Before its recent closure Park House was often ranked among Cardiff's top restaurants. In the eyes of many in the hospitality industry, though, the venue has long held a murkier reputation. One former employee claimed its "problems" are such an open secret that when they tell job interviewers they worked there, the reaction is often one of sympathy.
The restaurant and wine bar — based at Park Place in a Grade-I listed oak-panelled Victorian mansion designed by the legendary William Burges — ran from 2005 until last month, when we reported on customers' complaints that they had made reservations and turned up only to find the venue had closed down. Our story also covered the anger of a groom-to-be who was due to have his wedding reception at Park House in May this year. He claimed the business failed to inform him of its closure and only refunded his £3,000 deposit after WalesOnline raised his concerns.
Since publishing that piece we have spoken with former staff about their experiences of the business and its owner Adam Pledger. A group of 12 recent front-of-house workers and chefs claim they are owed a total of £25,000 in unpaid wages, but there are other allegations dating back years. They range from a "toxic" culture and "exhausting" work conditions to court orders, tax issues and suppliers chasing debts. Two former head chefs claim Mr Pledger falsely accused them of stealing equipment after he failed to pay their wages.
When we approached Mr Pledger for our previous story, the 44-year-old claimed: "We have no scheduled events." But after publishing the piece we spoke to two couples who had previously booked wedding receptions at Park House — and had allegedly still not been told their events would be cancelled or had their deposits returned. One bride-to-be, whose wedding was around three weeks away, said she felt "delirious" when she learned from our article that the venue had shut.
Responding to the new allegations, a Park House spokesman said: "Due to legal reasons, we cannot comment on individual cases, but we do refute the contents of this article. We are one of the 13,000 hospitality businesses that have closed since Covid. And it is with great sadness that Covid coupled with the cost-of-living crisis meant the business became unsustainable. We are working hard to minimise the distress caused to all stakeholders."
'He seemed very confident in himself'
In a magazine interview last year, Mr Pledger said he "started life as a marine biologist" before opening a wine merchant and then Park House. Described by SquareMeal as offering "classical French cooking", the restaurant was widely praised and attracted big-name diners including Sir David Attenborough. In 2013 Park House was listed in the Michelin Guide for the first time and at one point had two AA rosettes, as well as winning AA Wine Awards.
Whispers of troubles largely stayed in hospitality circles and, until recently, the closest thing to a public controversy was a 2012 planning row when Mr Pledger placed a giant red ribbon around the building. There was a hiccup in 2019 when we reported on the restaurant having to close for two days because two chefs had "walked out without warning", but the accolades continued to come.
Grady Atkins, a highly respected chef who has worked in kitchens around the world and top Cardiff restaurants like Bacareto, became head chef at Park House in 2011. "Mr Pledger headhunted me, told me everything a chef wants to hear about the ambition of his place," said the 52-year-old. "He seemed very confident in himself."
But Mr Atkins recalls feeling concerned from the first day. "There was only one other member of staff in the kitchen. Adam worked 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday, which I thought was strange for a restaurant owner. He seemed to like being a bit flash and was often walking around with a cocktail on a Friday afternoon. He was hellbent on getting three rosettes and a Michelin star. I mean, completely obsessed about it."
Mr Atkins only worked at the restaurant for three months. He claims he decided to leave after learning of an alleged pay dispute with suppliers. "I found out he was in lots of debt to suppliers through chatting with them," he said. "The suppliers said they only kept coming back because they were told they wouldn't get a penny if they left. I said I wanted to talk to Mr Pledger about this but he avoided me."
After Mr Atkins handed in his notice, Mr Pledger allegedly made a false accusation that he had stolen property from Park House. The chef, who felt this was "an excuse to withhold wages", went to an employment tribunal, which found the restaurateur owed him £3,645 in wages and notice pay. "I found the whole process very stressful," said Mr Atkins.
WalesOnline has put Mr Atkins' allegations to Mr Pledger. At the time of publication he has not specifically responded.
'A very charming man when he has to be'
Gordon Jones, previously head chef at the Old Bell, a four-star hotel in Wiltshire, joined Park House a couple of months before the first coronavirus lockdown. He was aware Park House was "in all the right guides" and he had been impressed by Mr Pledger's "fantastic" wine knowledge.
"He's a very charming man when he has to be," said the 46-year-old former Park House head chef. "He's arrogant and a bit rude, but when he's with the right people he says the right things."
Mr Jones claimed: "Before the pandemic, pay was always at least a week late. Trying to explain that to your partner is hard work. But it was when the pandemic kicked in and the restaurant closed that things went really wrong.
