Rockfish — Restaurant in East Devon

We came here tonight as a family of four and had a few complaints about the service moreso than food.

First we were seated underneath a heater which we were never consulted about and my partner and I found a little overbearing. Would have been nice if we were asked if it was ok or too hot.

Secondly we were asked what we wanted to drink as soon as we were seated at the table which was not properly dressed and had a napkin missing ... no big deal but the cutlery didn't appear very clean either.

We had to ask for a minute or two to choose drinks as it seemed a bit rushed and we couldn't immediately decide as soon as we had sat down (literally) .

Now... not the restaurants fault but my partner doesn't like seafood at all where as the other 3 of us do and I didn't think it would be an issue as most sea food places have a couple non fish dishes for those that don't. Unfortunately there was only one main that was chicken and no starters that didn't contain fish so he went hungry... but again not necessarily the restaurants issue but I'd always like to think that in a party sometimes theres one person who isn't overly keen and also fish starter and main can be a bit much for some people so perhaps a non fish starter would be a welcome addition.

We ordered drinks and asked for a jug of water for the table alongside our alcohol.

The waitress explained the dishes of the day and proceeded to explain what samphire was to us like we had never eaten in a restaurant before. I couldn't quite deal with being patronised at the explanation so said "yes we've had samphire before" but it was just... I don't know. A bit judgemental to assume we wouldn't know what the various foods were...

We ordered two starters for myself and my daughters to share (children) as they dont have starters on the childrens menu....but they forgot to bring one out until we had finished the other and had to ask for it. No water came.

When the prawns came They were in shells which we liked but usually at a fish restaurant when handling shells you are given a wipe or finger bath of which there were neither...

Mains came out and I must say the chips were beautiful... Best iv had. Food was cooked well . I had the Ray which had an odd aftertaste of like fennel and was overly salted but cooked nicely. The Ray was 25 pound for one portion and I had expected some sort of green on the plate... be it a few leaves of lettuce or maybe a little portion of peas but there was none of that and I wasn't advised of that so just had literally a plate of fish to eat which got quite tiresome without any green to break it up. It was cooked really nicely though.

We were asked if we wanted sauces and the kids wanted some ketchup for their chips (aged 9 and 11) however that was never bought out until we had to ask for it again. We also asked again for the water which eventually arrived.

We didn't have desert as to be fair I felt a bit yuck after eating so much seafood with too much salt and no veg so couldn't bear the thought of it.

It's a real shame as I had read good reviews and love sea food but here the fault lies squarely with the service received... or lack of.

Nice enough waitresses as face value but quite obviously didn't care.

If this were my business I'd probably invest more in training front of house skills as with some mains coming in around £40.... you...

We were a party of 4 and this was the second time I’d eaten here . We ordered 6 oysters between 2 as a starter. The oysters were served with a what was supposed to be,I guess a mignonette , but it was, I think, onions rather than shallots, in a poor quality red wine vinegar, which altogether was too strong for the oysters. The oysters were fresh but mixed in size and had not been properly shucked, so we were left trying to separate them from the shell with a fork.I chose the scallop starter as a main course but was disappointed to find it smothered in soggy, oily breadcrumbs that did nothing to add to an already oily, oven baked dish . It was served with slices of baguette— I guess to mop up the oil. The side of spinach that I ordered as a side was fresh , but was no more than an oily, garlicky spoonful, and at £3.50 for the quantity , was outrageous . The chips were homemade and good . The wine list, for a seafood restaurant, was woefully lacking in not having a classic Chablis or Sancerre on its list, ( it has had previously ) yet expecting to charge just short of £40 for an Albariño. We ordered Picpoul de Pinet as the alternatives in that price bracket were Italian wines ( pinot blanco or pinot Grigio ) not really suitable for the seafood on offer. Our friends ordered the Frito misto and fish and chips . They said it was ok, but in reality they weren’t paying takeaway prices. I don’t know if they served deserts because no one came to ask if we wanted one, or offered us a desert menu . We asked for the bill , and it came . No one asked if we wanted a coffee or a liqueur . It was a Friday night , and it wasn’t booked out or particularly busy . I think...

Mixed feelings. On the one hand the food was great, however - even though when we arrived there were only two groups ahead of us - the main courses took almost an hour to arrive. We would have loved to order dessert, but sadly we didn’t have time for it since our parking ticket was for two hours (we had thought this would be plenty of time).

We mentioned to the manager that the food was taking a long time, and she said she would check. Apparently she sent one of the waitresses to apologise, however I’d suggest in future it’s the manager who apologises in this situations as this is generally the done thing elsewhere in such circumstances and shows a bit more consideration and awareness.

Also, the 500ml carafe of wine has a marker on the neck showing ‘500ml’ and when we received it the amount of wine in the carafe was well below this mark. We asked if it could be topped up to that mark as we had ordered 500ml of wine, however the manager came back and said that because the carafe is handmade that the 500ml mark is actually more than 500ml and left the amount as it was. Again, I feel managers who can ‘read the room’ would have explained this but would also have said something along the lines of ‘… but on this occasion we’ve topped it up to the mark for you’; it’s a small thing, but came across as somewhat stingy and petty. Perhaps better to stop using these carafes if they’re not being topped up to the 500ml mark? I’d imagine most customers would wonder why their 500ml of wine is a few inches below the 500ml mark on the carafe.

Again, the food was great, but the manager seemed a bit out of touch and the food was very slow. Otherwise it was a...