Riverside Bar & Kitchen — Restaurant in East Cambridgeshire

Overall, inconsistent. I visited with my wife, small child and mother at the weekend. We arrived around 11.45am and my wife commented that if I fancied a cooked breakfast then I still had time to order one (a large sign outside the restaurant states "breakfast served until noon"). The inside of the venue is light, spacious and with very comfortable modern furniture, and when busy there is a pleasant but not overly noisy atmosphere. Upon being seated by the window (lovely view of the river) the waitress immediately informed us that no food was available until noon. I mentioned the sign indicating that breakfast was available until noon (this is also stated on the menus) and was informed that "the sign and menu information is wrong". No cooked breakfast for me then. The staff were pleasant and friendly, and our drinks order arrived promptly. The menu is a little limited, which may have to do with the fact that The Riverside Bar and Kitchen, The Cutter (the next venue along the waterfront) and the Grand Central diner (the next venue after The Cutter) all have the same owner. Clearly this is not a good thing as it means that menu choices are limited at each of the venues (we were told at The Cutter that large steaks were no longer on offer there because it was thought to detract from business at Grand Central) and there will be zero competition in terms of food and drink pricing. There is one steak on offer at this particular restaurant, and the price of £20 seemed to be a little expensive given the size of the serving. Anyway... My wife and I shared the delicious seafood platter as a starter. It arrived on two plates: the fish on a slate, and bread and butter on a small side plate. I had to go and ask the waitress to bring us some individual plates onto which the fish could be transferred for ease of consumption (these are provided at every other restaurant that I have ever visited) and these arrived after a minute or two. Sadly they were dirty, still with residue of scrambled egg adn bacon grease on them, so I asked for clean ones. They were returned a few minutes later having been wiped over and then dried with a presumably dirty tea towel (in the end I wiped them clean with my napkin). The fish platter itself was delicious and I can recommend it; the price was towards the upper end of reasonable. For mains my wife and I both enjoyed the barramundi which is not something commonly seen on UK menus. It was cooked in a Thai style, and was delicious, the dish marred only by the bizarre choice of a side salad containing raw onions which served to drown out the delicate flavour of the fish. Chef please take note. This dish was £14 which we felt was about right. My mother enjoyed the steak (£20; it looked to be 8oz or less, so a little steep I thought) which was served with chips, mushrooms, tomato and a small salad (the latter being drowned in some sort of sweet dressing). We didn't stay for coffee or dessert. Overall the venue seems perfectly adequate, with ample comfortable seating both inside and out; the staff are friendly if a little lacking in initiative or genuine will to provide great customer service; the food is tasty, although the menu options are disappointingly limited and the pricing seems a little on the steep side; the dirty plates put a real downer on the experience for me as frankly I really expect better (having worked in a kitched washing dishes I know that it isn't that difficult to wash, rinse and dry properly so please try harder); the lavatories were in good order. We will probably visit again but this place wouldn't be my first choice. For riverside dining that only really leaves The Cutter or Grand Central. Not much to choose from when all is...

Update to the below: It was really nice of RBK to reply and it's made me want to go back and try it again so thank you. 😊

Unfortunately our visit was a real let down. We arrived for an early tea on a Saturday around 4.30pm. Firstly we were given a table right under a speaker blasting out music, couldn't hear the person opposite speak. Asked to move and ended up by the window which was better but the music still was an issue. People were talking loudly because they probably couldn't hear each other and it just made for a loud environment. Ordered a couple of carverys, a pizza and a kids meal of sausage and chips. Waited a while for someone to come over and after a bit the pizza and kids meal came. And then we waited and waited with no idea what was supposed to happen with the carvery. Nobody came over and so my partner went to ask and was told they do it for you, someone should have told you to go up... Carvery consisted of turkey, beef and gammon, Yorkshire puddings which had been sitting under a heat lamp for ages and so were rock hard, roast potatoes that clearly had also been sat for a while as it was impossible to cut them, approx 8 pieces of carrot - half of which were stuck to the pan, peas/cabbage fine, roast parsnips fine, stuffing saltier than the sea. The gravy was watery and tasteless. All in all it was a huge let down. We sat right next to the carvery and nobody else went up after us or before we left and at no point did anyone come and give things a stir or make sure it was okay. It's just left to fester. I'm guessing the time of day we went maybe was the reason for the poor food as it's too late for lunch and early for dinner so you're not getting the turnover to keep it fresh, but you can't serve Yorkshire puddings to people that have been slowly turning from nice soft fluffy things to something that you could fire out of a cannon. No staff came anywhere near us so we could mention anything and even when we had finished we sat there for a fair while and nobody came to take the plates or ask about pudding. We gave up and bought a dessert from the Tesco nearby! And no it wasn't that busy. To be honest the kids meal was the best thing on the table, sausages lovely. You are either a bar in which case the music was at a good volume, or maybe for a Saturday night, or you are a restaurant/carvery. I don't think you know anymore what you are and hence why it's not a great atmosphere. Don't get me wrong, it's a nice place to sit outside for a drink in the summer but we would never eat here again. It's very expensive too. £16.95 for a burger and chips which I wish I had just paid for instead of going for the carvery. Hindsight is a...

Shocking. This WAS my favourite place to go with the lovely location. I have been many times to RBK in the 2 years of living here, but today has made me reluctant to return. Not for food anyway. Using the help out to eat out scheme you don't expect to be given appalling food (I ordered a chicken caeser salad, not exactly a difficult order) and quite frankly my 11 year old could make a better salad than what I was given. Barely a handful of lettuce literally thrown in a box with about 3 tiny bits of dry chicken served with honey mustard dressing????? What chef does not know how to make a ceaser salad? It was shocking. Charging almost £13 for about 10 pieces of lettuce and dry chicken that looked like plastic. I was offered a new one as I went to complain, to be told sacastically "Well you got 50% off anyway so you haven't actually paid full price have you?". RUDE. It doesnt matter if it was £1 or full price you dont bring out poor food to a paying customer when your claiming it back anyway from the government. Would that have been served on a Thursday when the scheme doesn't apply? What a rude girl who I have often witnessed being snotty and sarcastic to people. To top it off she was shouting out peoples orders like she was working on a fruit and veg stall. What's the point of table numbers if you going to shout over other peoples tables? How can management let this happen? I completely appreciate the changes, the one way system in place, food being served in a box and have adhered to them to respect how hard the staff work, doing extra jobs that they did not have to do before and simply following guidlelines but that doesnt mean the service needs to be of " I dont care" attitude. That is someones business, who like most businesses, are wanting to be up and running again successfully, welcoming customers back into full swing, without having rude sarcastic staff making them want to leave and not return and a chef that thinks lettuce and dry chicken with a wrong dressing makes a caesar salad. My replacement was not much better. More dry chicken (warm) thrown on top with cheddar cheese and croutons. I didnt eat it as I wasn't sure if I'd end up getting salmonella as it was clearly reheated. I planned to bring all the family here next week but will now go somewhere else. What a shame as it's such a beautiful location but the food Is a massive let down (not the 1st time now either) Dont be greedy and serve poor food, your better off serving the best to keep your customers...