"Adam told us everything was going to be fine and we were guaranteed furlough. But we had contacts at other restaurants telling us their furlough payments had already started. I checked my personal tax page and to my disbelief, even though I'd had payslips from Park House, there was no record of any of my pay."
The UK Government had confirmed that anyone registered for furlough before March 19, 2020, would be eligible. But Mr Jones claims his employment was listed on the HMRC website as starting on March 21 despite his allegedly having signed a contract two months earlier.
"Adam told me HMRC had made a mistake," Mr Jones added. "This went along for a while. He then said he was putting the business in insolvency. I said, 'If we need to have an arrangement where I'm paid back over time, I get it.' And he said, 'No, it's all going to be sorted.'"
The following day Mr Pledger allegedly accused Mr Jones of stealing kitchen equipment including a £4,500 Pacojet ice cream machine. In a message, purportedly from Mr Pledger, the chef was told that only he and one other colleague had keys to the building. The message said: "As you have both been colluding since day one, I fully believe you have knowledge of this theft... or you have stolen this equipment... I suggest that you return the equipment before this situation becomes very serious."
Mr Jones replied that he was happy for police to investigate because he had nothing to hide. The accusation then "disappeared", said the chef, who went to an employment tribunal. Mr Pledger's wine company Batonnage — which according to Mr Jones' contract was his employer — was ordered to pay £6,119 due to an unlawful deduction in wages and failure to pay holiday entitlement.
But more than two years on, Mr Jones claims his ex-boss has ignored the judge's order, paid none of the debt and failed to reply to messages. "I would have to pay upfront for bailiffs and if he was to claim bankruptcy, I might not get that money back," said the chef. "Adam knows the system. He has the luxury of knowing I can't do anything unless I pay to send some heavies round. It's insane."
WalesOnline has seen records of eight other tribunals since 2019 in which Mr Pledger was found to owe wages. Across those cases his company, Park House 20 Ltd, was ordered to pay a total of £17,449.
One case was brought by a former assistant manager at the restaurant, Shaun Currie, who claimed the restaurateur had promised furlough payments that did not arrive. Court papers show Mr Pledger asked to postpone the case because he had another court hearing on the same day over "monies owed to a supplier". Judge Gemma Cawthray allowed him a break to attend the other hearing, but later rejected his claim that no furlough had been offered.
Despite sending an email vowing Mr Currie would be paid furlough, the restaurant owner did not apply for funds from the Government scheme, the tribunal heard. Judge Cawthray found Mr Pledger had provided late payslips which did not tally with Mr Currie's bank statements. Speaking about the payslips, the judge said "it is by no means clear that the monies deducted (purportedly for tax and National Insurance) have actually found their way to HMRC".
Judge Cawthray added that it was "apparent" Mr Pledger lacked "awareness of employment obligations". She ordered that Mr Currie receive £4,685 in unpaid wages, holiday pay and unnotified deductions.
WalesOnline has put Mr Jones' allegations to Mr Pledger and given him a chance to comment on the eight other court orders. At the time of publication he has not specifically addressed them.
'His personality is the problem'
Joshua, who worked as a Park House bartender in 2017, had felt optimistic about the job after being impressed by Mr Pledger's knowledge of wines and fine dining. The 29-year-old said: "He was someone I was looking to learn a lot from. His reputation as an authority on wines is definitely deserved but his personality is the problem."
He claims Mr Pledger made him feel "uncomfortable" when it came to breaks. "If you ever mentioned you were taking a break, he would show a lot of disdain," said Joshua. "You could be taking five minutes' break in a 12-hour shift and he would say, 'What are you doing?'"
Joshua, who says he was on minimum wage, claims there were "constant" issues with suppliers, who would "come in demanding payment". He added: "That was quite concerning in my first month, having an angry person at the door. On one occasion the restaurant manager had to pay a supplier himself and Adam had to pay him back."
WalesOnline has put Joshua's allegations to Mr Pledger. At the time of publication he has not specifically responded.
Another former staff member, who started working at Park House in 2019 and wants to remain anonymous, said missed or late wage payments were "very common". They claim the restaurant was understaffed and placed inexperienced workers in positions they were not ready for, which often saw them leave within a few months.
"I'd definitely say the culture was toxic a lot of the time, but not through any fault of the employees, including the restaurant manager," they said. "You can't make a group of people work in a stressful job like that, without the support they need and expect them to keep things positive, especially if payroll isn't being handled properly."
WalesOnline has put these allegations to Mr Pledger. At the time of publication he has not specifically responded.
