East Beach Cafe — Restaurant in Arun

AN ABSOLUTE DISGRACE!

Chaotic, overpriced, poorly trained rude staff, greedily managed, disjointed service, appalling portion size, noisey.

I have recently moved into the area and this little cafe was the place I took visitors.

Admittedly it was Easter Sunday, so perhaps it speaks volumes that they had no problem accommodating our table of five without booking or delay? We were 'sort of' greeted and pointed in the general direction of our table then left unattended for almost half an hour at which point, I wish we had left.

The menu was not the normal menu offering cake, sandwiches, jackets and breakfast dishes, the type of food you expect in a cafe. The menu was instead extremely basic offering a handful of choices and completely over priced. £14.50 for a tiny portion of fish and chips, £15.50 for a small burger and little pot of chips served on a plank of scrap wood, more expensive than many actual restaurants I've visited in both Brighton and London! I don't mind paying for food of quality, but this was just in the interest of ripping people off. This is a clattery cafe in Littlehampton, not an a la carte restaurant on the banks of the River Thames. The managers are clearly extremely greedy and trying to push there luck.

I ordered the fish soup starter and a coffee and it was nearly £12! For a starter and coffee!? The fish soup was less than a cups worth with two mussels and three flakes of assumed white fish, served with a dry single slice of bread about half the size of a five- pound note. I waited for 10 minutes for someone to check on us, fed up with waiting, i had to walk to the counter and ask if that was actually it? The waiter smugishly offered some more bread, i appreciate it's a starter but for £8 in a cafe, I expect more.

As a table of five eating together, nothing arrived at the same time, despite asking the waiter for every to be served together. Parts of orders were delivered at random times by a different member of staff almost everytime, one of my bugbears when you're a group table all eating at different times.

I find it completely baffling how the place wasn't running in complete harmony?! There was only a few items on the menu and almost enough staff to have one per table. It was just complete chaos. Again, we waited nearly 15 minutes to ask for the bill, we wanted to leave. In the end, having to walk to the counter again and ask to pay, we were presented with the wrong bill and the server didn't even know what table we were on. We had a round of coffees and two starters and it came just shy of £30, the only reason I paid was because I was with people, a total rip off. Another member of staff took our money and practically threw the change at me whilst talking to her colleague with not so much as a thank you or acknowledgement. Appalling customer service skills and general manorisum.

East Beach needs to decide if it's a beachfront cafe or fish restaurant and stick to it. If a guest is paying upwards of £15 for a main they expect a competent service and basic restaurant procedures to be fulfilled.

I will never eat here again and pity...

Like so many other people I use Google reviews to help decide where to visit. In this respect East Beach Café scores well and I had reasonably high hopes. Unfortunately these hopes were dashed and I've been trying to work out why.

On the positive front the café is in a great location next to the beach and the staff are very helpful. We enjoyed a pair of gin & tonics with our meal and that part was great.

Unfortunately the food was a big let down both in terms of taste and price. I decided to try the carrot & pomegranate starter and what I received were two whole carrots with the fruit seeds arrayed on top. Which was just weird and not worth £7.

For the main I went with the Sussex smokie fish meal for £18 and sadly it sounded much better than the reality. There wasn't much fish to be found and meal itself was very salty. And never mind the over-cooked garlic bread! My partner went with the Goan aubergine curry at £15 and this certainly featured aubergine. A lot of aubergine!

So what went wrong? I can only imagine that they've got a new chef or that the regular chef in on holiday. Alternatively it could be that they're experts at cooking standard seaside food, such as fish and chips, but rather out of their depth elsewhere? It's a conundrum and all rather...

We came here with my son, wife and 6 month old grandson without reservation on a Sat afternoon around 1ish. It was pretty full but we were lucky because one table was just leaving I was approached by a lady, gave me a huge smile and straightaway, I knew I was into a winner. These days, the most you can get from staff is ‘no smile’. The worse is a frown’. I told her I do not have a reservation and even have a 6 month old baby. She said , no problem, that table is just leaving. She said to wait for a while whilst she cleaned and set the table. We took the opportunity to put the baby to nap. It worked very well, the baby slept throughout the whole meal. We ordered 3 fish and chips, 1 burger. 2 coffees, 2 cold drinks and 1 spritzer. The bill came to £95. Very reasonable. The food was good. Batter in fish was light, burger was juicy. No complaints whatsoever. The staff were all very friendly which makes a difference. Parking is easy as there’s a huge parking area just by the cafe.( ticket machine) There is the fantastic seaview from the cafe. Everyone once in a while, you get the seafront children train passing by. We had a...