The Hardwick, Abergavenny

A good meal but a bad taste after very poor service from the shift supervisor. there was no point in pointing out the poor service to the shift supervisor as she was the one that gave the poor servise.

I have asked for a telephone call from the manager and I will see if this ever happens.

Dated 20/01/2011

We booked a table to celebrate Valentine's Day.The food was delicious - I had pumpkin ravioli to start and undyed haddock for main. My husband had jerusalem artichoke soup and roast beef. However, the waitress was very rude - making comments about the fact there was no food left on our plates - surely that's a compliment! We asked several times for the dessert menu and waited a good twenty minutesfor it to arrive. The table adjacent to us had the same problem. We mentioned this when we paid the bill to no avail.

We ate here for the first time this week and cannot speak highly enough about it. The food was superb, flavoursome and well cooked. The only critiscism we could have was portions were too big - this is very unusual!

The service was magnificent, the manager was friendly but at the same time remained totally professional - a difficult balance. He guided us toward a wine we would not normally have chosen, saying that if we didn't like it he would drink it - unfortunately for him it was delicious and in future we will be looking out for wines from south of the Rhone.

I came upon your site whilst looking for the restaurants telephone number and have found the reviews to be fascinating reading. Having frequented the restaurant since it opened I honestly cannot recognise it from some of the experiences described. Having wined and dined all over the world I have found the quality of food to be both exceptionally good and very consistent. The service is as one would expect - friendly and attentive without being overbearing. Given the quality of the ingredients and cooking I believe the Hardwick represents great value for money particularly when compared to its local competition.

We always go to the Hardwick for special occasions, the food has always been fabulous and the staff great.I always recommend it to anyone who want's to go somwhere special for a meal.I went for my Birthday, asked could Stephen Terry come out of the kitchen to have a photo with me which he did and gave me a kiss, he was really friendly.I cannot say anything bad about the times we have been there. Well done.

Well, I thought I would just add my comments regarding our "Stephen Terry Experience". We went to The Hardwick for an evening meal last Saturday, 10th July, to celebrate a 60th birthday because we had a really good meal there 18 months ago. The staff and service were good, but the food was terrible. For our starters, three of us had the Roasted Red Onion Tart with Stilton Cheese, It just appeared to be a piece of Just-Roll flakey pastry cut with a four inch pastry cutter, with one slice of red onion and few bits of Stilton cheese placed in the centre of the pastry covered with rocket and creme fraiche, so we couldn't see what was underneath - it was basically all pastry - £8! The other starter was pork terrine - consisting a thin slice of terrine with a small, thick piece of brown toast which was hard and cold and burnt around the edges. These were thrown on a plate with four very tiny gerkins and a dessert spoon of onion marmalade. The toast was so hard it broke into pieces when eaten and the burnt edges took over the taste of the terrine - £7!

For the main meal we all had the 21 day hung rib-eye steak with triple cooked chips. The steak came roughly 1/4 inch thick, full of fat and gristle and luke warm. The triple cooked chips were very pale looking thick one-inch potato wedges, stone cold and so dry that when eaten just stuck in your gullet like a frozen chip (in total 9 chips in a bowl). Also on the plate was a cold, tasteless small mushroom and a roasted half of a vine plum tomato. The bearnaise sauce was also cold and too thick to pour out of the little jug - £21!

