Braefel Inn, Newquay
Quality of food
Quality of service
Value For Money
Braefel Inn, Newquay
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User Reviews
Quality of service
Quality of food
Value For Money
Fantasic
I had a really nice meal and stay here. Couldn't fault it at all. My husband is a chef and he is very hard to please, but he was very happy with food and service.
Terrible Food - And They Know It.
We're camping at local campsite and having driven past the Braefel a couple of times we decided to give it a shot. Place wasn't that busy, and we were seen to by friendly staff. My wife ordered the £20 fillet (medium well - which should be a crime itself, but she's the boss), I ordered the rib eye rare, my 7 yr old son ordered a cod and chips from the kids menu and my 4 yr old daughter ordered sausage and chips. The food came out within 20 ish mins; tiny steaks, with burned char marks on, well overcooked and sitting with a small helping of dry, miserable chips and half a plant of parsley to fill the rest of the plate up. My son's fish came out, looking like it had been through its 2nd or 3rd time through the fryer and a good drying out under a hot lamp. My daughter's sausage looked like some really cheap, nasty shrivelled up horribleness.
The fillet had been murdered, then killed again and burned for good measure, my rare steak had the same treatment, and also came out dry as old show leather with a similar texture and taste.
The kindly waitress asked how the meal was, and a gave the typical english understated criticism of "it was okay, thank you". She proceeded to ask if we wanted any desserts, to which we declined - and she quietly said "I don't blame you".
We were relieved of circa £50 for the privilege of learning how low standards of food can be - treat it as a learning experience and it may be money well spent - because now we've learnt our lesson, we have nothing to go back there for - its certainly not the food.
JB.
me and my wife went there last week about 8pm the place was very clean but only a handful of people in there.we both ordered steaks and the service was very quick.The food was nice and we had no complaints
There will always be one or two customers who seem unhappy with the food or with the service, and unfortunately they seem the kind of people who are motivated to put very distorted and exaggerated reviews on sites such as this. The hundreds of customers who compliment us obviously do not feel the same compulsion, which begs the question how useful or balanced are a selection of views that represent one customer in thousands.
One customer recently left us a note as they left, it read:
I would like to say that we are local, on the way back to Bodmin. We stopped for some food. The staff were helpfull (sic) friendly efficient, the food fresh, tasty and plenty. Well done 5 stars many thanks
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Overpriced Food And Rude Staff Means I Won't Be Eating Here Again!
On good memories of a previous years visit, I recommended this restaurant to my family as a thank you to my parents for an enjoyable holiday, and an 'end of holiday treat'. I remembered the menu being expensive, but the food of good quality. Upon entering the restaurant, despite not booking a table on a friday night, we were seated within 15 minutes which i was initially pleased with, although after waiting a further 15 minutes before we were seen by a waiter it became apparent to me that they were not ready to serve us. During the 30 minute wait for our food (during which we were not asked if we wanted any drinks, and had to go to the bar ourselves) my brother's fiance severely burned her hand under the hot tap during a trip to the bathroom. Returning in tears, she asked a rather blase and uncaring waiter for some ice to soothe her pain (the best he could offer was a few cubes wrapped in a bar towel) and asked to speak to someone about putting up a sign to warn others about the danger of the taps. She was told that there were already signs up, and I can confirm this as I went to use the taps myself, however the signs state that the water is 'hot', which I've seen in many places where the tap gets hot QUICKLY, when it should have stated 'scalding' which was the IMMEDIATE temperature it came out at. Had I not already had this warning from my brothers fiance, I too would have burned myself.
To add insult to injury, no-one apologised to her, she had to ASK for an apology from the manager, who finally turned up in shorts and a t-shirt and seemed just as uncaring as the rest of the staff. The feeling we got was that because we were Tourists, we were a minor and temporary nuisance, who would be gone in an hour or so - this is a ridiculous attitude for a restaurant in ANY area to have, especially one situated so close to so many campsites. Despite the fact the Braefel inn had caused PHYSICAL HARM to one of it's customers, my brother and his fiance had to fight for ANY kind of discount, eventually and begrudgingly refunding the price of one meal, despite the fact that all of our evenings had been spoiled by this incident. To cap it all, despite paying over £11 for a rump steak (generally the cheapest cut) the portion was tiny, and although well cooked, unsatisfactory, meaning that my family and I had to shell out over £100 in total for a small meal spoiled by bad attitudes.
