The Haven Hotel

Beautiful venue. good speedy weddingservice, made us feel special, (though one young lady didn’t know non alcoholics would be free during dinnerservice, luckily my brother noticed and corrected it but hopefully this didn’t happen at any other table where it wasn’t maybe noticed) but the two management ladies are just too busy making you feel like a nuisance when we ask for the most basic things, just not the nicest people to work with, especially when its for your big day.. Never asked us how we were the next day (even heard someone else at breakfast say how rude she was, her face said it all) or how our stay was (the bridal suite was beautiful thanks). The main thing was that the coordinator reassured and promised us a couple of times this vegan seafood paella would be done exactly as per recipe link sent, as we were kind of worried because we weren’t going to get a proper second tasting of the main meals as they were too busy (They accidentally messed up the first time already not having watched the link as they served us proper seafood paella that time) , also confirmed a couple of optional ingredients that I insisted to be in it from the recipe, but the ingredients weren’t in it at all (even some random ones not in the recipe were added like broccoli??!) nor was the link even ever watched because they completely used different mushrooms( oyster mushrooms instead of KING oyster mushrooms, to create the ‘scallops’??!!! They even wrote the dish and ingredients literally on the weddingmenu for the guests, how can you mess that up let alone be ok to dish out a terrible bland dish, ,worst attempt of a paella, as a chef/coördinator to 90 guests? Guess when you don’t care. presentation was also so underwhelming (small plate, at the tasting it was served beautifully in a paella pan and looked amazing,aside from the seafood), same as the other main linguini dish, served like canteen food. People complained they were still starving after the three courses. Salad was also presented differently by the way( not in a good way) and in general all dishes just weren’t plated consistently like some people complaining they barely had any salad dressing. (The other simple soup was nice but can’t go wrong luckily and the dessert the same, a simple crumble, cause they thought a suggested creme brûlée wasn’t possible). It started well with lovely afternoon canapés and even the nightsnacks were nice (even though there were no cups of fries that she also confirmed us would be there normally, which is totally fine, but just pointing out again the inconsistencies /lack of communication). Just a real real pity the food wasn’t memorable which obv you’d love it to be for your wedding.. ( also they could’ve added it for themselves that they catered a succesful delicious vegan wedding but maybe that’s just me). But the day, the place and the staff(except the ones mentioned above) and the genuinely nice owner Paul) was just so amazing that we don’t let it be overshadowed by the food part. Just such a shame cause the dish is so easy and the dinner could’ve been so amazing. And ofcourse being worried overall during the organising of the wedding is not a nice feeling just because they didn’t have time to do a main meal tasting. As a reference this is the link, (which looked nothing like the small plates served, but unfortunately can’t add the photo here) https://youtu.be/2GXi1i0uUW4 . If they would’ve actually asked us for feedback we could’ve maybe had the time to process everything and the bill on the day after and realize all this and what we’ve actually paid for instead really.. but being in the honeymoon buzz and easygoing as we were we didn’t have the energy so we def. overpaid. (even Made us pay 25euros for that small paella plate for the photographer, when also we even had some no shows that they were aware of but ok). So no LUCKILY this didn’t mark the day but yeah, had to be said.:) Wish I’d either insisted on a proper main meal tasting or that they could’ve been honest about it so we could’ve come up with some easier dish or something. Or just done a buffet if we knew they couldn’t manage. But yeah we wouldn’t change the day/venue if we could do it over though. Had the best time other than that!

Thank you all so much to the staff at The Haven Hotel for our fantastic wedding day. You were amazing! Food fantastic, setting stunning. Claire & Diarmaid