Rock and Fountain, Clydach, Monmouthshire

Travelled down from Inverness, needed to eat, was very busy. The bar staff asked to bear with them, within 5 minutes was sat down and looking at menu. Ordered scampi, onion rings and the trimmings. The portions were very generous and cannot fault the quality of the food or the service. Next time I make another 500 mile trip, I will without doubt look for this place..

Four of us went to the Rock and Fountain on 27 April 08 for Sunday lunch. The food not as good as we hoped.

The first course was mushrooms in a blue cheese sauce. The sauce was very thin and not very cheesy but the mushrooms were cooked well.

They had none of the vegetarian options available when we were there apart from mushroom stroganoff. This dish turned out to be mushrooms in a sauce very similar to the previous cheese sauce. When I mentioned that stroganoff normally comes with rice they brought me a small dish of rice. By this time we had all eaten our main meals. The vegetable were ok but seemed reheated and not enough to go round. We all decided against a pudding.

The Rock and Fountain in Clydach needs updating. The decor is tired and of a low standard. The carpet in the room was dirty. If you want a base to walk form it would have been fine if you could have slept. Disappointed with the hotel.

We had two completely different meals and starters and they were both as poor as each other. As for starters Camberburg wedges were nice but looked very much like the round once you buy at the supermarket and you couldn't really taste the tiger prawns with the amount of sauce swimming around.

Minted Lamb looked and tasted like supermarket lamb they sell frozen to go on the barbecue, seabass came in foil and the pool of butter came over the top of the fish and as for the seasonal potatoes and vegetables it all came in one side bowl (swede, peas, cauliflower and two very small new potatoes) completely drenched in butter and really overcooked.

We have eaten in a lot of places and don't mind paying up to £25 a head for a nice meal but this was overpriced in our opinion and the meals were the worse we have every had.