Sobo:Fish — Restaurant in England

DO NOT BOOK A LATE TABLE ON SATURDAY NIGHT!!!! My partner and I had been really looking forward to going to Sobo Fish. We arrived on the dot of 8pm for our dinner reservation and were sat by a lovely waitress who advised that we book our nibbles and starters quickly because a large table was dining.

We felt this was a little unusual but we dutifully ordered our nibbles and starters quickly.

When the waitress came back to take the order we thought it might be wise to check whether we should order our mains at this point too. She reassured us that it would be fine and took our order to the kitchen. We had assumed that the advice to order early was simply to ensure that we did not experience any delays with the arrival of our food and were grateful… in hindsight I wonder if it was more to do with their dwindling stock.

By the time our starters emerged one dish had been taken off the mains board.

(For context, the restaurant operates with boards separated into the following categories: 'nibbles/starters' & 'mains'. For mains there were only 8 dishes to begin with).

The first casualty? The shellfish bowl. We had been desperate for this and were sorely disappointed. These things happen though, so we decided on our next main whilst we finished our starters.

Then by the time our starters were cleared (perhaps 10 minutes or so after they arrived) another post-it appeared on the mains board ruling out our back up option to the shellfish bowl. Frustrating but again, fair enough. Down to six dishes.

The waitress came over to take our order and I ordered the crab salad, my partner: the sea bass. She sheepishly told us both were sold out.

So… eight dishes had reduced to four.

Given my fourth back up option was the sea bass and his fourth back up option was the crab salad, I asked if there was anything that they could do as this was a little disappointing. She explained that as the restaurant is shut on Sunday they use the stock up on Saturday… so if you’re a “late” (although I’m not sure I’d define 20:00 as late) table be prepared to have what’s left and work with half a menu of the least popular dishes. It’s a great shame as we love seafood and thought we’d discovered a hidden gem. Instead, we had to find another restaurant half way through our meal on a Saturday night.

No invitation to come back on a better day for the kitchen was extended, even just as a nice gesture. The owner didn’t come out to explain the situation himself; he left his young staff to do it which, in and of itself, was off putting. It must be said that they offered to do a starter as a main but to be frank none of the starters had the same wow-factor. A bit like going to a high end burger bar and saying they’ve run out of all the wagu burgers but they can do chicken goujons as a main. This suggestion might’ve been more tempting had the starters been really special but I found my starter (the bisque) to be pretty lack lustre in terms of flavour. So all in all the whole experience was disappointing. It felt very money grabbing. They were very keen that we paid the full bill despite having to leave half way through, but a little less eager to discuss the impact their strategy has on later guests. At that point another waitress informed us that ‘we could do the seabass but it would be a different cut’ in an attempt to prove the menu had not halved. By this point our coats were on, the bill was paid and the effort felt rather limp.

I know everyone writes that they never complain but we truly don’t.

It put such a dampener on our evening that I wanted to mention it so that anyone like us, driving far for a late table on a Saturday night, might think twice and perhaps go for a different day.

I hope that...

Unfortunately a really bad experience.

We booked in advance and came with somebody who had been recently and loved it. We were so excited but on arrival were actively ignored by 3 or 4 members of staff behind the bar and around the restaurant. Nobody even looked up and said hello. We arrived on time but our table wasn’t ready. We were then ignored at the table after we'd finally been sat down to the extent that I asked whether we needed to go to the bar to order because I sincerely wasn’t sure if table service was something they offered. It apparently was. One lovely member of staff tried to help by taking our order even though it wasn’t her role and we’re grateful to her for trying to salvage the evening.

Before we booked, we understood that the restaurant offered a ‘catch of the day menu’ so some items might be unavailable. We ordered drinks (which didn’t arrive), two starters (one of two we ordered we were told wasn’t available a while after we ordered), and three mains (all of which we were told weren’t available some time after we’d ordered). The number of available dishes were falling before our eyes so based on the frankly rubbish service we decided to leave.

We spoke to the staff when we left and were told they couldn’t welcome us when we arrived because they were short staffed. I don’t profess to be any sort of expert but having been front of house, I am confident that being short staffed isn’t what stops staff and hosts from looking up, giving diners eye contact, and saying ‘welcome, I’ll be with you in a moment’. Maybe I’m missing the obvious.

My recommendation for the future is not to value potential profit over the experience of staff and diners. Staff being put under such pressure that they forget how to say hello to people just makes for a rubbish all round experience for everybody. FOH staff shouldn’t have to pick up the pieces of diners rubbish experience that could be solved by not cramming people in despite not having enough staff to cope with that number of covers. It’s at the cost of potential profit now and in the future. Despite this, a friendly welcome and a ‘we’re sorry we’re slightly short staffed this evening’ would have made all the difference. Whilst it was a shame that what we wanted to eat wasn’t available, we’d have been very happy to try something else in different circumstances.

Clearly when Sobo:Fish works well, it’s great. When the staff are stretched so thin you get ignored, it unsurprisingly makes for a rubbish evening. Certainly not somewhere I’d feel confident booking again, particularly as they were happy to keep our deposit despite the issues!

EDIT: Deposit has been refunded. We weren’t greeted on arrival otherwise I wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of leaving a review. Effectively calling customers liars doesn’t sit well. I didn’t say people were stood around doing nothing (you’re right, they weren’t), but I don’t know how being behind a bar that is literally inches away from the front door stops you from saying ‘good evening’. It’s a pity that your manager doesn’t recall apologising to us for no one having greeted us when we decided to leave. As addressed in the review, we understood items might not be available; the freshness of the food is what drew us to your restaurant. The issue - as I did try to make clear - was the service from purportedly experienced FOH (not the lovely girl who tried to help as we made clear when we left). Thank you for the offer to come back on you, but we’re absolutely happy to pay for food. We know the hospitality sector runs to tight margins. This review wasn’t left to try to grab at freebies - I’m sorry you felt...

I was invited to my date’s place In Bournemouth and this was the first time I went down there for a visit. So this was date 13 and he took me to a lovely fish restaurant which is not far from where he lives. It was a very hot day and people were sat outside but we sat in the AC. You had to have a booking as I saw them turn three people away.

I really liked the cosy, relaxed nature of the restaurant especially as the London restaurants my date and I tend to go to are very fancy. My date visits this restaurant often so I knew the food would be fantastic.

I’ve added two lots of photos here as we came here once when I came to Bournemouth on my own then once when my daughter came to Bournemouth as well.

I had a lovely salad for my starter and my date enjoyed the fresh crab claws. 🦞 I knew the fish would be really fresh here. The second time I came here, I had the prawns in a pint glass which were delicious and my date had the seafood chowder as it was a bit chilly. My daughter had the calamari. For my main, I had the Dorset haddock with chilli and seaweed butter which was so nice along with new potatoes and my date had the seabass with roasted almond butter and we had a side salad as well.

My daughter had the coconut tempura prawn skewer along with the Haddock as well, but she had the same chilli and seaweed butter as I had the previous week and my date had the seabass. They both had skinny fries and I had new potatoes again. 🐟🍤🍟

The desserts are absolutely phenomenal. My date had the cheesecake and I had the praline brownie the first time around. And on our second visit my daughter was too full for dessert but my date had the cheesecake again and I had the lemon tart which was very tasty.

What I really liked about this restaurant is not only the cosy atmosphere but it was very reasonably priced and the portions were massive as well. I was impressed with the price considering it was a lovely three course dinner, it was reasonably priced and the fish was so fresh. Everything was super fresh. The service is great and I cannot wait to come back here again when I’m down in...