Urban Reef - Seafront Restaurant in Bournemouth — Restaurant in England

Urban Reef occupies prime real estate on Boscombe's seafront, which becomes crucial context when you realise you'll want to spend most of your meal gazing at the horizon rather than your plate.

The king prawn starter arrived swimming in what can only be described as cold tinned tomato soup with delusions of grandeur – a few added spices couldn't disguise what tasted suspiciously like something Campbell's might have produced on an off day. The prawns themselves seemed as confused about their surroundings as I was.

Fish and chips followed with all the visual appeal of a science experiment gone wrong. The chips bore an uncanny resemblance to Aldi's frozen variety – skin-on, straight from the freezer to fryer with minimal intervention. The fish was genuinely well-cooked and moist, which made the batter's appearance all the more baffling. Instead of the golden-brown glory that proper fish batter should achieve, this coating had committed to a disturbing yellow hue that suggested either food colouring mishaps or someone's expensive saffron experiment. Either way, it looked like the fish was suffering from jaundice.

The cheesecake completed the Aldi theme park experience, arriving with all the artisanal charm of supermarket refrigerated desserts. At this point, I'd given up any pretense of fine dining and focused entirely on the genuinely spectacular terrace view.

The sight of Boscombe beach stretching toward the Isle of Wight Needles was genuinely magnificent – exactly the sort of vista that makes you understand why people endure mediocre seaside food. Sometimes location trumps cuisine, and Urban Reef banks entirely on that principle.

Two stars for the view, one star for the fish quality, minus points for everything else.

Come for the sunset, lower your culinary expectations...

I won't fault the food but the service was terrible! The young girl, didn't get her name, was wearing a yellow t.shirt and had shoulder length hair which was a light colour. We were greeted in a timely manner and the were plenty of seats only because England was playing. Otherwise I feel we may of not been greeted so quickly. The young girl came to take our order, no chat, no smile I gave my drinks and order in for my food and my friends food. I felt very rushed by her, then she came back with the cutlery and just threw it on the table not even placing the cutlery next to myself of my friend. I will say she did bring a complementary drink to my friend as she heard me say it was her birthday. Our food came out and it was lovely, hot, fresh and tasted amazing. The young girl walked around as if she really wasn't interested in her job or happy to be there. At the end was the final straw really! We didn't ask for the bill as we were still drinking our drinks. The next minute she came over and told us" she was closing our tab, and if we wanted more drinks we can order from the bar ourselves." She placed the bill on the table which was fine! My friend and I carried on talking. Then she came back and said "do you need the card machine," rushing us to pay. It wasn't busy as people were watching the England game so I couldn't understand why she was rushing us. I wouldn't of minded if this was all done in a polite way. This was all abrupt and I will not be coming back. My friend and I was going to stay for a few drinks more, but after the terrible Service we paid and left. Service should match the food quality and this does not! If this person does not enjoy her job find a job...

Normally I am very pleased with Urban reef.. Having eaten at this restaurant over a 15year period. I personally think the food and service was better when we first stated going there, but unfortunately they fell way short of expectations this time roand. As said we having been going there for 15 years now, mainly on my wife's birthday. Bournemouth/Boscombe beach is her favourite beach to visit and Urban reef has always been the restaurant if choce This year was a big one, her 50th and in true fashion, we booked a table with the restaurant a few weeks in advance and traveled down from Bromley as normal to spend a day and night in Boscombe and do as we normally do, have a meal at Urban reef. We arrived on time and found that the restaurant upstairs which we assumed was where we would have booked a table, was closed to a private function. The dining downstairs is more informal and has a different menu, so we were not able to order what we were hoping to order. The seating downstairs is also not as comfortable , is very noisy because eits by the bar and the food options limited. If we arrived without a reservation as most folk did that evening, we would have gotten a seat anyway, by loos if it. The service of the bar/ restaurant are not well trained as the main restaurant and so the service is not as what we are normally accustomed when we dine here normally. The staff were not friendly, inviting and manured as normal. They knew from the booking that this was a birthday celebration and at no pint from the booking date to the eving of us attending, were we told that the main restaurant would be closed. I'm not sure we will go back next year...