I complained about the quality of the meal to the Manager who went and told Mr. Terry. He came back and apologised that we didn't enjoy our meal but as we had eaten most of it, there wasn't a lot he could do about it. I complained again and asked to see Mr. Terry - same response came back. Upon the third request to see him, I was told by the Manager that the potatoes were sub-standard, but they were the best they could source. (Try Asda's King Edwards I felt like telling him!) That really got me annoyed so I asked to go and see Mr. Terry. The Manager advised me against it, but I got up from the table and walked towards the kitchen where I found Mr. Terry with four young chaps in the smallest kitchen I have ever seen. I introduced myself to him and told him that we were not happy with the quality of the meals we had had so far. He wasn't interested - as far as he was concerned, we ate most of the meal, so everything must be okay. When I told him the chips were cold, he said how cold - as cold as this stainless steel, or (then he went to the fridge and took out a par-cooked chip) as cold as this chip from the fridge. I just could not believe his attitude. I then asked him if he had tried the chips because they just stuck in your gullet - you couldn't swallow them - and he said yes they were fine, he had been eating them all evening. When I complained about the gristle in the steak, he asked one of the boys to get the tray of rib eyes out of the fridge - there, he said there are the steaks and they were all cut off the same piece. I told him that our steaks in no way resembled the steaks I saw in front of me and they were only a quarter of an inch thick! He said well it depends on how you had the steak cooked - I said medium - to which there was no reply. The young chap holding the tray of steaks said "this is what I cooked Stephen, it was these they had". So it then became obvious to me that Mr. Terry had not cooked our meals or inspected them before they reached our table. We were just paying top whack for a junior to prepare and oversee our meal! I then asked to see the steaks we had sent back to compare the thickness, but he told me they had been thrown in the bin! I told him that I could have a better three course meal and steak at the local Beefeater for £9.99 - and the quality of his food was terrible for the prices being charged. Mr. Terry and the three young chaps all the way through just stood with a smirk on their faces and shaking their heads In the end, he said to me "look, if you don't like my food - don't pay for it". I said fine, but I will definitely be writing about my experience at your restaurant. On the way out I told the Manager about his attitude and he said to me I did warn you not to go and see him! I went back to our table and told my family we were leaving and I wasn't paying for any of the food or wine, because he had totally spoilt our evening with the quality of food served and his and attitude. When we got outside the restaurant, the Manager came running after us and said that Stephen had said that if we didn't pay our bill, he would not allow us to return". Thank goodness for that! I would not want another "Stephen Terry Experience" and wouldn't wish it on anyone else! He is totally arrogant, has become too big for his boots, doesn't acknowledge that there are problems with the quality of his food and doesn't apologise in anyway to his customers Oh, by the way, on the way out we saw a table of six who had finished their meals, but had left six bowls of chips! When mentioned to the Manager outside - he said "Oh yes, I know! Never mind, our Mr. Terry will be able to enjoy them - he thinks they're great!

We were expecting a dining experience after having read reviews in the Telegraph. Service was generally good although we had to ask for bread, water and the wine list a couple of times. Too much choice and very fussy, food varied from good to indifferent, lack of taste. The Telegraph highlighted the three times cooked chips which were like the potato wedges you get in any pub. Not food that "wowed" us. Wouldn't go again

I have had some lovely meals here but the last time I went (sometime during late summer 2009), I was very dissapointed. Based on previous experience which was good, I chose the pub to take my 90 year old grandmother (who is partially sighted)for lunch. We were kept waiting for the food for a good half an hour or so and the restaurant was nearly empty. The waitress was terribly impolite, cold and unfriendly, and seemed impatient that my partially sighted grandmother had to have the menu read to her. We had no apologies about the wait for food. The food was good but the service has spoilt it for me and I can't risk taking any friends or family back to that sort of treatment. It's a shame, as the food is good, just spoilt by inconsistent & poor standards of service.

Unfortunately you cannot give zero stars for service. I had the same experience as the reviewer in Feb 2009. Kept waiting for 30 mins to take the order and we had children under 6. When we queried this there were no apologies just justifications.

The food may be good but the service was so poor. We will not be going back.

Sunday 31st January 2010 - party of four Sunday lunch

Venue cold. Our party had 2 course set Sunday lunch.

Starters quite substantial but sweets were very small. Complained because one of our party found piece of bone in his meat, waitress apologised but didn't really want to know.

I was disgusted at service and attitude at the Hardwick that I emailed them and was told that the meat is sourced in and that it was unfortunate that it contained an alleged piece of bone. The sweet being part of a three course meal that's why it was so small.

We will certainly not be going to the Hardwick again.