I so wanted to give the Oyster Catcher a good review, but in the end it's going to get an overly…read moregenerous three stars, and here's why...
Anglesey is not the most gastronomic of places, so when we stumbled across the Oyster Catcher we were pleasantly surprised. The massive, modern building loomed out of the sea mist and immediately we decided to pull over and investigate.
The building itself was designed Haf Haus, a German company famed for its large, glass-fronted, environmentally friendly buildings. It really stands out, particularly on an island which still boasts mainly 60's architecture! The building itself boasts a bar, cafe and restaurant so we decided to stop for lunch.
The Oyster Catcher is the brainchild of the Timpson Family, more famous for shoe repairs than fine dining! However, they decided to set up the OC as a chefs academy to help young unemployed people on the island, the idea originally stemming from a visit to Jamie Oliver's Fifteen restaurant in London. With this kind of motivation behind the project and a fantastic building to boot, I was really excited about our lunch here. The menu was large and varied, and many of the dishes were designed and cooked by the cadets. Some of the servers were a little shy but there was obviously some more experienced staff to keep the cadets in check. We started with some focaccia bread and a glass of wine each and all was looking good. However, the mains were a bit of a let down. I went for the mackerel with parsley mash and tomato and mussel casserole. It was fairly tasty but not massive in size. My partner went for one of the specials, the plaice with new potatoes. When it arrived it came as a giant bowl of spuds and a tiny fish. A bit bemused, my boyf went ahead and ate the first side (it took three mouthfuls) but when he turned the fish over there was nothing on the other side! A £13 main dish gone in three bites?? - this can't be right! When the waitress came to clear our plates we mentioned that the fish was very small and on top of this, something had obviously gone wrong in the cooking as one side was missing completely and someone had obviously tried to cover this up by serving it the other way up! We were very polite about our complaint, wanting to feedback to the trainee chefs more than anything. The waitress said she would feedback to the kitchen and the mistake would be rectified in the bill. We didn't get a response, which to be honest I was expecting, and when we finally got someones attention for the bill, we found that 10% had been knocked off his dish alone. A gesture I guess, but not really an appropriate one.
I don't often complain in restaurants, and when I do I'm not necessarily expecting this to be reflected in the bill, but some feedback and explanation from the kitchen would have been appreciated. We left feeling a little disappointed as I had really wanted to love this place. I would certainly give it another chance, and urge other people to do the same as what they are trying to achieve here is fantastic, but at the same time, they need to provide better food and service if they want to sustain this project over the long term.
