This is exactly what I like, scrub that I LOVE it!! The Olympia in Tredegar is perfect!
Visited today, like Groves in Swindon, not exceptionally busy, but busy enough. Ordered burger and drink meals all round, lovely manager/duty manager, working, polite, helpful and friendly. Food arrived quickly (10-15minutes) hot, fresh and yummy! Cost less than £20 for all of us. Not bad at all.
Staff checked in with us soon after we received our food, asking if all was ok.
The Olympia is a lovely venue, its clean, cosy and comfy. The staff are happy, friendly and helpful. The food is well priced, its well cooked, hot and tasty. Lots and lots of choice on the menu. Good drinks selection, from what I could see.
All in all, the kind of venue that should be a flagship for Wetherspoons, maybe they could send the lot from The Groves in Swindon to Tredegar for training in customer service???
Monday 25 October 2010
Saturday 23 October 2010
Lazy Days Cafe, Ogmore St, Abergavenny
Visited on a very rainy Saturday afternoon. I can honestly say it was a unique experience. You be the judge of if that is a good thing or not!
We went in, found a table, Hubs and I, two children. Sat down, interrupted by a staff member leaning over to snatch a spray bottle of cleaning fluid off the table. She returned a few minutes later and proceeded to clean the table. It would seem we interrupted her cleaning as she was busy on another task maybe?
Looked at menu, given about 5 minutes before we were approached by a young man, who took our order. Must be a clever chap as no pad, he memorised the whole order and got it right!. Had to change my order when we realised that the meal I wanted (burger) was cooked on the same grill as mushrooms, to which I am highly allergic. Instead ordered curry and chips.
Food arrived quickly, about ten minutes, considering that the cafe was extremely busy, this was quite exceptional.
The food ... hmmm well this is where the true uniqueness of the place enters the equation. The childrens meals were great (@ £3.90 for two sausages and a scoop of chips, plus drink)
Hubs meal, was erm unusual. Bacon that tasted not of bacon but fried onions, 'hand cut chips' which were simply a potato cut in four or in some cases half, and fried. They closely resembled roast potatos!
Mine was simply strips of chicken in a curry sauce, no onions, fruit, and little flavour. Again the meal was accompanied by 'hand cut chips' which were ... unique!! I also found a lump of cremated bacon nestling in the chips... good thing I am not a veggie lol.
Overall, service was absolutely top notch. Polite, friendly and fast. (Highly amusing that the staff were sporting t shirts advertising a scaffolding firm). Food was not to my taste, or hubs for that matter. However they do seem to be to a lot of other peoples taste as they were very very busy. If I were to return, I would have to be sure that the items on the grill/hotplate were cooked and stored seperately to each other. Not only for people like myself who suffer allergies, but also vegetarians.
Sad because I would want to go back for the service alone!! Top Staff and obviously happy in their jobs, which is refreshing :)
We went in, found a table, Hubs and I, two children. Sat down, interrupted by a staff member leaning over to snatch a spray bottle of cleaning fluid off the table. She returned a few minutes later and proceeded to clean the table. It would seem we interrupted her cleaning as she was busy on another task maybe?
Looked at menu, given about 5 minutes before we were approached by a young man, who took our order. Must be a clever chap as no pad, he memorised the whole order and got it right!. Had to change my order when we realised that the meal I wanted (burger) was cooked on the same grill as mushrooms, to which I am highly allergic. Instead ordered curry and chips.
Food arrived quickly, about ten minutes, considering that the cafe was extremely busy, this was quite exceptional.
The food ... hmmm well this is where the true uniqueness of the place enters the equation. The childrens meals were great (@ £3.90 for two sausages and a scoop of chips, plus drink)
Hubs meal, was erm unusual. Bacon that tasted not of bacon but fried onions, 'hand cut chips' which were simply a potato cut in four or in some cases half, and fried. They closely resembled roast potatos!
Mine was simply strips of chicken in a curry sauce, no onions, fruit, and little flavour. Again the meal was accompanied by 'hand cut chips' which were ... unique!! I also found a lump of cremated bacon nestling in the chips... good thing I am not a veggie lol.
Overall, service was absolutely top notch. Polite, friendly and fast. (Highly amusing that the staff were sporting t shirts advertising a scaffolding firm). Food was not to my taste, or hubs for that matter. However they do seem to be to a lot of other peoples taste as they were very very busy. If I were to return, I would have to be sure that the items on the grill/hotplate were cooked and stored seperately to each other. Not only for people like myself who suffer allergies, but also vegetarians.
