Synge Byrne - Newtownabbey

The staff are so knowledgeable about gluten free food and so friendly

We used to eat here weekly – it was simple, tasty food. The girlfriend prefers pastry concoctions, whereas I often had the chicken and bacon ciabatta or similar. Unfortunately, as with SO many places over the past few years, quality has plummeted, so it would be months between visits now. One of their best points was always the salads on offer as accompaniments – you get to choose three, and they were really quite imaginative (using ingredients like mange tout peas, various nuts, green beans, red cabbage, chillies, etc). Sadly, they’re now much less so – cold potato concoctions, pasta, coleslaw, sometimes salad leaves etc depending on the day. But the biggest disappointments are the main part of the meals. For example, they serve these truly shameful little “pies” – bits of puff pastry with virtually no filling other than a smear of gravy or whatever inside. The chicken and bacon ciabatta used to be a good example of the kind of simple unpretentious food they served – nice quality ciabatta, lightly toasted in the oven, with a decent amount of chicken, bacon and relish inside. I’ve attached a picture of the sad creation it’s become now – very little chicken, a strip of soggy, fatty bacon – and whatever you want to call the bread rolls they use now (slightly odd, almost cakey texture), ciabattas they are not. I've included a picture of half the ciabatta I was served last week you can see that it contains very little chicken indeed, plus a bit of pretty unappetising bacon. I do have to mention the staff, as a previous reviewer found them rude – we’ve always found them lovely.

Was served by Coalan and had fantastic service. All staff are so lovely and helpful

Could be cleaner as the soft seats were grubby with crumbs and one part had the leatherette ripped. Otherwise, a new employee was serving and he could not have been more warm and chatty. He was so nice. Wishing him well in his new job as he only started two weeks ago. Apart from that, the tea was lovely and brewed before it arrived not everywhere does that.

One of the staff was especially rude. I had ordered a meal for myself and my 4 year old. I was having a chat with my 4 year old, and the girl rudely interrupted to say, ‘she doesn’t get pasta with that’, despite the fact it was my meal, and I planned to give her some of mine and it was a personal conversation. Then when I was checking on my daughter in her seat, the girl rudely said ‘wait here for the coffee’. We won’t be returning until there is a change in the staff attitude.