Restaurante The Next Door en Llandudno

Unfortunately we didn’t have the best dining experience at this restaurant and I’ll try and give fair reasons why. The menu read like a fine dining restaurant, but the attention to detail didn’t seem to be there. We were greeted by a polite waitress who seated us. It then seemed a while until we were offered drinks. We finally ordered drinks but we had been sat for 35 minutes until we received our first drinks. We then ordered our food. Upon asking the waitress about how best to order the food and whether we could order small plates as starters and large plates as mains, she was unsure and had to ask another member of staff. From how the menu was written this seemed like a pretty ordinary way to order but we wanted to make sure. We ordered a small plate each and a large plate each. The menu stated that large plates came with 2 sides but this wasn’t offered any additional sides. We ordered one side each but I got the feeling that the waitress was unaware that large plates were supposed to come with 2 sides, as we heard another waiter offer this to a nearby table. We both ordered scallops as a starter and asked if one could have lardons removed to make it pescatarian, to which the waitress said this was fine. She even read our order back to make sure she had it right. We waited another 25 minutes until we received our starters, making it an hour before we had any food in front of us. When the scallops arrived both dishes had lardons removed. When I made the waiter aware he seemed a bit flustered and was going to go back to the kitchen (without the dish) to see what went wrong. At this point we just wanted to eat and didn’t want to wait ages for it to be rectified, so we just let it be and said it’s ok. The scallops were lacklustre. They didn’t have much of a sear on them and overall seemed undercooked (one on my partners plate was verging on inedible). The peas were clearly of the freezer aisle variety. We then received our mains after what seemed like another longish wait afterwards. The pig cheeks were ok if not a little dry. The first thing we noticed about the prawns was that they were scorching hot, too hot to eat straight away, which meant they were a bit over cooked. They tasted a bit earthy which makes me think they weren’t deveined and the garlic was quite over powering. The menu described them coming with toasted focaccia but we received what resembled more like cheap garlic bread. We also ordered leek croquettes. These were ok, but a little bit heavy on the mustard. One concern as a food worker myself is that the menu didn’t state that they contained mustard which is a main group allergen. I know the menu states at the top to make aware of allergens as the kitchen can’t guarantee no nuts but I feel such a mustard heavy course should probably make some mention. The drinks were ok, the negroni actually particularly nice which was a good saving factor (even though when I ordered, the waiter asked if I wanted a small or a large which I have ...

Outstanding. We went for the "Mini Hog Roast" sharing platter. Tasty and plentiful. High quality ingredients treated very well indeed. A most enjoyable meal enhanced by the most charming front of house staff and a chance to chat with the chef. We want to go back to try the Small Plates. HIGHLY recommended. We went back and hit the Small Plates. Astonishingly tasty and generous. Front of house as engaging as ever and Chef Rob said Hi too, even though this time they were very busy. If there's better food to be found in Llandudno, I'd like to know where.