A woman has vowed never to return to a Welsh pub after a Christmas Day “fiasco” which she claimed saw customers wait almost three hours for their food - with one reportedly resorting to buying crisps for his starving children who were fed up of waiting. The woman and her family booked a slot for lunch at the Thomas Arms Hotel in Llanelli on Christmas Day. They had booked it two months in advance of the big day and had already paid in full for the meal - at £53 per head.
Having been looking forward to the special day for weeks, it turned into a disaster according to one diner who said she would never return. According to the woman, who did not wish to be named, there were two slots for Christmas lunch - one at 1.15pm and another at 3.15pm. However, she claimed people who had booked for the first slot were still sat at their tables when the second lot of bookings arrived two hours later. You can keep up to date with the latest Carmarthenshire news by signing up to the local newsletter here.
The woman claimed that, although her starter was promptly served, there then followed a 90-minute wait for the main course, which she felt was “very poor”, with “small, hard and cold roast potatoes”. She also claimed the dessert was served to her table at 4pm - two hours and 45 minutes after she had been seated. “People walked out,” she claimed. “People were queuing up to complain to the staff. The atmosphere was awful, everyone waiting, complaining, hungry. I have never experienced anything like it, especially on Christmas Day. Many people were asking for refunds.”
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The woman said she and her party were not overly happy with paying the £53 each cost up-front, but thought that, perhaps, it would speed things up on the day if everyone had already settled their bills, eliminating the need for queues and delays. However, by the time she left she wished she hadn’t had to pay up-front because she said she would not have paid the full price after the meal. Get the best user experience with WalesOnline’s Premium app on Apple or Android
“The soup was OK and the dessert was nice, but the main course was very poor," she felt. "I would not have paid for that. But it was the atmosphere as well - everyone was complaining or up and down asking where things were. We didn’t know what was going on. If there was a problem like the oven breaking or if they were short-staffed then fine - just come out and say that, but we had no explanation.
"I felt really sorry for the elderly people there and the young children. I saw one man coming back from the bar with six packets of crisps! He said he had to buy them because his kids were so hungry waiting for food - but then he was worried his kids wouldn’t eat their dinners when they came out because they’d been filled up with crisps. It was appalling. I don’t like to blame the staff because we don’t know what the situation was, but I would never go there again," she claimed.
The Thomas Inn Hotel - which is owned by Marston’s - has apologised and confirmed that a number of customers had been refunded after they made a complaint about the service they received. The issues faced by customers were blamed on the fact that a number of staff did not show up for work, leaving pub management and other staff in a difficult position to deal with a particularly busy afternoon.
A spokesman for Marston’s Inns - on behalf of the Thomas Arms - said: “Unfortunately, several staff let us down Christmas Day. Anyone that has requested a refund has been refunded. The local community is really important to us, I can only apologise and assure the guests that this experience is not typical of the service we offer at the Thomas Arms.”
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