small pieces of broccoli as the 'vegetables' with the steak pie, all the chicken burgers which are different on the menu the same but with a different sauce pot on the side. When finishing eating we got asked if we wanted anything else but it has already been made quite clear we were the last table and the staff wanted to go home. When one member of the party went outside he heard some staff members cheering that the other 8pm reservation hadn't turned up. When clearing the table the waiter already had his cap on ready to leave. The tables around us were getting cleaned for closing whilst we were eating. When we were leaving the staff were sat on their phones by the door and waved us bye from their seats. The staff themselves were pleasant enough but clearly lack training. They look unprofessional in shorts and caps, their customer service is not up to scratch. We felt unwelcome. I always tip at restaurants but I simply couldn't due to the experience. I never leave bad reviews but I feel for the sake of your business this...

The place Nice area, good facilities both indoors and outdoors (amazing playground for Kids). Very well organised for Covid. Good place to go with family or friends. You must book on its website. The manager takes it seriously. The experience We had a booking at 20:00 but we were nearby at 19:00. The manager kindly accepted us since some people reserved but they did not appear. We ordered some drinks and we got them quickly (except for a glass of water for the kid). The place was full and we were warned that food could take 30 minutes. Ok for us. After that, we were abandoned. After 45 min, we asked for our food and the manager told us that we were the second in the queue, 10 minutes. After 25 minutes, we asked again. One of the waitress told us that we had to wait for at least for 30 min. Well, we were sat just in front of the main door and I saw hundreds of dishes and drinks coming out. We complaint and another manager told us to wait 10 minutes..... more than one hour in the terrace for a Chilli con Carne, a pastrami sandwich and 3 fish fingers for the kid????? Not all the people ordered food. At 20:00 most of the customers were just drinking and I saw some people who ordered some food paying the drinks and going out. There were other families like us, just waiting with starving kids. What’s going on??? So we asked for the problem. If the issue was one of the dishes, we could change but we wanted something to eat. We got our food in less than two minutes. Cold, and you see the reality what you are eating. Most of pub’s dishes are already cooked and food just needs to be prepared. No value for money at all. At this point the reader may guess we did not order desserts and we did not take the one in the kid’s menu. I am aware of the current situation for pubs after Covid. Happy to help pubs but, management is key. I had the impression that orders were not under control. Also, that waiters and managers did not care take of the customers. You are invisible for waiters when you are waiting more than one hour for food. You must ask 4 times for a glass of water for a kid but you see hundreds of drinks coming out for others. Just a recommendation. I did not expect any discount or gift but I recommend it in these situations. At least something more...