Discover the best restaurantof mediterranean in Carlow

01/02/2026: A place that creates a good mood.

16/01/2026: NB: I want to preface this by saying the owner personally came down and waived our bill after this incident, which I appreciated, but I still feel people should be aware of what to expect. Yesterday evening my partner and I went to Pimento after work and ordered 5 dishes. We were quite disappointed with the quality of a few of these and mentioned this to the waiting staff—though it took 10-15 minutes to get their attention—who quickly cleared the plates and said they’d give this feedback to the kitchen. No staff ever returned to our table after this point. However, we noticed the kitchen staff appeared to be glaring at us through the pass, though we shook this off and assumed we must be misunderstanding. After 15 minutes of waiting, we approached the counter ourselves. We were immediately presented with a card machine and asked to tap our card. I asked if I could get a bill first, which was retrieved. Upon reviewing it, I stated that I wasn’t really comfortable paying full price for a couple of these dishes as we weren’t satisfied with the quality and they didn’t match the descriptions. I wondered if anything could be done. I was told no—as we’d eaten some of the food we “must have liked it,” and either way, they had no way to modify the bill. I pushed back politely and asked if there was anybody on site who could make that decision. I was told no; there were no managers on the premises and nobody was able to modify any portion of the bill. When I asked if it would be possible to get somebody on the phone, I was again told no—not only were there no managers on-site, but they had no way of contacting any management. I was told my only option was to pay full price and try coming back another day. They then conceded that the chef was the only person of seniority, and I could enter the kitchen (during service) to speak to him, but that he also had no power to modify the bill. I said this wouldn’t really help, but the waitress then entered the kitchen to speak to him. My partner then tapped my shoulder and pointed out that the chef was leaning over the service pass, waving a €20 note in his hand, and pointing and beckoning at me. We approached, confused, and the chef immediately began to aggressively berate us in the middle of the restaurant. He implied that we were fabricating stories about not liking the food, and that if we were that cheap then he would “help us”—proceeding to throw a €20 note at us disdainfully while continuing to rant aggressively. The server, clearly also shaken by this behavior, led us back to the tills and apologized. She began using the chef’s €20 to cover part of the bill, but we interjected that this was really not appropriate. At this point, she suggested she call the owner. The owner arrived promptly, apologized for the chef’s unacceptable behavior, and waived our entire bill, which we appreciated. He noted that if not for the chefs behaviour, we likely would have received no discount as we had “eaten all the food” (untrue; we had eaten some of the food before ultimately deciding that it was really quite disappointing and we’d rather end the meal early), and that “you can’t please everyone”. I’ll attach a review of the food below and allow the reader to decide. ——————————————— The goats cheese bruschetta and halloumi fries were fine (although the “bruschetta” was two slices of French demi baguette, and the portion of 3 halloumi fries cost €9.65—presentation was nice and they tasted great though). However, the other dishes were disappointing. The “Catalan flatbread topped with fresh cherry tomatoes” was indistinguishable from an air fryer pizza with a single cherry tomato sliced on top; the “truffle and Parmesan fries” were just fries with what appeared to be day-old Parmesan on top and a side of mayonnaise; and the “patatas bravas topped with beef brisket, chorizo, taco sauce and cheese” was really just sliced baby potatoes topped with brisket and some quite dry mozzarella cheese with no sauce. The brisket was tasty, but overall the dish didn’t have much flavor.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​