The Old Fort, Seaview — Restaurant in England

Ah, The Old Fort on the Isle of Wight—a place where the views are as impressive as the culinary plot twists! Our visit was a blend of fantastic food, minor mysteries, and a sea breeze that made everything better.

We stumbled upon a table thanks to a last-minute cancellation—thank you, mysterious stranger who bailed—and were seated right by the sea. The view was so stunning it could have made a bowl of cereal feel like a gourmet experience. But fortunately, the food lived up to the scenery.

We kicked things off with the crab ramekin, which was nothing short of delicious. Creamy, flavorful, and... wait, just one slice of bread? Really? It’s like the chef was playing a game of “How fast can we make them order more?” Well played, Old Fort. We surrendered and ordered extra bread at a premium, because when life gives you crab, you don’t skimp on the carbs.

Next up was the squid, which was perfectly cooked and full of flavor. I had a brief moment of concern, but it turned out to be a taste bud delight—no weird colors or textures here, just good food that hit the spot.

For the mains, I went with the burger, while my friends had chicken and shrimp. Everything was spot-on, except for Marco’s burger, which must have taken a detour to admire the view because it arrived a solid 15 minutes after the rest of our food. We all sat there, watching our meals cool down like a reality show—“Whose dish will go cold first?” But when Marco’s burger finally arrived, it was so good we almost forgave it for being fashionably late.

And let’s talk drinks—The Old Fort definitely knows how to pour a great one. Each sip was like a mini-vacation, perfectly complementing the meal and the setting.

In the end, we left full, happy, and slightly amused by the whole experience. The Old Fort is the kind of place where the food is great, the views are better, and you might just get an extra story to tell over drinks. Just remember, if you order the crab ramekin, don’t skimp on the bread—trust me,...

Having read many positive reviews, my girlfriend and I decided to book a table. When we arrived the place was packed on the ground floor, we were very glad to have made a booking. The staff were understandably busy, the main bar staff were friendly and efficient in serving drinks. However, despite waiting around the area marked "wait here to be seated" absolutely no body came to seat us, after about 10 minutes we realised no one would be seating us any time soon and ended up catching the attention of one of the passing staff in order to get our booked table. Upstairs was notably quieter, at the table we found no menus, and no cutlery. Only when a waitress came to take our order did they realise they hadn't provided us with any menus. Food & cocktails were very nice and arrived promptly. As did the cutlerly on the first course when staff realised they hadn't laid that out either. Service charge is included as standard, and requesting it to be removed from a card transaction results in being questioned by staff in front of other customers which left a rather poor taste in my mouth as I generally prefer to tip in cash. When explaining why I wanted to remove the service charge I was further quizzed and rather than understanding my issue/constructive criticism, I was given a variety of excuses that gave the impression they felt some sort of God given right to the service charge. Overall on a quieter day we may have had a better experience, but the price for what you get is on...

We live not far from The Old Fort, we’ve all walked past it countless times too, but had never eaten there, we decided it was time we did, we were not disappointed, at least not by the food.

This was a lunchtime booking, 1pm ish, I’d originally asked to be seated upstairs, and wished we had (more later), but, because we were running slightly behind schedule, we had agreed, at the restaurants suggestion, to sit downstairs instead, which was actually fine by me, I only booked upstairs because it’s new & fresh up there & we wanted to see it, better views of the Solent too!

We weren’t shown to our seats, instead a member of staff pointed to a table by the window, we walked over and, after asking a rather rude man to move so we could sit down started looking at the menu.

We chose our drinks & meals, in the meantime the rather rude & now very loud & boorish man was beginning to irritate us all, thankfully our drinks & shortly after that our meals arrived, we all enjoyed our meals very much, my wife loved her mussels, likewise the burger & fish & chips also went down very well.

We’d have stayed for coffee & dessert, but by this time the even louder & more boorish man was doing our head in & slightly ruined an otherwise...