A seafood restaurant in a marina should be great, right?
Unfortunately, this was not the case for our meal last night. Seven of us came to celebrate my step-brother's 14th birthday. We had a table inside next to the bar which was nice enough, and there is some fantastic seating out the front if the weather is good and there is a smaller group of you.
The menus were tatty and a bit generic looking. There was a huge choice which instantly got me worried as sometimes I think it is better for restaurants to do a few dishes well, rather than try to do everything moderately.
We ordered some bread to start, drinks and then our food, ordering a selection of different dishes across the table. The bread was fairly standard but unfortunately the oil was definitely not olive and was instead pale, flavourless and insipid. The olives that accompanied it, however, were tasty.
We then waited for our starters...and waited...and waited. After 45 minutes we chased them up and they eventually arrived approximately 1 hour after we had ordered. I understand that they were short staffed but this kind of wait is not acceptable. I had ordered the chicken liver pate which was average. My brother ordered the lobster bisque which was described as fish chowder when it was placed on the table - a bit of an undersell here! The waitress then proceeded to offer us black pepper before we had even had chance to taste the food - a mistrust in the chef's ability to season the dishes maybe?!
The wait wasn't too bad for the mains. My whole sea bass was ok, if a little overcooked. My boyfriends scampi in Provencal sauce was again insipid and the rice it was served with had been cooked to a mush. However, this was nothing compared to my Dad's lobster thermador. He managed to identify two mouthfuls of lobster but the rest had been filled up with tomato! We obviously pointed this out to the waiter who told him to eat it and he would bring him another one afterwards!! The second was better but unfortunately his cutlery was taken with the first dish and not replaced so he had to pinch some utensils from others. For a £20 dish this is totally unacceptable.
We didn't stay for puddings but they did bring the birthday boy a slice of cake with a sparkler in so we could appropriately embarrass him, the way only teenagers can be!
The meal with drinks was approximately £35 per head. However, the standard of the food and level of service in no way justified this price and I will not be going back. read more