Joanna N.

Review of Hilton Hotel

18 Apr 08, 11:28

Lovely hotel, great location

I love this hotel - it feels very plush and luxurious and have had great rooms, food and customer service every time I've stayed here. The location is brilliant, perfect for shopping and a great sight-seeing base.

The hotel rooms I've stayed in have always been very big, clean, modern and very comfortable. The glass lifts are very posh - watch people working out through the glass window of the gym while you are whizzing up to your room. Mentioning the gym, I haven't used it but it looks fantastic, the equipment looks really new.

Breakfast is lovely, I love Hilton breakfasts! The buffet has lots of fresh cold and warm food on offer and the breakfast room has a lovely view of Cardiff Castle opposite. Staff are very friendly and helpful.

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Review of Spaghetti House

18 Apr 08, 11:13

Long wait for pre-ordered food which was overcooked and burnt.

After a colleague really liked eating here I came for a Xmas lunch with some people and it was thoroughly disappointing. We had to book a table well in advance and also order our 3 course meals in advance - considering the restaurant knew what time we were arriving and exactly what we were going to eat it was very poorly prepared. The restaurant wasn't even that busy and we had to wait a very long time for the food; when it did arrive it was dry and overdone, some burnt. It wasn't that expensive but for the quality of the food and the service I don't think it was worth what we paid.

I would not go back here again - if they can't properly cook and serve on time food that has been ordered well in advance when they are not that busy I don't want to experience a normal service there.

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Review of Sandwich Centre

18 Apr 08, 11:01

Brilliant little cafe for takeaway

Be prepared to queue here but it is worth it. This tiny little cafe is fantastic - choose pastas, bean and veg salads, cous cous from the salad bar; have freshly made sandwiches or salads from the sandwich bar and then queue to pay. The woman on the till is always shouting to the guys behind the sandwich bar to work faster and for people to pay faster but it is all comical, fun and not offensive.

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Review of Garlands

18 Apr 08, 10:40

Lovely shop, more than just flowers

This is a really lovely shop - I remember when it first opened and thought it was brilliant and now it has extended and stocks a wider variety of things it is fabulous! It is more than just a florists, with lots of gorgeous, decorative house things as well as divine general accessories and gifts. A real girly shop, perfect for browsing around to view all the gorgous things on display and picking up some pretty items for the house, yourself or gifts for friends.

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Review of Paperchase

18 Apr 08, 10:17

The shop that makes stationery cool!

I love this shop and could quite happily spend hours looking at all the stationery. The trendy, cool, funky and retro designs are fabulous and this is definitely the shop that makes stationery cool! Apart from cool stationery they also have cards, picture frames, photo albums, travel diaries, mugs, ipod covers, bags, gift wrap..... and much more - all with the cool, funky and retro designs you will find on the stationery. The retro designs on the gardening diaries, beauty diaries, recipe books and travel diaries make me want to have green thumbs, have a beauty regime, learn to cook and travel the world to have an excuse to buy these books! A brilliant shop.

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Review of Lush

18 Apr 08, 10:07

Great shop if you can stand the smell!

First off, you can smell a Lush shop well before you see one and the smell is either sometimes fresh, clean and enticing; but sometimes I can find the whiff too overpowering and sickly. On a good smelling day this is a really fun shop to be in and is very girly smelling and "testing" all the products. I like the seasonal box sets they do which make nice gifts and can be a nice alternative to high street toiletry sets. It is a bit more expensive that, say, Boots or Superdrug, but the products are all natural and more unique and funky. Well worth a look!

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Review of Pdsa Pet Aid Hospital

18 Apr 08, 09:54

Good service for those who are entitled

If you are entitled to use this vets (pensioners, people who qualify for certain benefits) it is a great to have this option as a first port of call rather than paying expensive vet bills. My grandparents bring their cat here as they cannot afford expensive vet fees and here they get seen and leave a discretionary donation for a consultation. Any treatments and operations / procedures must be paid for but at least you have peace of mind with a consultation and can have your pets illness / condition diagnosed.

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Review of Garfunkels

18 Apr 08, 09:45

Inedible food and very rude staff

We will never return to Garfunkels again after a recent bad experience. The service was very slow and when the food arrived it was inedible. My good man had ordered fish and chips but the fish looked like it had been fried and re-fried several times and was solid - I mean totally rock hard, he couldn't even cut it. His chips were soggy, a horrible colour and looked like they were leftovers that had been heated up. My cottage pie was just as bad, the veg on the side was so overcooked and dull and had other food/sauce marks on it suggesting it was leftovers lifted off someone elses plate and then served up to me. The cottage pie was horrible, again it looked like it had been put together from other people's leftovers.

We couldn't eat the food and when we told the waitress she was very rude. The manager was equally as rude and said there was nothin wrong with our food and that they would not bring us replacements as our food looked edible to her. After much arguing and demonstrating that the sharper knife they brought over couldn't even cut into the rubbery fish they said they would knock the fish alone off the bill and would not let us leave until we had paid for this terrible affair.

We will never come back and would never recommend this to anyone - inedible food that was probably leftovers and re-cooked several times, poor customer service, rude manager and being forced to pay for food that was inedible and that we simply could not eat.

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Review of Harrods

17 Apr 08, 13:23

Brilliant but you need to spend a pound to spend a penny...

I love going to Harrods, I can't afford to buy much other than tea and maybe a sandwich in the cafe, but I still love it all the same. I can't quite describe what it is about Harrods that makes it so appealing and fun. It is a massive department store (just in case you didn't know!) and has everything anyone could possibly want or need under one roof. The foodhall is amazing and I envy the people who can do their weekly shop here. I also love the Harrods Shop, with all the Harrods branded products which make brilliant little gifts for friends who live outside London as everyone has heard of Harrods.

The cafe is really nice and while it is a little bit more expensive than other cafes, it isn't that bad and won't bankrupt you to have tea and cake or a sandwich. There is a brilliant bagel place in the cafe and again it is a little more expensive than other sandwich places, the filled bagels are massive and I think they are worth every penny.

If you are not a Harrods card holder or cannot produce a receipt for products purchased on that day you will need to spend a pound to spend a penny.....

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