"When we arrived, everything seemed fine initially, but then the food was served. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves—burnt dishes, undercooked items, and missing components made up a long list of complaints. Eventually, I was asked to have a private meeting with the manager, Nicki, to discuss our experience. She acknowledged the issues and agreed that we wouldn’t have to pay for the food, promising that her husband would call me shortly.
When he did call, he accused me of "ranting at his wife and making her cry," which anyone who knows me would find hard to believe. He insisted he was coming to the restaurant and would take 45 minutes to get there for a one-on-one meeting. While I wouldn’t mind this, the other 11 guests were equally upset and wanted to meet him as well. When he arrived, he confronted me in front of everyone, repeating that I had made his wife cry. However, he refused to let her come and talk to me about it.
He mentioned issues with previous chefs being bullied and said they had a new chef from Indeed, although I'm not sure why that was relevant. He claimed that missing items from our plates were due to us not including them on the spreadsheet we provided. So even though the festive menu listed "burger with fries, coleslaw, and pigs in blankets," we only received the burger and fries because we only typed "burger."
He did offer us a free meal, which we declined after the treatment we received, and Richard also offered to refund our drinks bill, which we also turned down because, despite the terrible food, we had enjoyed our wine. I’ve always been a supporter of The Bell and considered it a great pub for drinks, but after this experience and the way we were treated, including the baseless accusations, I regret to say that we won’t be returning—especially since there are other places in Clare that provide better service without such issues."
