"Having heard and read about this place I thought a meal was called for, being a lunch person two of us went on Saturday. Entering the restaurant we were greeted by a boom of a voice from a waiter some distance away calling, Hi guys?. Told him I had a booking, and we were shown to our table. asked if there was somewhere to hang our coats? but got no answer, so had to put them over the back of our chairs. Menus came, special and a la carte, we quickly made our minds up, no starter just a main of the a la carte. Fish for my friend and beef for me. great, started to have our drink then the waiter came back, the beef is cooked in a water bath he said so there will be about a 15 minutesdelay, firstly the waiter should have known that when we ordered, or better still it should have been printed on the menu. I asked if we could have either some olives or bread with olive oil and balsamic while we waited, off the waiter went and came back to inform me that firstly they had no bread????? it had not been baked that day and secondly they did not have olives???? but I could have nuts. NO thanks! a bottle of tap water was brought, I asked if we could have sparkling rather then the tap. The waiter came back with two plastic bottles of water. A cafe or chippy or take away yes plastic bottle, but a supposed five start restaurant NO. he placed them on the table, did not open them or asked if we wanted lemon or ice and went off. Now this place prides its self on locally sourced produce, the water was Buxton, where? if they are going to use plastic, was Wales' premier brand of Brecon Careg??? Food came beef was fab cooked as I asked for and tasted great, the veg was cold not impressed at all. Triple cooked chips were tasty but yet again a place trying to get to the next level in food, does not offer vinegar with the chips, just bad, but perhaps a local thing? The fish, my friend told me was excellent and he really loved it. half way through the meal the front doors open and a man with a huge trolly starts to come in delivering veg? the waiter quickly shows him the side door, but he still had to come in to the main room clattering around to deliver when people are eating, not impressive. Finished the meal ordered cheese so we had been in the place for about an hour when the waiter comes over to say that the card machine was not working so we would have to pay cash? but that there was a Barclays bank about 50 yards up the road. yet again WHAT? why not say when we got in before we sat down to enjoy a lunch so much easier. The cheese came bit cold, but as I always say cheese is one of the hardest things for any place to get right and I perfectly understand when its a bit cold. I had 4 crackers on my plate, the person with me had five, i looked at a lady on the next table and she had eight, whats the method behind this? Espresso came luke warm, as we are sitting there, the owner I presume? brings a bike into the main room parks against a wall to go for a ride later? yet another first for me to see. There were nine of us in total in the place, would it have hurt the owner to come and ask if all was well, I am sure the waiter had told him I was not happy, so yet another little detail thats was not good customer happiness is what makes a place tick. My bill came to £164, granted there was champagne etc in that, so not cheap, the waiter asked if all was ok, but it was said in a matter of fact way not really interested I felt, especially as the waiter knew I was not well pleased as it was. I am a firm believer in giving a chance to a place being aware what a bad review can do to a restaurant, so I always finish up with the same question, would I go again? I think the answer to this is NO and I don't like to say that!!!! One last thing please get rid of the bowl of goldfish in dirty water not a good look."