The main thing to take away from this review is this: The person who was injured in the restaurant works with children, and is aware of their attitudes and behaviour towards safety procedures. She knows that children will not necessarily always read signs, and their more delicate skin is much more prone to injury. The temperature of the water from the taps would have seriously injured a small child's hand, and the injury claim made from an angry parent would have serious repercussions for any business, especially one that is marketed towards families. As it is I know that my brother and his fiance are exploring their rights on the subject, and all this fuss could have easily been avoided by polite, and apologetic staff willing to pay for their own mistakes with a simple refund.
In conclusion - avoid at all costs, ESPECIALLY if you have children. It's just not safe.
There is always two sides to every story. I was called over to the restaurant to deal with a customer who was dealing quite forcefully with a complaint. First of all I am not the manager, we do not have one, we are a family run business with very hard working staff. I absolutely object to the description of me as uncaring. I went over with an open mind and tried to get views from all sides, which included unsolicited opinions from other customers who found the whole episode farcical. First of all and most importantly, the young lady was not injured in the slightest, I politely took a photograph of her hand for the accident book. There was not a single discernible mark, I have personally witnessed my own child suffering a scald and believe me this customers hand was NOT scalded. The man who was bullying the staff (in my opinion) and who I assume was the young lady's father, seemed more interested in getting money knocked off the bill for food that was eaten. He also demonstrated complete ignorance of what it is like to run a seasonal business when he came out with an insulting statement " the money you must make here" which made me question his priorities. It was a very busy night and ALL the other customers that night were very happy with the food and the service.
First of of all I think that it is important to establish that we are a family run business and that there is no 'manager' as such, and we care very much that customers leave us having had an enjoyable time, (which I am happy to say is the case for the vast majority of our visitors). The review above reminds me one of my dad's sayings which went "believe half of what you hear and none of what you read" It is so easy to go into print and make sweeping, damaging statements that distort the true picture. Nobody was injured due to hot water in our restaurant, there was no physical harm, there was some obvious discomfort due to hot water. It was a HOT tap and there is a sign warning customers that it is hot. When I made a record of the incident I struggled to see any mark at all on the hand that was supposedly scalded (I took a photograph for the record). I have seen bad burns, bad scalds and I have seen people burn to death before my eyes (Valley Parade 1985)
Furthermore:
Apologies were offered
She asked for ice, she was given ice ???
Tourists are our raison d'etre, why on earth would we would we not value any customer?
Our prices are not high, especially when you take into account the continually rising wholesale prices and energy costs, none of which have been passed on to the customer.
The cuts of meat are the best that we can get, the chef returns meat to the supplier if it is not of the best quality.
As far as I am concerned the most telling statement of the night accompanied the request for a discount, which was "the money you must make here" as if we were raking it in.
This displayed a complete ignorance of what it is like to survive in a seasonal industry when you have to make most of your income for the fiscal year in a six week period.
I dispute that the staff were rude, they were trying their best to deal with a very confusing situation where complaints were voiced but all plates were cleared, and no injury was apparent.
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They Told Us We Had A 45 Minute Wait 2 Hours Later
they told us we had a 45 minute wait 2 hours later we were finally seated not good when you have 2 hungry bored children!!! food was good though. also the pub was too small to meet the demands of the people wanting to eat there and it was very cramped the quality and quantity of the food and the range on the menu was excellent though i would advise pre booking a table which is what i'll be doing next time!
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Best Steak We Had In A Long Time. They Were Very
Best steak we had in a long time. They were very busy but we still didn't wait too lng for our food. Great for relaxed dining. Very good for families with kids and larger groups.
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The Service And The Food Was Fantastic
the service and the food was fantastic
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Braefel Inn - My Husband, Me And Our Two Children
Braefel Inn - My husband, me and our two children visited this restaurant twice during our one week stay in Perran Sands Caravan park. Our first visit impressed us so much we returned on the final evening of our holiday.
We had to wait quite a long time for our meal on our first visit, but we were informed before we were seated that this may be the case. Wow, you wouldn't believe the size of the meals. We were so glad we didn't have a starter.
We all enjoyed our meals on both occasions and if we holiday in the area again we will definitely visit at least once.
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