Sad because I would want to go back for the service alone!! Top Staff and obviously happy in their jobs, which is refreshing :)
Big Pit, Blaenavon, Wales
When my first sons were young, this was always one of their favourite days out when visiting grandparents in the area. They have all grown up now, and having married again I now have two young children. I have been waiting a long time for them to reach the right height for them to be able to go (1 metre min).
Finally the day arrived and off we set. Now one of the best bits about Big Pit is that its totally free! Part of the Welsh National Museums, supported by the Welsh Assembly and donations from visitors.
We arrived bright and early, second tour of the day. In addition to hubs, the two littlies and I, we were joined by a small group from a local school, and one other couple. Our guide was chatty, cheerful and kept everybody laughing the whole way through. The underground tour is the first part, donning helmets, batteries and lights, we make our way to the contraband area, where visitors hand over lighters, ciggies, mobile phones and anything else with a battery. These items are placed into bags and locked away til the end of the tour. This is due to safety reasons. I asked the guide if I had to get in the bag, as I had a battery hehe ( I have an ICD also known as pacemaker with aded clout) but was assured I was safe ... well actually he joked that it was fine, the explosion would be internal rofl.
Next we moved into the lift, and descended into the mine. From here we were shown all the different parts of the mine as well as being told the history of the pit itself and mining in general. The only part of the tour that I would warn younger visitors about is when the guide asks everyone to switch off their lights to demonstrate how dark it was for children in the days they worked down there. Littlest man was not impressed of this part at all!!
After the tour, we were taken back to the surface, and shown other areas, on ground level. The guide then suggested we make our way to the Mining Gallery. This part is new since I last visited with my older children, so a whole new experience for me as well as the children. The Mining Gallery is a cinema type experience, sitting in the first area, visitors are shown a potted history of the mining industry, then told by the 'virtual guide' to move to the next area. In the second area, another warning to those of nervous disposition, there is a loud simulated explosion, then we moved on again to the final area. It is hard to describe the experience, but it really does deserve a visit!
We rounded the visit off with a meal in the on site cafe. The food is good, hot and well cooked, though possibly a little pricey for the portion size. The service is not the best I have encountered, but then again its far from being the worst!
Overall, a fantastic day out, lots of hand ons experiences for children and adults alike, and of course its mainly undercover, very useful in the South Wales Valleys
Finally the day arrived and off we set. Now one of the best bits about Big Pit is that its totally free! Part of the Welsh National Museums, supported by the Welsh Assembly and donations from visitors.
We arrived bright and early, second tour of the day. In addition to hubs, the two littlies and I, we were joined by a small group from a local school, and one other couple. Our guide was chatty, cheerful and kept everybody laughing the whole way through. The underground tour is the first part, donning helmets, batteries and lights, we make our way to the contraband area, where visitors hand over lighters, ciggies, mobile phones and anything else with a battery. These items are placed into bags and locked away til the end of the tour. This is due to safety reasons. I asked the guide if I had to get in the bag, as I had a battery hehe ( I have an ICD also known as pacemaker with aded clout) but was assured I was safe ... well actually he joked that it was fine, the explosion would be internal rofl.
Next we moved into the lift, and descended into the mine. From here we were shown all the different parts of the mine as well as being told the history of the pit itself and mining in general. The only part of the tour that I would warn younger visitors about is when the guide asks everyone to switch off their lights to demonstrate how dark it was for children in the days they worked down there. Littlest man was not impressed of this part at all!!
After the tour, we were taken back to the surface, and shown other areas, on ground level. The guide then suggested we make our way to the Mining Gallery. This part is new since I last visited with my older children, so a whole new experience for me as well as the children. The Mining Gallery is a cinema type experience, sitting in the first area, visitors are shown a potted history of the mining industry, then told by the 'virtual guide' to move to the next area. In the second area, another warning to those of nervous disposition, there is a loud simulated explosion, then we moved on again to the final area. It is hard to describe the experience, but it really does deserve a visit!
We rounded the visit off with a meal in the on site cafe. The food is good, hot and well cooked, though possibly a little pricey for the portion size. The service is not the best I have encountered, but then again its far from being the worst!
Overall, a fantastic day out, lots of hand ons experiences for children and adults alike, and of course its mainly undercover, very useful in the South Wales Valleys
The Grove Company Inn, Fleet St. Swindon (Wetherspoons)
We visited Groves one weekday morning, myself, hubs and three friends. Our aim was to have a treat as all the children had returned to school. So we headed in for breakfast.
