ASK, Cardiff

We visited Ask Cardiff as a special family treat on an early Saturday evening. We had our Tesco club card vouchers to spend and were looking forward to the evening. The first disappointment was the fact that they didn't have two out of the three meat/fish dishes, despite the fact it was only 7.15pm. Then we had to wait 45 mins to remind them to bring our starters. While the main dishes were ok, the side orders never turned up. The whole evening was very disappointing and not what we had expected.

I've been going to this branch of Ask for absolutely years. I've started going more frequently recently (like 3 times in the last month) and the standards have gone through the floor. We have experienced parts of our order being forgotten, one person's dessert being brought out while the other is left to melt on the counter, 40 minute wait for a starter(!), bland food, scrimping on ingredients, of course, the obvious price rises, and most annoyingly... Twice this week we have practically been ignored by our waiter; Monday we waited 40 minutes for our bill before my friend had enough and went and asked. Yesterday, we had to wait half an our to order our desserts (and again only did after me friend demanded we should order) and another half hour for the bill which AGAIN my friend had to go and ask for herself. I know service in America is so much more efficient and I should not compare, but in LA, we get offered more drinks and we get asked if everything is OK with our food. At Ask, they just leave you there on your own. We regularly ate our main course without drinks because they took so long to bring it out (so we had finished our initial drinks) and practically dumped the food and ran so we could not order more. They were not even busy. They can't be treating all their customers this shabbily because they would not have any... or maybe everyone else has low expectations... I am certainly off Ask though. Shame.

I'm afraid that the whole experience was terrible. We had booked a table with ASK, Cardiff for eleven people and right from the start the service was pretty awful. The drinks took a long time to arrive and some were missing. The food was very very average and we had to send four meals back, one was cold, one tasted horrible, one dish described as 'seafood rissotto' only contained mussels and when this last dish was replaced the rissotto rice was swimming in a liquid not moist as it should be. None of us tried the desserts as we were not brave enough.

I've eaten at the Cardiff Ask both at a works do and with my family and the welcome and service on both occasions has been excellent (as it has been at Asks elsewhere in the country).

I enjoy their pizzas, the fact that they'll do half portions of pasta for the kids and general selection. Not cheap and not expensive but good value for money.

The location is fabulous as you're in the heart of the Cardiff pub/club/restaurant land so plenty of people to watch through their large windows. Sitting downstairs is my preference as I like to people to watch, upstairs is a little more private (also closer to the toilets!).