Pimento Restaurant Carlow

Absolutely terrible. Very expensive and we only got the tiniest portion of fries, 2 baby burgers (cost €11!!’) and some potatoes with brisket that has absolutely no flavour. The mocktails we got were so sour and sickly sweet and I’m a huge sweet tooth so you know it’s bad. My fiancé and I were so excited to come as last time we came it was booked out. But I’m extremely disappointed and left unsatisfied. Had to get McDonald’s to fill us up. Personally I wouldn’t come back and I advise not to waste your money. Only good thing is the atmosphere and it’s very cosy. If i could do zero stars for the food I would. I never write reviews but I don’t want anyone else feeling left so disappointed . Go to mimosa instead, it’s pricey but flavourful and so much more worth it.

We were a group of five, and we all ordered about 2-3 tapas plates each. Our first plate came out 7 mins after ordering, and our last plate came out an hour after ordering. We had to ask for it three times, and each time, the staff would say they were going to check, and then never return. Honestly most of the plates were absolutely incredible, overall food was really good, but service really badly let them down.

NB: I want to preface this by saying the owner personally came down and waived our bill after this incident, which I appreciated, but I still feel people should be aware of what to expect.

Yesterday evening my partner and I went to Pimento after work and ordered 5 dishes. We were quite disappointed with the quality of a few of these and mentioned this to the waiting staff—though it took 10-15 minutes to get their attention—who quickly cleared the plates and said they’d give this feedback to the kitchen.

No staff ever returned to our table after this point. However, we noticed the kitchen staff appeared to be glaring at us through the pass, though we shook this off and assumed we must be misunderstanding.

After 15 minutes of waiting, we approached the counter ourselves. We were immediately presented with a card machine and asked to tap our card. I asked if I could get a bill first, which was retrieved. Upon reviewing it, I stated that I wasn’t really comfortable paying full price for a couple of these dishes as we weren’t satisfied with the quality and they didn’t match the descriptions. I wondered if anything could be done. I was told no—as we’d eaten some of the food we “must have liked it,” and either way, they had no way to modify the bill.

I pushed back politely and asked if there was anybody on site who could make that decision. I was told no; there were no managers on the premises and nobody was able to modify any portion of the bill. When I asked if it would be possible to get somebody on the phone, I was again told no—not only were there no managers on-site, but they had no way of contacting any management. I was told my only option was to pay full price and try coming back another day.

They then conceded that the chef was the only person of seniority, and I could enter the kitchen (during service) to speak to him, but that he also had no power to modify the bill. I said this wouldn’t really help, but the waitress then entered the kitchen to speak to him.

My partner then tapped my shoulder and pointed out that the chef was leaning over the service pass, waving a €20 note in his hand, and pointing and beckoning at me.

We approached, confused, and the chef immediately began to aggressively berate us in the middle of the restaurant. He implied that we were fabricating stories about not liking the food, and that if we were that cheap then he would “help us”—proceeding to throw a €20 note at us disdainfully while continuing to rant aggressively.