Bunratty Castle Hotel across the road from the famous Irish landmark is pretty well perched, old world (1970's chic), and a I thought, a good place to bring my extended family for lunch on a Sunday. We were going to Kathleen's Bar, and the menu was a bit interesting in that it had Thai (or noodles) as opposed to just standard carvary. So far so good. We were seated and placed our order. We waited 20 minutes to do this. It was another 20 - 30 mins before the food arrived. I had "pork medallians" on noodle bed. Count them: 3 medallians the size of mcDonalds nuggets. The pork was over cooked and dry inside. Then the waiter came over and asked is everything ok? I said, "no, here's where you've gone wrong....". To which he replied, "I'm very sorry sir, I will convey your comments to the chef". Then my other half went to pay. I noticed that the person in front of me had received the wrong bill, so when my partner turned around and said "130 euro seems a bit high for four meals", we discovered that they had rung through the wrong bill on her credit card. wow. Now a full 30 minutes passed while the guys tried to figure out how to cancel that, and re charge. Oh yes, they were still going to charge us. THEN when my partner complained about the experience and how bad it was, the manager said "what, just because of this?" ?

It was a maddening experience and makes me wonder where our supposed high standards of customer service are in the Tourism sector.