Henry's Seafood Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Cotswold District

Me and 8 friends came in together on Saturday. 2 people immediately purchased drinks while the rest of us went to find a table to sit down as it looked rather busy, waiting for the others to come back before ordering drinks. Within 5 minutes a worker (blond gentlemen) came over and said we had to order drinks in order to stay. Which at the time was very polite and understandable as it was busy. Another 3 of us went to order drinks, one of which did not have his ID on him and ordered a coke, the rest of us deciding what to get - sat at the table. He was asked for his ID, which of course he did not have, and got kicked out as he did not have his ID and looked under 25 and so was told he could not be on the premise even though ordering a non alcoholic drink. Having had some of us already order drinks by this point and one of our friends being kicked out it would be useful if maybe you could ask people for ID as they walk in if they look under 25 or if you know there is a large group of people who look under 25, which you did, making sure everyone has their ID and letting them know that if they don’t or are under 18 they can’t be on the premises before ordering. Or, simply having a sign outside saying no under 18s or those without sufficient ID allowed past a certain time.

Furthermore, the blond gentlemen came over again and counted how many of us had drinks in a rather passive aggressive tone telling us the rest of us needed to order or leave - bare in mind we hadn’t even been sat down for 10 minutes by this point, there were now about 3 empty benches outside, 4 of us had ordered drinks and another person had tried to order a coke and was kicked out, therefore we were obviously not going to order anymore drinks as we couldn’t leave our friend alone outside so we were trying to finish what we had ordered before leaving. I understand the no ID rule and being on a premises but I think this could have been handled a lot better and we felt rather discriminated against for being younger although we were not disturbing anyone and were in the process of settling in and ordering people by people to keep our table and belongings safe.

I have been to Henry’s before and have previously had pleasant experiences but this has ultimately ruined mine and my friend’s views...

So, true story. We'd actually booked a table at Teatro on the outskirts, but ended spending our evening here! We actually attempted to head over to the Mad Hatters wine bar for pre-drinks at 7pm, but it was closed. We had parked near this place earlier in the day and thought it looked nice from the outside, so decided to try here instead.

Immediately there is a wicked vibe in this place, and the staff all mega friendly and attentive. We sat at the bar and ordered a glass of albariño, a vodka martini (off menu, but they obliged anyway!) and a bowl of crispy pork skin bites. Let's start with the pork bites - Jesus Christ! I was ready to drop everything and just order 12 bowls of these damn things. Drinks all spot on, we were hooked.

The change of plans were instigated by the friendly waiter who was looking after us, informing us of the sad decline over at Teatros, and that instead Henry's was the place to be - he wasn't far wrong. After another round of drinks, we headed over to the comfortable dining area to embark on a late supper. We shared a bowl of black garlic arinicini (served with an addictive basil sauce - both just so delicious), I went for a rib-eye steak and the missus a stone bass. We shared a bowl of lobster fries.

Firstly the rib eye was just perfect. I can't remember many rib eye steaks which I've enjoyed more. The dry age really brought the flavour of the meat to the table and the accomplishments were just absolutely spot on (roasted cherry tomatoes, crispy dehydrated mushrooms and a parmesan and rocket salad). Sadly the stone bass was an ever so slight miss (not sure if it was a bad cut, or cooked badly), but it never made it onto the bill, so no tears over here! The lobster fries were fun, flavoursome with little bits of lobster in them. It was all washed down with a sublime bottle of beaujolais.

Really the place would have got 6 stars (notwithstanding the stone bass) because it was just a really great combination of quality, great vibe and great staff. A massive shout-out to Miles, who was an absolute star throughout. He'll be a sommelier at a high end Michelin star...

Disappointing!!

We have been to Henry's on a number of occasions for drinks but never eaten there.

We had been told by a number of friends it was a decent place to eat. Unfortunately we didn't have the same experience.

We had to wait a while for our starter with other tables receiving their food before ours who had ordered after us. We believe our order was missed.

We were more than happy to forget that until the starter did finally show up. We had crispy monkfish tail tacos (£18 each), to be fair they looked good but the monkfish was lukewarm and the piece I tried was dry, I was expecting it to be piping hot & succulent if it had just come out of the fryer?

I made the waitress aware of this and she took both starters back to the kitchen as my wife's was the same. The explanation from the chef was that the small amount of salsa on the taco cooled the fish down from when it was plated up to arriving at our table, I don't think so, the middle of the fish was lukewarm, salsa would not have been able to do that in such a short amount of time.

They said they would cook again but we would have to wait sometime for it to arrive

So no starter!!

We hoped they would redeem themselves with the recommended special of Venison with a crocket & puree. No such luck, the Venison portion was 2 small pieces that were dry & again Lukewarm, the crocket was nice and piping hot (just out of the fryer!!) They also forgot the veg we ordered which in my opinion was much better than the venison, it says something when a broad bean is better than the meat on your plate.

We ate it because we were really hungry by that point but definitely not worth the £26 price tag.

For the price you pay at Henrys you expect a certainly quality but we didn't receive that

I am a local to Cirencester & won't be recommending Henry's, I will be telling friends & family about this experience & I won't be going in again...