Y Felinheli
Anti-Welsh language complaints at restaurant 'on a daily basis'
Comic Tudur Owen, who runs the Ty Golchi near Y Felinheli, said the criticisms were 'relentless'
A Gwynedd restaurateur says he is having to deal on an almost daily basis with complaints from English customers about his staff speaking Welsh.
Tudur Owen says he's tired of having to defend the language after the latest complaint in a review posted on TripAdvisor.
The Anglesey-born comic, who owns Ty Golchi near Y Felinheli , said the criticism was "relentless".
Lesley J, who has written 15 reviews for the travel site, wrote: "Called here last year mid afternoon and thought what a nice place to stop. So we made a special trip this week for mid morning drinks as we were staying in Llandudno.
"We were seated with menus, however two pairs of the young waitresses seemed to want to catch up on chat and we waited quite a while. Evenentually we caught someone's eyes and she took our order without much enthusiasm. The drinks arrived and again not with too much gusto. The place was filling up and we noticed all conversations was in Welsh, both with staff and customers. It appeared it was a place that gave preferential treatment. Our party of four was English and felt very isolated. Will not be returning here."
The couple gave a rating for the eaterie as two out of five.
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Tudur said: "I'm finding this relentless criticism of the Welsh language draining, it feels at the moment like we have to defend it on a daily basis.
"A minority of English people do seem to be quite ignorant of the fact that people speak Welsh as their first language-that's it's not a hobby and we don't speak it to make English people feel isolated.
"It's not a secret code."
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Tudur who although still owns the premises has leased it to a couple from Anglesey continued: "The staff in no way give preferential treatment to other Welsh people, however what the restaurant's policy is that it is totally bi-lingual-both languages are given equal footing.
"Menus are in Welsh and English, and staff as a rule greet people in Welsh first.
"Foreign visitors love hearing the language, but a tiny minority of English people don't.
"It can get quite ugly, we've had the Welsh menus thrown on the floor, and sometimes there are nasty comments but again this is from a tiny minority, nine out of 10 people are fine."
He added: "If people would learn just a couple of words in another language then it makes everybody smile, we live in a bilingual country and I can't believe in this day and age we still have to defend it."
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