The Scallop Shell — Restaurant in Bath

We read the positive reviews and booked here for dinner. Before I delve into why we rate this place a 2 for our visit, I’d like to say that the food was lovely overall.

The main reason why we gave a 2/5 is due to the overall carelessness and frustration that even a little effort would have made it a 5 star experience.

Positives:

Food was cooked very well, great flavours & the man who served us our wine was obviously clued up on wine - very professional.

Critiques:

This one was absolutely outrageous - a homeless man came in to beg, and mind you this is a proper sit down restaurant. He got to every table, EVERY SINGLE TABLE begging before the head chef noticed that he was there and told him to leave. The waiters were looking at him and said nothing, this brought everything down for us. I have never seen this before so was quite shocking to be honest.

£3.50 a piece prawn served with the poo sack.. the actual prawn itself was cooked well but gritty as anything, so brought everything down. This was also the starter which is supposed to set the tone for all other meals, so we didn’t expect to eat some poo for £3.50, especially at a specialised seafood restaurant.

One of our sauces was served to us in a chipped bowl, seems like a very obvious mistake and could have easily been avoided.

Scallop served untrimmed - I would half understand if both scallops came untrimmed, but one was trimmed and the other one wasn’t, so clearly an oversight.

Plate wait - it took around 10 minutes for anyone to clear our plates, we had a mountain of empty plates sitting around and no one came to collect them, the place wasn’t busy so not excusable.

Bay leaf in lentil curry - this is not hugely an issue, but I thought it was careless considering the price of the dish.

Took a very long time to sit down as hostess was away, there was a queue of people waiting to be sat, all had reservations.

Unseasoned chips.

Fruit flies were everywhere.

We appreciated the head chef saying thank you and have a good night, as well as kicking the homeless man out, but should have all been a front of house job. Again, carelessness.

Won’t be returning unless price point reflects...

A very busy restaurant, that deserves the crowds! Ordered the battered haddock - fish was cooked well and obviously particularly fresh, and the batter was very light and crisp. Chips were good, as were the mushy peas - although these were perhaps a little over-blended and smooth.

The range of fish is impressive, including grilled as well as battered options (and a small number of meat and vegetarian offerings just in case). Saw many people enjoying their grilled fish. My only fault with the menu was the lack of battered mackerel (particularly good combination, if you've yet to try it) - it's only available grilled here! (Although it's a plus to offer it in the first place.)

Also tried the crispy fried oysters. I've always been a bit put off from oysters, but The Scallop Shell had me at "crispy fried". This starter was delicious! Two very soft oysters in a thin coating of batter served in quite an attractive way. Would recommend trying this if you've not tasted oyster before! This was also on the cheaper end of the starters menu.

The prices are fairly high, but the quality and surprisingly quantity more than make up for it. If you're splashing out (does that count as a pun?), try the shell-on prawns. I didn't try them personally but they looked gorgeously pink and large.

Finally, while you'd be forgiven for thinking the crowds would be a black mark on this restaurant's record - fear not. If you walk in and ask for a table, and there isn't room, you have the option of heading to The New Inn next door for a drink, and a waiter will come and get you when they're ready. Any drinks you've bought you're able to bring with you to have with your meal - a good opportunity to get a glass of something not on the menu and potentially save a bit of cash.

In summary, an up-market fish and chip shop with great food and surprisingly good value for money....

I took my mom here after our hotel had recommended it, and after reading other reviews. We were really looking forward to it after our past two dinners in Bath were fantastic. Unfortunately this was not the case tonight. I’ll start by saying, I think we were just unlucky, everyone else has left great reviews and everyone at the restaurant seemed to enjoy their meals.

The staff were also very kind and attentive (more on that later)

We started with raw oysters and while they tasted good, they were not cleaned properly and 4 of the 6 had large pieces of shell in them.

I had the crab starter as well and that was very nice.

We both ordered a piece of fish (that was very oily and had no real seasoning) which came with a scallop (delicious) and a giant prawn…this is where I can’t forgive a fish restaurant. The prawn still had its head on (great) but had not been de-veined, and for those that don’t know, there’s a black line to at goes down the back of the shrimp that is normally removed at any restaurant because that vein is in fact a POOP SACK!

Tbh I was just sort of turned off the rest of the meal, and surprise surprise, my mom’s prawn hadn’t been de-veined either.

When the server came to collect our plates and asked how everything was I said it was fine, except for…and pointed at the shrimp, she knew exactly what the problem was and said she would let someone know. I have no idea if she did or not because we never saw her again and a different server dropped off our bill. Unfortunately it’s just a bad way to handle something like this. I’m not looking for anything removed or free dessert or anything, but even a “so sorry this happened” can go a long way.

Obviously this place has great reviews and it seems we just had an unlucky night, but hopefully they read this and remember to de-vein...