It was a TOTAL nightmare from start to finish! It was not very busy, probably only 6 tables occupied, but we had to wait for almost an hour for our food to arrive. The wait would not of been an issue, if only the food had been, well appetising, hot, cooked, unburnt .... we each had two fried eggs, each of us had one that was so overcooked that it could easily of been used as a frisbee. I have never before seen a fried egg that needed a steak knife to cut it! The second egg was so underdone the white was still runny. The bacon had been flash fried, and we were most surprised that it didn't run off the plate. Sausages were cooked .... but cold ... as was the rest of the meal. We were also missing tomato's, pointed this out to the bar staff, who went off to get them, returning a few minutes later to inform us that they had no tomatoes, but we could have an extra egg/mushroom or black pudding of we wanted. This was said in a very stroppy tone, well pardon is for wanting what we had paid for! Despite me reminding the barstaff that I am extremely allregic to mushrooms, she still presented me with an egg nestling next to a mushroom.... so that was something else I was unable to eat.
The toast went to a whole new level in incompetence and poor 'cooking' skills. We were handed a large plate full of it, the outer pieces were toasted one side , the pieces in the middle were not toasted at all, and were in fact ... bread.
Feeling thouroughly fed up by now, we approached the bar and asked to speak to the duty manager. She was busy in the kitchen apparently, but we were ofered a cup of tea whilst we waited. I pointed out there were five of us, the bar girl totally ignored me and presented us with one cup of tea ....
Eventually the duty supervisor arrived, she was rude, aggresive and stroppy in the extreme. She blamed it all on a staff member turning up for work in tears and refusing to work. If that was the case why not either a) send her home and ring another member of staff to come in or b) inform the customers to expect a long wait, giving them an option of refund if needed.
After my friend continually pushed the point for some ten minutes, we were very begrudgingly given a refund.
Sadly, I am not prepared to risk a second visit to test if this was merely a one off, especially as a comment from another friend, who also happened to visit the Groves that morning was ' well its never good but its not usually quite that bad' Sad when a town centre venue, that could have such a huge trade from local offices, is measured simply by the degree of badness. Wetherspoons who own this venue along with two others in Swindon town centre would be well advised to investigate!
It was a TOTAL nightmare from start to finish! It was not very busy, probably only 6 tables occupied, but we had to wait for almost an hour for our food to arrive. The wait would not of been an issue, if only the food had been, well appetising, hot, cooked, unburnt .... we each had two fried eggs, each of us had one that was so overcooked that it could easily of been used as a frisbee. I have never before seen a fried egg that needed a steak knife to cut it! The second egg was so underdone the white was still runny. The bacon had been flash fried, and we were most surprised that it didn't run off the plate. Sausages were cooked .... but cold ... as was the rest of the meal. We were also missing tomato's, pointed this out to the bar staff, who went off to get them, returning a few minutes later to inform us that they had no tomatoes, but we could have an extra egg/mushroom or black pudding of we wanted. This was said in a very stroppy tone, well pardon is for wanting what we had paid for! Despite me reminding the barstaff that I am extremely allregic to mushrooms, she still presented me with an egg nestling next to a mushroom.... so that was something else I was unable to eat.
The toast went to a whole new level in incompetence and poor 'cooking' skills. We were handed a large plate full of it, the outer pieces were toasted one side , the pieces in the middle were not toasted at all, and were in fact ... bread.
Feeling thouroughly fed up by now, we approached the bar and asked to speak to the duty manager. She was busy in the kitchen apparently, but we were ofered a cup of tea whilst we waited. I pointed out there were five of us, the bar girl totally ignored me and presented us with one cup of tea ....
Eventually the duty supervisor arrived, she was rude, aggresive and stroppy in the extreme. She blamed it all on a staff member turning up for work in tears and refusing to work. If that was the case why not either a) send her home and ring another member of staff to come in or b) inform the customers to expect a long wait, giving them an option of refund if needed.
After my friend continually pushed the point for some ten minutes, we were very begrudgingly given a refund.
Sadly, I am not prepared to risk a second visit to test if this was merely a one off, especially as a comment from another friend, who also happened to visit the Groves that morning was ' well its never good but its not usually quite that bad' Sad when a town centre venue, that could have such a huge trade from local offices, is measured simply by the degree of badness. Wetherspoons who own this venue along with two others in Swindon town centre would be well advised to investigate!
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