One woman said she joined Park House as a receptionist in 2021 when she was 17 years old, at a verbally agreed rate of £9.50 an hour. She claims she was never given a contract or payslips despite repeatedly asking for both. When she complained her pay was being deducted, her manager allegedly told her the record of hours she had worked was "altered" based on "the quality of work".
The now-19-year-old claims she left after not being paid at all for her final two shifts. She alleges she is owed £335, not including 'service charge' money. She and other former staff have claimed to WalesOnline that the charge was set at 12.5% of customers' bills but that they did not receive those payments.
Another woman, who spent a month working at Park House before its closure, said: "We've estimated that the restaurant brought in around £6,000 in service charge a month... On some shifts, there were as few as six staff on, and from what my colleagues have said, most never received a penny of this money."
She added: "While I did not work there long, I did work a 14-hour shift where I only got a 20-minute break. If you sat down for even a minute since you were exhausted, you were told to get up or leave. This is evidently mistreatment of staff. I also worked a nine-hour shift where I was granted no break at all."
WalesOnline has put these allegations to Mr Pledger. At the time of publication he has not specifically responded.
'We all feel very let down'
The latest crop of staff allegedly includes three chefs owed £7,000 and nine front-of-house workers owed £18,000 in total unpaid wages. They claim they were last paid on February 14 despite some of them working into March. In a statement to WalesOnline the group said: "We all feel very let down by [Mr Pledger] and Park House given the fact we all worked incredibly hard and long hours, sometimes 16 hours a day. He can’t continue to get away with this... People have bills to pay and lives outside of Park House."
Some of the recent staff members allege they never received contracts or payslips and were never offered a workplace pension scheme. The chef team claim they quit at the start of March due to concerns that incorrect tax was being paid on their wages. WalesOnline has seen a message allegedly sent by Mr Pledger to one of the chefs on March 3: "[My accountant] says by the end of next week everything will be on the HMRC system."
Mr Pledger chose not to respond to the tax allegations. Earlier this month, when we asked why the Companies House register shows the business' accounts have been overdue since 2020, he said: "Trying to keep the business going since reopening after Covid has been a consistent struggle. Along with the rise of the cost of living crisis our electric and gas bills had risen dramatically. The pressure of running this business and trying to keep staff in jobs has led to accounts being filed late and admin failing behind."
After the chefs resigned, front-of-house staff were reportedly drafted into the kitchen, with the restaurant sporadically open until its eventual closure around mid-March. Some workers claim their messages asking about unpaid wages have been blanked by Mr Pledger. Others say he has given a series of dates for planned payments but missed each one.
Mr Pledger runs another business, Wine Republic, from the cellar of Park House. One former restaurant employee claimed there were still thousands of bottles of wine in the cellar when the restaurant shut. Although cases priced at hundreds of pounds are still shown as available on the wine merchant's website, the latest four reviews all give a one-star rating. One claimed that bottles were missing from their order, another that the business ignored their complaint over "corked" wine, a third that their wine arrived 11 days late, and a fourth that their order never arrived at all.
We have put all of the above allegations to Mr Pledger. We have not received specific responses. Before we ran our previous story, Mr Pledger told us on April 4: "All customers have been informed [of Park House's closure] and bookings cancelled and where a deposit has been paid a full refund has been given." But one woman whose wedding was scheduled for April 29 has since claimed that she was not updated when Park House closed and that her deposit of around £1,000 is yet to be returned. Another bride-to-be, Bee Hang Doan, claimed her last contact from the business was in February when she got an email about the planned menu for her August wedding. Ms Doan said she has repeatedly tried to call the venue about her £1,000 deposit without getting through. She described the situation as "outrageous".
Another customer told us: "We’ve been trying to get hold of Park House for weeks having been told our booking in March for the tasting menu (bought as a Christmas gift) was cancelled because of a 'staff sickness bug'. We couldn’t get hold of them to rearrange, haven’t heard anything from them at all, no correspondence to say they are closed, and no refund. Tasting menu was paid upfront so over £200 lost."
Mr Pledger has not specifically responded to the new allegations. He said last month: "In hindsight we probably shouldn't have reopened [after the pandemic]. The business has now closed and we are working through raising monies and putting payment plans in place for all outstanding suppliers and staff that are still owed monies... We are heartbroken we have had to shut and that some customers have been affected negatively by this. This was not our intention and [we are] truly sorry for any upset caused."
If you would like to contact us about any issues we should be investigating, you can email conor.gogarty@walesonline.co.uk
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