Craigside Inn Brewers Fayre Review

When I was invited to do a restaurant review last weekend and knowing how much I love my food, I found it hard to say no. The review was for a Brewers Fayre pub restaurant and was at the Craigside Inn North Wales. I have eaten in Brewers Fayre pub restaurant's before, and find them just fine for family eating and their generous portions certainly help wave goodbye to those hunger pangs. The children love to go as there is often a play area and eating there can offer great value for money. I decided to make a family event of it and altogther 7 of us and the two children went along for a lunchtime meal.

They offer a super menu deal Monday - Friday (12 - 6.30pm) where from a selection of main meals you can choose 2 for £10. As we were eating on a Saturday, obviously we couldn't take advantage of this but I thought definitely worth a mention. We were greeted with a smile from staff and promptly taken to our table by the window which offered beautiful views of the North Wales coast.

With Brewers Fayre pub restaurant's you order at the till point, and working out what 9 people wanted to eat did take a little time, however we never felt hurried along by staff and chatted away as a family whilst deciding what we would all choose. Once we had made our choices I made my way over to the till to order. Ordering ran very smoothly and drink orders were also taken and these quickly came to the table. Staff were very pleasant at all times and we were asked on more than one occasion if things were alright etc. Food arrived very promptly and amongst the pizza's ( the children's choice of food ) there was Fish & Chips....

Beef & Ale Pie's....

And I kept digging into these onion rings which I have to say were just delicious....

We all tucked into our food, which was going down very well indeed. Soon however I became aware that 3 of my party who had ordered the Beef & Ale Pie found the edge's of the pastry crust very hard indeed, infact so hard it couldn't be cut into. The majority of the pie could be eaten,  but I felt it a shame that the rest of it wasn't really edible. So, I felt it was time  for my communication skills to be played out and I discretly went over and spoke to the duty manager, who I have to say was most professional in my speaking to her about it. She explained how the pie's are cooked and after coming to the table to speak with the three people who had ordered the Beef & Ale Pie's, could see straight away that these had been over cooked at the edges. She apologised and offered for the cost of each pie to be refunded or for complimentary desserts. The three all decided on complimentary puddings, can you tell we all like pudd's in our family ;)

As soon as the delicious puddings arrived the overcooked pies were soon forgotten about and every last crumb was eaten up and enjoyed by everyone. The children enjoyed their jelly and ice-cream, and I enjoyed helping the husband out with his yummy banoffee pie :) After some family chit chat the children decided they wanted to go outside for a little play and I thought it an appropiate time to go and pay for the meal. It was again the duty manager who dealt with my bill and who also informed me that she would indeed be refunding the cost of the Beef & Ale pies also as they really weren't at the high standard she felt they should have been at. Often in the service industry it is how things are dealt with when things are perhaps not as one would expect that can make all the difference to a negative or a positive experience, and in my opinion I was more than happy with the outcome, which was dealt with in a professional and friendly manner from the duty manager. I would definitely go back again. So after settling the bill I said my goodbyes and went outside to see how the children and the rest of my family were getting on....

 Judging by the out of focus photographs, they were thoroughly enjoying themselves. As for myself, I couldn't resist a little sit down to take in all those lovely views....

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Disclosure: I was given a £50 voucher to redeem against the total cost of our meal for the purposes of this blog post. I paid the difference of the total cost myself.