La Mer Rouge, The Red Sea — Restaurant in England

A rather strange experience. I am writing this so you know how inaccurate these reviews can be. My dear partner booked this place as it had 'good reviews' on the internet, and I don't blame her one bit. Rather than just say 'it was bad' I will explain specific things so you know this is a real review. I phoned ahead to alter our booking slightly (only by 30 minutes) and spoke directly to the chef/owner who told me that was impossible. OK, I thought, its a small restaurant. We arrived on time.

The front of the restaurant is right on a main road and was covered in scaffolding. The interior was nicely decorated and clean (hence 2 stars). When I looked at the menu I began to worry. Dishes seemed to be mixed up. Fish and shellfish served together with middle eastern spices that would swamp the flavour. I chose some dishes I thought would be ok. To my surprise, before our starter came we were given a tray of middle eastern dips with bread. Never has humous and pita been so unwelcome to me. The LAST thing I want to do before a seafood banquet is eat this stuff first. What could I do? Send it back...when it was given free? I did try some, as I was hungry. It was bland.

When our fish dishes arrived, it felt weird. The sauces that the seafood were in were so rich (too much butter?) that we really couldn't eat very much. Now I bow to no-one in my love of seafood and fish, but we left that restaurant with all our dishes half-eaten and that has never happened to me before. Basically this chef believes he can cook / devise good seafood meals and he just can't. What he CAN do, is take fantastic ingredients and throw them all together to produce inedible, experimental results.

But let's try to be constructive. To succeed, you just need to be humble. Go back to the CLASSIC seafood recipes and GET THEM RIGHT. There is a reason that moules mariniere et al have been around for centuries. Don't chuck a load of salmon in cream sauce into the mussels just for the hell of it. Respect and master the traditional recipes before you go 'creative'.

I'll...

Absolutely amazing! Service and attention by the staff was setting the bar incredibly high, you feel very special from the moment you're approached and seen to by the staff. Smiles all around. Music in the restaurant was at a perfect level of able to be heard but as background noise and not too loud at all. Now, onto the food, I could not be happier. Partner and I went out for a date night and decided on a seafood night. We had the giga oysters and prawn and crab veloute; absolutely beautiful. The veloute is possibly the nicest soup I've ever had, and it was my partners first time having giga oysters, safe to say he enjoyed them as they were all gone in no time, the staff recommended the squeeze of lemon and a bit of Tabasco sauce to go with them and it was great advice! Great portion sizes, I would recommend taking your time with the starters since the mains are cooked fresh so they do take some time, but due to the starters being very recently sized it's easy to spread it out. The mains! My partner ordered the bream dish and I ordered the half lobster. The fish was amazingly seasoned and cooked beautifully, and the lobster the cooked to perfection. That was my first time de-shelling a lobster, I did have to ask the staff when it came to the shells, and they didn't hesitate to educate with fun and smiles. Had an amazing time and we are already planning on taking our family members here. The cost is slightly upper, but very very worth it.

Thank you to everyone...

Can I begin by saying it is very very rare I write such a negative review but I really do find very little to be positive about. I reserved a table for four and paid the deposit because the xmas menu looked very nice. When we were seated and were given the menu I asked for xmas menu to be informed it was only for parties over 6 and the menu had to be chosen prior to the date of eating. I was informed this was on their website which I have since checked and cannot find evidence of this. We ordered and while waiting for our meal 2 complimentary small dips with some bread and a salad was brought . The salad was lovely and fresh, bread warm and fresh. The small dips were tasteless. Our main course was pleasant but not worth the cost. i had bass with scallops and prawns which consisted of two average size pieces of bass four medium sized prawns and 2 scallops. Cost £25 minus vat which unusually is not included on the menu but added onto the bill which if you have not noticed is a bit of a surprise. The restaurant itself has nice decor but was cold . Staff were pleasant and service ok. I found the whole experience disappointing especially after reading such positive reviews. I can only be honest and will be writing an excellent review of another restaurant we dined the night before so I am not someone who complains for the sake of it. Sorry but I would definitely not recommend...