Academy - Pembrokeshire

I visited yesterday with friends and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. It was years since I’d been and the level of service was as good as I remembered. The students and lecturers were attentive, polite and friendly. Most of the food was excellent, there were just a couple of little things not right, such as the pigs in blankets were undercooked. Overall a good experience.

I have visited the Academy Restaurant a few times now during my pamper day. The dishes prepared by the students were delicious and the food presentation was impressive.

An outstandingly good meal, served by very helpful and knowledgeable students, nothing was too much trouble. The meal was beautifully presented and tasted delicious, l would definitely recommend this place. But evening meals only on a Thursday, lunches: weekdays during termtime only, but well worth a visit. Parking can be a bit tricky at lunch time, but worth the effort!

Came for lunch with my family. I had the quiche with salad and potatoes which was really good..really enjoyed the different salad and the potatoes were really tasty. Only criticism and reason for not giving full stars is others in the group had meat,gravey,potatoes and salad?! Would of been nice for them to have veg..but as i said it was all lovely and was enjoyed otherwise.

Highs and lows of the Italian Night The Academy training catering college in Haverfordwest had an excellent night of Italian cuisine. Radicchio salad with mushrooms and gorgonzola dressing, Gnocchi with black pepper and goat’s cheese sauce. Roast rack of pork with thyme risotto, veal with asparagus, and a Linguine dish. All followed by hazelnut chocolate and coffee bavarois gateau and a superb light meringue with a zabaglione sauce cooked at the table. For £17.95 it was a real gourmet treat and an occasion to bring along some friends and enjoy the food and experience of seeing the students at work. The low part of the evening was that there was a party of some 14 persons as well as individual tables – possibly 30+ diners. In my view this is not an environment or experience to run a training evening for the students. There was a delay of 25 – 30 minutes for the main courses so the party could be served with their starters. In a public restaurant there would be trained staff and meals scheduled through the evening – not all sitting down at 6 .30. This is a training restaurant and the basics were being ignored such as.. We asked for a drink at the bar and were told someone would come to the table to take the order – they didn’t. We asked for water and a student brought a litre flip top bottle and poured 1 inch of water into the glasses. Ok go round the table and top up but the bottle was taken away and not refilled. I have a thing about making sure a table is kept clutter free so when the small britvic elderflower presse bottles are empty then clear them away and don’t leave them on the table during the main course. Same with the bread roll plate for the starter if no more rolls are being served then clear them away before the main course rather than have a major clean up and crumb down after the main course. Another pet hat is service – is it from the left or right? Quite honestly I don’t care as long as I know which side the food is being served. It may be far easier and safer to break with tradition of in from the left and out from the right. In my view one tradition that must never be broken is that the ladies should be served first even if that means holding back the gents meals until all the meals are ready for the table. Throughout the evening the ladies were always last! Sorry but another pet hate is being asked if everything is ok with the meal? We were asked by 2 students with each course – 6 times in the night! I suggest a student is designated to each table – maybe they are – introduce themselves as the student for the night and that person check and ask if everything is ok – not various students all trying to please. Brief the students on the choice of teas and coffees not leaving one to go and check if a mint tea was available. The students were brilliant but some of these points I hope will be found constructive – all basic etiquette for table service. I just feel the restaurant was too busy for the basic skills to be to be practiced in a controlled environment. Take care not to overstretch the restaurant with such large parties as it really spoils the experience for the other diners and we then fail to enjoy the effort that the students have put into the evening.