This establishment poses as a restaurant but it does not have a chef - it has a giant freezer and a button pusher.
We were enticed (2 Sep '09) by its cosy looking interior and the lamb shank. We were in wales, after all. But on closer inspection of the menu, once seated, I became suspicious of the ready-meal like combos, so asked if the shank was bought in. It was. How about the steak & ale pie on the specials board? Incredibly, it also was bought in, as evidenced when a plate of dense, vegetable-fat laden pastry and thick, shiny gravy arrived at the table next to us. I asked what wasn't bought in, ready to be blasted in a microwave. The soup and the steak was all. At least the waitress knew and was honest about it. The soup (broccoli and stilton) was decent enough, if served with one of those polystyrene, processed, par-baked baguettes. The steak was textureless, dripping with chip-infused oil and covered with 2mm of cheap, acidic table salt. Clearly it had been DEEP FRIED. The shank, which my wife ordered, was a vile sight of bone and knackered flesh doused in a pool of distgustingly sweet, chemical laden, thick floury sauce.
The accompanying vegetables had been microwaved to the point of no return, the broccoli barely able to support its own weight. The red cabbage was so rubbery that even the enormous dose of salt and vinegar couldn't rescue it.
Buying-in lamb shanks in wales and then charging £14? Ready-meals on the specials board for £12? New Zealand mussels? Deep fried f**king steaks? With two meagre kids meals and a bottle of their cheapest house red, we handed over £67 to have someone snip open a few vac-pac bags of mass produced fodder.
Tiffins is an insult to cooking, to food, and to Wales - a nasty attempt to fleece the fleeting tourist. Our waitress was its only redeeming feature, and the poor woman looked thoroughly demoralised. read more