Seahorse Guildford — Restaurant in Guildford

Deep disappointment following my recent visit to the restaurant. After more than 25 years of regular visits — often with friends and family — I regret to say that this experience will be my last. We have always appreciated Seahorse especially for its warm atmosphere and fireplaces during winter, and its proximity to home. Unfortunately, the service we received on this occasion was unacceptable on multiple fronts.

Unprofessional Handling of Gluten-Free Requirements I had booked lunch with two friends and, upon arrival, asked about gluten-free options. The waiting staff were completely unprepared and demonstrated a worrying lack of knowledge. We were presented with a tablet to confirm that we agreed to your terms and conditions, which seemed more focused on legal compliance than guest service. The staff could not identify which dishes were gluten-free and asked us to go through the menu item by item. Even basic questions could not be answered, and from the special lunch menu, only the salad and gammon steak were available gluten-free. We ordered the gammon steak, only to be informed later that it was unavailable. In 2025, it is simply unacceptable for a well-established restaurant to have untrained staff who cannot properly handle gluten-free requests. This reflects a lack of training, care, and respect for customers with dietary requirements.

Failure to Honour Voucher Offer To make matters worse, when the bill arrived, I presented a voucher that had been sent by the restaurant, offering a free main course when another was purchased. The staff refused to recognise or honour the voucher, stating that it did not apply because we had ordered two lunch menus and one main course. This interpretation felt unfair and misleading.

When I raised the issue, the young waiter dismissively remarked, “Next time, read the terms and conditions.” I informed him that there would be no next time.

Both of these incidents — the unprofessional handling of dietary requirements and the refusal to honour a valid voucher — are entirely unacceptable.

As a long-standing and loyal customer, I expected far better and I will not return, as the quality of service has deteriorated to an unacceptable level.

I hope you will take this feedback seriously and use it to improve staff training and...

I am writing to complain regarding the service me and my family received at your restaurant today. I had hoped to treat my elderly mum to a nice relaxing lunch with my family and we chose the Seahorse as its local and have previously eaten here with no problems and always returned.

We arrived at the restaurant at 12.m, shortly after we placed our order for food and drinks. After 30mins of my husband finishing his starter ( scallop's), I asked the waitress what the hold up was with food as children were extremely hungry by this stage. We had been waiting a full hour from the time the order was placed!

We were told that the delay was due to having ordered the starter, yet there shouldn't have been so much time between starter and main bring served, which I calculated it to be well over 30mins!

We were told it would be ready in a further 10mins. Approximately 13:20 our food was finally brought to the table, with little apologies from the staff.

Unfortunately for us we were rushed to eat the food as we had to be somewhere by 14:40. I asked for some take away boxes in order to take the rest away leaving our lunch rushed and extremely stressful!

despite our patience some of the food appeared to have been rushed. My mothers fish wasn't fully cooked and the batter was not crisp, just heavy with oil with very little colour, her pea sauce? was very watery and off-putting.

I find it very upsetting that nobody took the time to come and apologise for the delays and no offer of a reduction in our bill or future discount to compensate for the inconvenience and distress caused.

(I have sent a copy this message to the...

Lovely meal for the first time here. Service was excellent, our server was very attentive and friendly. I don’t have a name but I know she is blonde and a Scorpio lol 😂

Food was great, the squid was beautifully cooked and the gochujang sauce that accompanied it was delicious. My main of lamb rump was cooked to my request, mash was yummy but I wasn’t expecting the grilled veg to be Mediterranean. Menu says grilled veg so I was expecting vegetables that paired with the lamb and red wine sauce more than Mediterranean veges, however they were still tasty and I ate it all!

My friend’s pie was great but needs a gravy. Quite dry in our opinion but tasteful nonetheless.

Crème brûlée was out of this world. Creamy… slight notes of white chocolate which wasn’t overpowering and the raspberry really balanced out the dish. The brûlée was perfect - just enough for a good crack but not too much that it over sweetens the dessert.

One criticism though would be that we were left disappointed at the “rustic bread” to begin our meal with. We expected rustic bread… but was served 4 slices of toast. I imagine rustic bread to be a selection of bread with a nice rustic crust and fluffy dough on the inside that we could break and dip into the dips. Thin dry toast is what was served and it was a disappointment. Something I’d have for breakfast. Hopefully this feedback can inspire some real rustic bread to be brought to the table instead!

All in all, we had a lovely meal...