Tailend Restaurant St Andrews — Restaurant in Great Britain

Was in town on a tour and looking for lunch. We'd stopped at a shop and as we were leaving were discussing going to a local shop for fish and chips. The clerk overhead and suggested Tailend because the last couple times she'd been to the place we were discussing the quality, while still good, hadn't been worth the price. Always give a lot of weight to local opinion.

We walked to Tailend and asked to eat in. Took a few minutes to get a table. It was a bit past lunch time, so a wait, while unexpected, was a good sign. Once seated, the waitress took our orders. I had the fish and chips (duh) and my wife had the mussels with a wine cream sauce. I was a bit puzzled when the waitress asked if I wanted field peas, mushy peas, or slaw. Not knowing what mushy peas are, I ordered the slaw. (Found out the next day at another restaurant what mushy peas are - always order the mushy peas.) not that it matters. These traditional sides are minimal compared to the portions of fish and chips. Food didn't take long to arrive - 5 or 10 minutes.

Fish was fried to a light golden, maybe a little light for my taste, but perfectly acceptable with the fish itself being perfectly cooked - nice big juicy flakes. The batter was light and not heavily seasoned. Nothing special about the chips. Fluffy inside and tasty, though. The slaw? Don't order the slaw if you don't enjoy onions. I do, so really liked it, but the slaw tasted as though onions were the main ingredient. Not what I expected, but that doesn't mean it was a bad thing.

My wife's mussels were nicely cooked. Just enough to be done without being chewy or rubbery. The sauce was so good, she asked for a spoon so she could eat it like soup. The waitress was glad to bring her one and laughingly (but seriously) offered to bring her more break to help soak it up. 😊

It being lunch and us needing to get some shopping done before heading back to the tour bus, we declined dessert and asked for the tab. Very happy we'd chosen...

I will start with the fact that food is fantastic as it's always have been, but that's the only good thing remains that isn't enough to justify the price anymore.

The portion got significantly smaller than they were five years ago, perhaps due to CoL (not that you could increase the price any further). But the most insulting thing is service. I stopped by last night for a quick food trip down memory lane since I was in town for graduation. After all, I eat here all the time when I went through my undergrad program.

All staffs were real pushy about my partner and I ordering drinks. When we make it clear that we are not ordering any (sentiment received with an exaggerated "really???" from one of the staff), the service just gone downhill from there. Extremely hard to flag down any one for anything and when we do, just annoyed look shot at us from all around. It was a moderate busy night but the staffs seem to be treating the next table (who ordered beer and wine) cheerily enough.

You charge gratuity on top of 20-quid-a-plate fish and chips, you could at least try to make it worth it. Our reciept also came out a wrong price (I don't believe it's intentional, but just an annoying cherry on top).

I think the staffs were expected we order something extravagant since one of our party is the graduate (not that we offer up the fact). Truth is we just want a nice quick meal and be off. No one should be pressured into ordering alcohol anyway, no matter the...

I was there with a group of 12 golfers from Dublin in early June. We were given the table at the back in a room on its own. Everything was going fine for a while: friendly staff, excellent service and a lovely atmosphere. When we got to the main courses, myself and one other of our group questioned our starters (neither of which are still on the menu). I had the smoked sardines and he had the calamari. Both of these were tinned, with the lid peeled back (think of John West products) and cost £8.45 each. The explanation was that they were the speciality choice of the chef! After that the atmosphere chilled noticeably. I had the smoked haddock, which was accompanied by blue nylon fishing line. When I queried this, I was told that 'they are served as they are caught'! Things were going downhill rapidly and shortly after we were refused more wine on the basis that one of our party was drunk! We quickly abondoned the meal and two of us asked to speak to the chef/owner. He appeared to agree with our points of contention but said that he had to back his head waiter. As a restaurant, it appears to be a chipper with lofty aspirations. At best it's a jumped up fish and chip shop. There are plenty of better restaurants in St. Andrews. Don't wast your time...