The Mermaid — Restaurant in Great Britain

Disappointed 😪, as we have been meaning to go there for years and it really wasn't the experience we anticipated. We had to remind the waitress about our water even though our other drinks had been served ages before. In the main the food was good, although the medium rare and rare steak were cooked exactly the same and one of the party had fries which, quite frankly, I would have been embarrassed to serve, a third of them were all bits and looked like leftovers. Two of us had the fillet steak with bubble and squeak allegedly served with roasted cherry tomatoes. In reality we were served one of those large, tasteless, fleshy tomatoes but in their defence it had been well seasoned! Not once were we approached after the serving of the main course to ask what we thought of it or if everything was ok. I can't help but wonder if they were avoiding us as we were not really getting what we were eventually paying for. Eventually we got the staff attention to settle the bill. I did mention that the dish was advertised as having roasted cherry tomatoes and the waiter agreed and said something about it hasn't yet been changed on the menu but to be honest seemed quite uninterested. I couldn 't be bothered to ask why they were still advertising the garlic prawn starter on the specials board, which we were told at 6.30 was no longer available and yet still remained advertised on numerous boards all around the restaurant and it was now 8ish with lots of people coming in to eat still. It was apparent that the staff were very busy and seemed very intent on getting the tables set up again so the next lot of customers could get sat down and their meals ordered. I just can't help wondering if some of the other meals on the menu actually come as advertised......🤔. I am not saying we wouldn't try it again sometime but not rushing back, after all St. Ives has so many places to choose from and we have found The Bier Huis and The Balcony Bar excellent along with Porthgwidden. The Mermaid is very quaint, established and many customers seem to return year in year out, according to the reviews. I just couldn't help feeling it was all about the numbers and getting the next lot of bottoms on seats,...

Dissatisfied and will not be returning…

Booked here for dinner with my husband and young daughter on Monday night during the half term break. We thought we’d give this place the benefit of the doubt after experiencing poor and inattentive service from last year. Nice food though, which is why we were returning. Prior to that we first tried this restaurant back in 2012 and we thought it was brilliant.

Overall, the food tasted very nice this time. On arriving however, our drinks order was taken and immediately forgotten about. A short while later whilst enquiring about the drinks which the waitress apologised for, the starters arrived, then the drinks followed. Not the normal protocol of a dining experience in our opinion.

My daughter enjoyed her meat balls and fries from the children’s menu. Great that they just about managed to have the kids food in check! My husband’s ‘Pot of Seafood’ was overridden with mussels and very little else in the way of other ‘seafood’. But most disappointing however, was the ‘Monkfish and Tiger Prawn Thai Curry’ which on emptying the contents of the mini saucepan onto my plate, I was hard pressed to seek out much seafood. There was only three small chunks of monkfish and three prawns to be found. 80% of the dish seemed to contain mostly peppers, sweet potato and what looked like aubergine. On flagging this the patronising response I had from the kitchen was, that that was about right as monkfish was a very expensive type of fish. Surely not £16.95’s worth? So then how about justifying the three measly prawns?!

The fact that the chef/management were not willing to respond to a customer complaint to satisfy the customer was so disappointing that it significantly dampened what I was hoping to be an improved and more enjoyable experience compared to a year ago.

We didn’t bother with dessert or leaving a tip and won’t be returning to give what now seems for definite, The (excessively overrated) Mermaid ‘Seafood’ Restaurant,...

Wow! What a gem of a find!

We were searching for ages trying to find an authentic seafood restaurant that didn't cost an absolute fortune. Then my husband spotted a small red sign saying 'seafood restaurant' so we wondered off the main seafront up a road towards some flags and came across The Mermaid. It was closed at the time as they only open in the evening but we checked out the menu, did a quick Google review and booked the last table available at 8:30pm on a Monday evening!

We absolutely loved everything about this restaurant. We wanted a bottle of white wine and were offered the special which turned out to be a Spanish wine and it was very reasonably priced at £22.50 so no hard selling to make us feel uncomfortable. We then ordered and I had the scallops to start which were delicious, followed by the monkfish skewers and they were cooked to perfection. My husband doesn't eat fish so opted for the fillet steak and it was the most flavorsome and well cooked steak he's had in a very long time. Also came with freshly hand cut chips which you don't usually get most places nowadays. We were too full for a pudding but again no hard selling to make us have one which was nice.

The atmosphere was wholesome, loved that there was character to the place and you could read on the table mats the background to the place. We were surprised that all the waiting staff were of a mature age, but this made our experience even better because they were all so attentive and friendly.

We would definitely return if we have the opportunity to visit St Ives again and if any of our friends or family happen to visit we will definitely be...