MarkG — Restaurant in East Suffolk

Just my opinions, the restaurant and others may disagree - that's fine!

The service was excellent. The place has a nice atmosphere. For us though the food and drink could have been better.

The food provided was of a very high quality and was cooked superbly, but the plates we had were bland overall, being protein and carb heavy.

Starters were great. Beetroot Humus and Tortilla Chips, lovely. The chicken pate was rich and tasty. Probably could have had a smaller serving of the pate, against the amount of bread supplied. More bread would have been too much for a starter, so reduce the size of the pate maybe?

Steak & Chips just comes with a small amount of green leaves, a greasy mushroom and a sauce they call steak ketchup. The sauce is difficult to describe but the word vulgar, seems to fit. There's no choice in the sauce provided. The steak was wonderfully tasty and the rosemary chips brilliant, but overall it was just bland plate of mostly chips and meat. It was also dry as the sauce wasn't nice, and not particularly edible. It needed a lot more fresh veg and colour on the plate and a choice of sauces.

The whole seabream came with a slaw, which although delicious & wonderful in colour, it was a farty amount - just enough so they could balance it on top of the fish. It needed a big pile of that slaw beside the serving of the fish instead to give it more taste, colour and variety. The roasted potatoes were not as expected. They were more like boiled potatoes. There was no roasted crunch to them at all. The fish was wonderful, if somewhat full of small bones, but it was cooked perfectly and very tasty. With such a small amount of slaw it felt more like a bland plate of boiled potatoes and fish.

This is probably me, but I don't enjoy my real ale as much when it is ice cold chilled. It takes the taste out of it. I've not researched this scientifically and I'm no expert on beer, except for how me and my mates like to drink our beers, but theirs was ice cold unfortunately.

All in all this is a lovely place and the food provided was of a high quality and was cooked very well indeed. It just needs some tweaks to the plates to elevate themselves to a higher level.

It is not a cheap place to eat so perhaps we expected more for our first visit. Recently I missed out on the works quarterly night out at this place as I had to cover the night shift at work. Everyone said it was great, which is why we decided to go. So maybe we were just unlucky? Main chefs night off perhaps?

Would we return?...

So you walk up through Lowestoft old town, getting more depressed at the gorgeous buildings being ignored. You turn around and start to walk back down the Old High St and at 12 noon, the bells strike, the Old Blue Anchor stores boards catch your eye. We happened in with a beer to quench the thirst, followed by a perusal of the menu. So cockle popcorn as a shared starter, oh yes, a great choice, fresh - tasting of the sea and properly battered to be "popcorny" . Then skate wing with shrimp butter and for my partner a whole plaice with lemon butter and samphire. Both fish are cooked perfectly, just enough to leave the bones cleanly, yet still rich and creamy in texture. The wine list is old and new world, with constant changes. We switched from Sancerre to an excellent Albarino. The Spanish style cheesecake with rhubarb was dessert, complete with a PX sherry and white desert wine, followed by coffee. If you want a reason to visit Lowestoft, it's here. Locally sourced great produce, cooked perfectly and served with gusto. Return visit 6 weeks later with the John Dorey fillet cooked to perfection. Our 3rd visit and we are now old friends. My smoked haddock mustard mash was magnificent, with the skate wi gs with seasonal produce. This chef is a master of fish, so enjoy whats in season. Sorry, no pictures of food, this is to be enjoyed, not photographed. James is both avuncular and authoritative- the...

The food here is prepared by someone who loves cooking. You can tell a good chef by their sauces and their shellfish. On both counts this place excels but the prices are low and the setting is simple. All you pay for is the food. In Leamington or Stratford we would pay around £110 a person for the meal we paid £40 for here. This isn't a gastro pub with massive portions of grub, it's fine dining in a cafe environment. The portion sizes are good and balance of items spot on. Food is prepared fresh and definitely not over cooked or dried out. Staff very courteous and helpful, recommended wine is entirely appropriate and quality (at around £20 a bottle) better than elsewhere. Of the dishes we had, I would have preferred a bit more substance to the chowder and less cream, but it was unmistakably fresh fish stock base, even if some of the pickle came out of a bottle, most of it was freshly made in a white vinegar. You don't get better quality than this, although you can get more volume, it is one of the best value quality eating I...