I had my 21st birthday party at the Carmelite and it was fantastic (although probably what would be expected for the price).. the function room and 'library' are really well decorated. The rooms, the restaurant and bar also look great. With regards to my 21st - the service etc was fine.
I later visited for lunch with my family - and had a ciabatta type thing - which when I took the top part off of, had a long dark hair entwined in the filling inside - BOKE! I complained as soon as I got it and the waiter looked at me (I have long dark hair) as if to say 'that's yours'... which would have been my first thought had it not been right in the centre of the sandwich!

A few months ago (November-ish) my boyfriend and I went for a meal at the restaurant. The waiter first of all got the soup of the day wrong, I heard the couple next to us complaining about this when paying their bill, then the waiter came up and told us what it actually was.

I ordered a salmon dish and my boyfriend ordered a steak. A table of about 8 people arrived next to us (after we had ordered our food). We heard them giving their order about 20 mins after ours. Their starters arrived about 10 mins later. Their starters were cleared from their table, and not long after, their main courses arrived - by this point we STILL hadn't received our food (which was only main courses).

When the food finally arrived, my boyfriend asked the waitress for tomato ketchup to go with his chips. My salmon wasn't what it was described as on the menu - I can't remember exactly what it was, but the menu described it with tomatoes and it was with really hard diced carrots and swede or something, and with rice. It wasn't meant to come with rice, it was meant to come with something else. The salmon was FAR too overcooked, it was far too dry and crispy - if the food hadn't taken about an hour to arrive in the first place I would have sent it back and asked for something else (and i NEVER send food back!).

My boyfriend was almost finished his steak and the tomato ketchup still hadn't appeared. I stopped a passing waitress and asked for it again. Then another fifteen minutes I asked for it again from another waitress. It FINALLY came and he was almost finished. (Although I'd asked three different waitresses/waiters for it, I saw no communication between them, yet only one of them actually brought any).

The food was NOT worth the price and although there were heaps of staff, they were SO disorganised! I work as a waitress in a busy restaurant and know what it's like when it's busy - I know not everything comes right away and with this, I believe I am more patient and understanding than most people. But the staff and food REALLY let it down. It's a beautiful establishment with great potential, but until the staff that are there have moved on or the manager has got a better idea of what makes a good waitress/waiter, I will not be returning, and I will let everyone know how much of a disappointment it is.