Guest User
February 5, 2024
My partner took me to the Cove Bay Hotel to celebrate my birthday. I was really looking forward to it. What a let down! We stood for a couple of minutes waiting to be seated. Behind us at the bar a waiter who was chatting to a barman called to us to ask if we had a reservation. My partner said yes and gave his name. The waiter said; "You have to be out by 7.30!" Not very welcoming! He took us to our table gave us menus and took our drinks order and quickly disappeared. The drinks arrived. We closed our menus and waited for someone to take our order. We waited and waited and waited. Our table (number one) was in the corner just behind the swing doors to the kitchen. Staff frequently banged these doors coming out with plates of food. Most staff used their back or elbow to open the door but one waitress kicked the door every time she came through. This got very irritating for my partner who constantly had the door being kicked open and a flash of bright light from the kitchen. We were still waiting for someone to take our order and tried to catch the eye of a waiter or waitress but they all rushed past avoiding eye contact. Eventually I said "Excuse me" to a waitress and asked if she would take our order. She said the waiter who was serving out table would have to do it and rushed off. We were starting to feel very unwelcome and ignored. The people at the table next to us were very noisy and we could clearly hear their loud conversation although this was not the fault of the Cove Bay Hotel. The waiter allocated to our table did come back but said he had two or three orders to take before taking ours and rushed off. It seemed staff did not want to be there and could not wait to get away from us. Finally the waiter came back to take our order. My partner would have had the pie but on enquiring it is not a pie, it just has a pastry top. Instead he ordered a Thai fish dish which was on the specials board. I asked for my steak to be well done. A table of people arriving after us were served before us and we waited over an hour to get any food. My steak was a little pink for me as I like my steak well done and do not like to see blood. (Yes I know gourmets will say that steak should be eaten medium to medium rare but I prefer mine well done.) However after waiting so long to get any food I did not want to send it back and wait any longer and be out of sync with my partner. The meal was nice. My partner enjoyed his Thai fish dish which in addition to white fish had muscles and clams. The sauce was quite thin and therefore it was like trying to eat soup with a fork. A waitress came to clear our plates and asked my partner if he wanted a soup spoon for the sauce but it was too late then as it was cold. We were asked if we wanted to see the dessert menu and we said yes. To be fair to the Cove Bay Hotel, the waitress said we could have the desserts free because we had had such a long wait. After our desserts a waitress asked if we wanted anything el