Catch & Grill — Restaurant in Great Britain

Dined here back in April and STILL waiting for a refund...

It was my first time trying C&G and expectations were high. The pictures online presented what appeared to be a great first date spot and I was excited to try out the menu.

On arrival, admittedly 7 minutes late due to traffic, I was told that the venue had no idea about my booking. It later transpired that the table we were initially booked onto had been given away - to whom I do not know as the venue was practically empty and remained this way all evening.

We were seated in between a birthday party who spent the most part of their evening walking round eating and shouting. Due to the poor service and food they received, said party left the venue explicitly without paying. This was a conversation we heard in much detail.

We were told much of the menu was off on the evening - it eventually became a fish restaurant with little option of sea food dishes to choose from. No squid or cod etc, all staples of the menu. Had we not already had drinks on the table, and it being a first date, I too would have left.

I wish we had... The food was atrocious - a whole plaice drenched in a salty milky sauce was sent back as was an ice cold plate of seabass. We expressed our opinions on this when doing so but nothing was done about it. The only redeeming factor from the food was the homemade black pudding which I must admit was lovely. Sadly this didn't come close to making up for such a poor dinner.

If the food and ambience was bad, the service was even worse and this appears to have been a recurring them post-evening in an attempt to claim a refund. On the night we were continually rushed when eating and drinking to the point I informed the waiter serving us that I would tell him when the plates were ready to send back.

After the night I debated whether I should complain and ultimately felt I needed to. After a week the General Manager, Alice, responded to my email saying we could have 50% off our next meal with C&G. She also detailed a number of reasons why the evening was so poor and to be honest it seems as though things have been like this for a while. I responded with several emails chasing my refund over the course of several weeks. I also called but was frequently met with rude and unhelpful staff who kept trying to get me off the phone.

FINALLY I spoke with Alice via the phone and she agreed to refund me for the evening. I was told she would call me back that evening and process the refund. There was no call... I then called 48 hours later to ask if all was okay - I was then told that the refund was not happening due to the owner saying no. No call to confirm this, again me chasing.

I would avoid this place like the plague. The lure of its fancy decor and seemingly extensive menu was tainted by a myriad of issues, most of which seem to be common. Having read recent reviews, it seems C&G is a place firmly on the decline. I have never experienced service or food like it in other seafood restaurants in Brighton & Hove and I would strongly recommend trying R&F, English's or Salt Room.

£140...

Myself and 6 friends (group of 7) visited Third avenue for our annual Christmas meal, the table was booked over a month in advance with a follow up confirmation sent a couple of days before.

We arrived to the restaurant at 19:30 where we were seated at the rear of the restaurant, it took staff 30 minutes just to take our drinks order, we were then given 3 different menus which we pressumed we could choose off of, after a further 20 minutes only half the group received their drinks so we had to go to the bar and ask for the rest of them and to order food.

Upon ordering food we were told we couldn't order off some of the menus and they had been given to us in error, however there wasn't enough of the actual menus because the printer didn't work.

At approximately 20:00hrs loud booming music began playing from a club underneath the restaurant which we wasn't made aware of when booking which made a great atmosphere for a restaurant. Food took approximately 40 minutes to be served and we had dishs that didn't arrive and some wrong dishs turn up, we also had to ask for cutlery as not enough was on the table even though we booked in advance.

After dinner we ordered more drinks which again took 30 minutes to arrive and we had to ask again for them, when they did arrive the wrong drinks turned up, I ordered a flat white coffee and had to go to the bar after 30 minutes of waiting to ask for it only to find it sat on the bar, when I requested a fresh one I was told by a female bar staff that it wasn't cold and she stuck her finger in the coffee to test it and then said " no it's not cold" expecting me to take it, I asked for a fresh one and received a very rude look, the coffee then tool a further 15 minutes to arrive.

Whilst still eating desserts we were brought over the bill and a card machine, upon checking the bill we had items added to it that we didn't ask for so.

Throughout the meal the male waiter continuously played with a light switch close to our table dimmg and brightening the lights for no need. Another group of 4 females were put on a table next to pur who continously screamed and swore and were not told to quieten down even though we were eating.

After paying the bill a male waiter came up to our table and apologised for the terrible service and said he was short staffed ( we had 6 different servers throughout the meal for a medium size restaurant) the rest of the restaurant was fairly empty and it was not busy at all so they wernt visibly rushed, we were offered a tequila rose shot as compensation even though half of us wernt drinking.

Overall the food was lovely, can't fault the food at all and the chef is great, the rest of the staff however have no clue what is going on or how to work in a restaurant, they were so unprofessional, the restaurant is a joke and not what you expect for the price of their food and drinks. The bar/restaurant is a weird vibe with a club underneath which can be heard whilst you eat and the manager clearly has no idea...

Okay, so I’ve been to this restaurant a few times and it’s hit and miss that’s all I can say. Sometimes it’s good but when it’s bad it’s diabolical. My last visit I always have the same thing monkfish skewers.jeez they were dry..bits of charred pitta bread ripped up..dry fish..no sauce and a load of pomegranate seeds on top! ( should be roti not pitta ) Dry and desperate ..appalling . My friend hates to complain. But she can’t cook so is easily pleased and recites the same old mantra “ooh it’s so nice” So depending on the chef is dependent on how the dish is served up.. WRONG. There has to be consistency or else how can you offer the same dish dressed in very different ways? It’s imbecilic. Now let’s get onto the service. My friend who is rich ordered a bottle of champagne the waiter was chatty.. seen him before. But I could not believe this he actually asked us if we wanted champagne glasses? Obviously we were ordering champagne? Imagine that kind of thing happening in London? It just wouldn’t. Then I felt so passionately about the lacklustre experience that I had that I actually called the restaurant and I was told that if I left my email the manager would get back to me. Of course he didn’t get back to me. Lazy lazy, lazy ..THATS what screams out at me. Like so many of the restaurants in Brighton & Hove..all fur coat and no k……s!...