Y Bwyty. Eating place — Restaurant in Wales

Many, MANY years ago, when I was a lad, and dinosaurs roamed the earth, there was a chain of coffee houses called 'Kardomah' presided over by diminutive ladies of uncertain age all clad in black and white waitress costumes. They were fearsome creatures - caustic and acerbic, and not to be faced lightly, or frivolously. The Kardomah shops, like many things born in the brutal years of the second world war, gradually faded from human ken and were replaced by less demanding establishments, where a more casual attitude prevailed when serving afternoon tea.

It appears that those clever Japanese fellows have been able to recreate a passable facsimile of the original Kardomah waitress ( either that, or someone bought a job lot secondhand) and equipped an unsuspecting Mid Wales tea shop accordingly.

EDIT: for the benefit of the trading post owner, who graciously responded to me.

First, all ow me to apologise- you are of course, quite correct. The shop IS in South East Wales. I thought we were further 'up' when we stopped.

Second, the post is only anonymous because, for some reason, Google have never permitted me to use my real name. They seem to think "Percy Parts" is a joke name.

And finally - you will please note that I made no disparaging remarks concerning the restaurant itself ( the shop itself is delightful, and the food was very pleasant. My ire was directed at the two or three servers who had obviously had a VERY bad day-and were making sure that everyone knew about it.

I note that your response is not that of the concerned owner that their customer has had a bad experience, but rather that of the affronted owner who is outraged by criticism.

Now, the point of reviews such as these is to make other people aware of your experiences in an establishment. So there's not really much use in pulling punches, is there? Had the experience been limited to one server, I would doubtless have put it down to experience and let the thing go - but with similar trysts among three of the servers, one starts to wonder about the management style......

Might I suggest you...

The service was a total disappointment this morning: on two occasions, other customers' orders were delivered to our table; our table was so unstable that it shook and spilled the coffee mugs every time I cut into the slice of toast; the coffee mugs looked dated and not particularly clean - maybe because both of them had fresh coffee stains on them when they were brought to our table; the cuttlery looked dated and the knife was quite blunt; two customers in their 60's were addressed as 'Guys'; is that linguistics laziness or simply poor communication skills? it may be standard practice for this place, but why would you bring the bill if it has not been requested? the staff presentation and/or dress code was particularly poor - one of them was wearing a white colour t-shirt, which didn't look clean or pressed; one member of staff was wearing dark colour trainers whilst another one wore white colour trainers; one was wearing a long black colour skirt whilst another member of staff wore something like a black colour pair of cycling shorts and a black t-shirt. None of the staff looked smart or professional; at some point, there were no less than four members of staff congregated around the POS machine, all looking confused; and there were times when members of staff didn't look they were too sure as to what table(s) they had to take the orders to; the food (scrambled eggs with salmon on toast) didn't excel in taste or presentation - I was not asked whether I wanted butter on the slice of toast, so it came buttered, which I didn't enjoy. The eggs were bland and there was no seasoning at all.

The positives: the place is dog friendly; and the order was taken and cooked quite promptly.

We are not...

Update: ⭐⭐ and that's being generous!

Walked in and asked if there was a table... After being ignored by people traipsing past with umbrellas, we were pointed through to the back. Once there we wandered about a bit, as if we were searching for the baby Jesus. Eventually we were gifted with a third chair and plonked at our table.

The menu looked quite good, a nice range of veggie/vegan options - very unusual. So we ordered off the menu and waited for our food. I was disappointed that at 12.30ish they had run out of egg mayo, but I changed to a cheese sandwich instead.

Whilst waiting, we got to hear the staff shout at each other and also nearly die when a plate was smashed into the counter next to me in a manner that meant something was wrong with it... How dare a customer question something.

There were a few more dramatic drops while we were there... Must cost a fortune!

So lunch arrived. My companions had a half vegan breakfast and a fish finger sandwich. I, on the other hand had my now cheese sandwich. I can't complain about the cheese, there was plenty of pre-sliced generic supermarket cheese in it but absolutely nothing in the way of holding it in the bread. I know times are hard, but a bit of butter/spread surely can't cost that much.

I ate my dry cheese sandwich as I was hungry. It took a while and thankfully I had a hot drink to help.

If you like a bit of drama with your lunch, like EastEnders when it used to be good, then pop in. Don't forget your hardhat!

⭐⭐⭐⭐ only because we got there at the end of the day and they were packing up around us. Not their fault, they have probably had a very busy day and just want to go home! Really amazing vegan lemon cake, and nice coffee too....