The Oliver

"We went to Newry from the south for a day and we decided The Oliver was a nice place to stop for a meal. We wait for a while to be seated as demanded at the entrance until someone actually notices us. We get a seat, and as we’re settling in, the waitress says that they don’t take cards but only cash, however they have a “FREE cash machine” inside the restaurant! We proceed to the machine, one card after another, and nope! It does not work with the cards from the Republic of Ireland! They tell us we can go to a bank and walk back! 8 minutes walk they say! While we decide to give up at this point, we don’t really know the town and are too hungry to look for elsewhere. We spot another ATM and eventually manage to withdraw some cash and go back. The prices are quite steep but there’s no mention for additional charges on sauces! We order two burgers, one with bacon and one without. Of course the price is still the same for the one without bacon. Then they bring the burgers, but no sauces or vinegar in the sight! We ask them for some sauces and they ask: “only red sauce?” We say maybe both ketchup and mayo? The waitress nods and says nothing and comes back with the packs of ketchup but no mayo. She then returns with a squirt of mayo in a small container. Then once we’re finished, they come with a bill and the mayo is £1 extra!!! Sure, you wanna rip off your customers, no problem, but you need to inform them you’re going to charge them extra for it, while you also charge for the bacon even when we don’t want any. So first and last time here and we will not go back. I may also add that when we first got in, asked for the upstairs seating and they said we cannot eat there, it’s only for drinks. Once we were sitting, we asked till when they’re open and if we can return for drinks to sit upstairs and this time we were told it’s only available for functions via booking! Mismatching information."

"Out to lunch with colleagues. Waitress very surly. Asked for chicken goujons , they don’t do them, asked then for chicken nuggets, she said we don’t do adult portions, I said I was happy with small portion and she muttered something under her breath. When they arrived they were lovely although I couldn’t finish them. The atmosphere was lovely, the restaurant was clean and tidy, ask the waitress to smile a wee bit more, review menu choices, for plain eaters, I know I’m not alone in my choice of menu."

"One of the most bizarre experiences I've had trying to pay. The food and decor were grand, above average. We were informed, after, we'd already ordered and received our drinks that they don't take card. There a free ATM inside but it doesn't accept ROI card or the likes of Revolut. We had just enough notes but one was paper which wasn't accepted, which is fair enough I guess. I had to leg it around to a bank to grab some up to date cash. A heads up before we'd ordered would have been nice and expected. The food wasn't good enough to make that worth while."