Old Harry Rocks Bar & Restaurant — Restaurant in Great Britain

Old Harry Rocks

Sounded a Happy, Fun and modern place to eat. Ambience was 2/10 - far too noisy to think and the man DJ? playing the rave music - obviously to give the feel of Ibiza - badly!! Brushing this aside, I thought it must be good, the Nici had had so much money spent on it to update it and to give the feeling of Miami. The annexe building is lovely, gorgeous wood cladding, good interior, almost feeling like you are eating at a top quality Caribbean beach restaurant. I was concerned that no where on the very small menu did it show allergy warnings and even more so when no one asked if we had any allergies, especially when one of us is allergic to shellfish and another to egg! We decided to inform the person serving, who didn’t note it down, but probably will record it on their system or noted it somewhere, perhaps they had a photographic memory?

The water glasses on the table, were similar to the ones at home.

The starters were ordered, tomato and mozzarella salad and two crab on toast. We have lots of locally sourced crab, so that was exciting.

It arrived ☹️ were the tomatoes red or an unusual green? No you couldn’t easily see them, nor could you see the mozzarella. Quick call the life guard, the mozzarella and toms were drowning in an oily pesto dressing. The crab on toast £27, arrived and looked like it had come from a tin and was sitting on the breakfast left over’s - fried bread, it was like a natural sponge, it was soaked in oil!

We all sighed together, still we had a nice warm!! Bottle of white wine, which though a nice wine, was not in a cooler, nor had it been stored in a fridge. Wine glasses highly were scratched.

Things can only get better, can’t they?

Bournemoth has a gorgeous beach with an abundance of locally sourced fish. Side salad, surly this would be ok? Sadly it was a wet, squished, squelchy rocket salad drowning in a coloured liquid, trying to appear like balsamic vinegar. The portion of french fries consisted of 15 sticks, cold pale potatoes slices, that might have just defrosted from the freezer. The fish goujons then arrived. Now they knew we had an egg allergy! The six pieces - that were meant to be enough for three people were plastered to the plate with half a jar of tartar sauce!!! There is egg in the sauce. We commented about the portion and were bluntly told that if we had been more familiar with fine dining we would understand that this was Fine Dining! All three of us, diners we experienced in fine dining and so for the rudeness of staff and lack of quality of food, we asked to speak to the manager. He wasn’t very much better than the whole experience. Rude, blunt and unwelcoming. We stated for a second time the lack of quality of the food, service and ambience. The third portion of the fish goujons arrived, again I couldn’t eat them because of the egg based cement sorry condiment it sat on - tartar sauce. The whole evening was awful and for the wrong reasons unforgettable. Though giving a 20% discount it was still £110 over charged. The only good thing out of the evening was the people who sat around the table, who were family, which thankfully money cannot buy.

Once home, I had a lovely warm slice of toast.

Having eaten at a lot of fine dining restaurants around the world. Old Harry Rocks is not...

We made a booking 2 and a half months for 30 x people from our 3000 Strong Social Group in Bournemouth for a Christmas Lunch on 8th December 2024. We spent many weeks gathering payments and menu choices only to be told today 23rd November 2024 that the Directors of the business have now decided not to offer the Christmas Party menu on a Sunday lunchtime in December.

I am astonished and deeply upset that we have been treated this way. We would bring a lot of local business to this Restaurant but unfortunately for them we would never step foot in their establishment neither would we advise anybody else to.

In all honestly we are appalled and feel very much let down. Luckily thanks to the super Team at 1812 they have managed to pull out everything to accommodate us and this just shows me that their are some Companies that are still focused on Customer Service and satisfaction.

I have to say that the Management couldn’t even be bothered to contacted me themselves to explain and left it upto a host to contact me.

I don’t often leave poor reviews but in this case I feel that it is warranted and shame on you Directors and Management of the Restaurant.

To add insult to injury I have been contacted by another member of Staff to say that they have now reconsidered their position and can offer the Xmas Menu and Party. Unfortunately Old Harry Rocks Restaurant the Horse has already bolted. Poor, poor, poor...

Dinner was excelent! Staff extremely friendly and the decor and views absolutely priceless!!

We walked in for drinks and decided to have dinner once we saw how amazing the place looks, upon arrival the host was smiling and welcoming, offered us seats at the bar while she prepared our dinner table.

Bar staff were incredible, welcoming and friendly, shared the concept of the bar and how happy they are to be part of it, our drinks came immediately and the frozen margaritas are a must try! The DJ had a great set and the vibe was set as “holiday mode” he also was super friendly and everyone was having a great time.

Once we were shown to our table, both waiters who looked after us were extremely nice and knowledgeable when they presented the menu. The food was prompt and really tasty, amazingly presented, and I would definitely recommend the sea-brim as the portion was really good to share or as a main course.

If you want to feel you are on holiday in a different part of the world, go and experience the bar and restaurant as you will have a...