Waterfront Bistro Ipswich — Restaurant in Ipswich

Attended this venue for a Hen party meal expecting gorgeous food and plenty of drinks to keep the buzz we had been feeling from the morning celebrations. However unfortunately visiting The Waterfront, this did not happen. We arrived and had a lovely waiter, ordered our cocktails and simply waited, we persistently asked staff for our drinks to which were told they were coming yet managed to order starters, have them come, eat them before we even got a first round of cocktails! (Which was over an hour of us being there) we therefore asked for a second round of cocktails and yet again waiting for ages, ordering and eating dessert before anything even started to come out. Where we were sat we could see down to the bar and at times, the barman was tidying up and not making drinks! We cancelled the second order of drinks and decided to move on after being there for 2.5 hours having received one round of drinks. When we spoke with the manager to say how disappointed we were with the service, we were met with excuses of being understaffed and lots attitude Which further dampened the evening. He asked how much our bill was and scoffed when he commented that we had only had starters and desserts! Almost Applying that we had not spent enough to even be moaning! We explained we would have of ordered more rounds of drinks if they were served in time but service was shocking! He was very rude and spoke to us like he was not sorry we had a bad experience but that he was sorry for himself being understaffed that evening but not one person came to our table to apologise and say drinks were on the way. Although I did see him come up to shout at the waitress and point at our table for cancelling the round of drinks which we could see had not even been started! Overall Food was good but the managers reaction left us feeling angry and disappointed and certainly will not be visiting there again. For the price you pay, you expect good service and apart from the waiter, this was...

Culinary geniuses!

I had the roast beef today, popped down to the waterfront by myself and they fit me in. I asked 'as rare as you go' - sure enough the beef was an enticing pink, tender to taste :P The components of the dish were truly brilliant, ratios spot on and love to see some cavolo nero, cooked to perfection (soft but textures remaining). I opted for some cauliflower cheese too, well worth doing as no need for dessert after (although the cheese board sounded divine if I did have room).

What gave the meal sustained satisfaction was everything came out PIPING HOT on WARM PLATES (nothing worst than a stone cold roast), my meal was still warm down to the last mouthful! It paired well with a large glass of Merlot from Chile, whilst absorbing the views of Regatta Quay.

If I had gone along with family/friends I could've stayed on to hear some MJ Soul who was performing today - alas, I had to make the supermarket. I was served by Yara. Lovely lady who was proficient in her role, swift and attentive :)

The first ever time I came here was when I was 16 and had my first melt-in-your-mouth sirloin. I braved the blue back then. It came out on a very hot plate and the cut was so delicate and the juices ran down the blade of the knife with every slice, I'm pretty sure I even ate the strip of fat because it melted down in my mouth despite it being blue.. I am now approaching 25, and I still think about this steak from time to time..

I would highly recommend The waterfront Bistro in Ipswich to locals and visitors alike, with it being a 10-15 minute walk from the train station, you simply have to stop by!

Sorry for the meandering review - you may be able to tell, I love my food. A personal catchphrase of mine goes: 'Cooking is a metaphor of creativity and control' and your...

Went here for family birthday meal and the food was excellent. However the experience was very much tarnished by the attitude of a senior member of staff. Whilst eating my meal I found a very long hair in it. I immediately called the waitress over and gave it to her. She apologised and so as to not cause a fuss I said that I wasn't happy, but that I would carry on with the meal as the chances of there being more were negligible. (Oh well - these thing happens, I thought) At the end of the meal we politely declined the bill as we were unhappy that no acknowledgement of this was made (at other restaurants we have always had most apologetic staff and an offer of drinks on the house or something equivalent) They agreed to not charge us for my meal. As far as we were concerned - end of story. However the senior chappy then decided that it was appropriate to challenge us about the payment and suggested that we should have insisted on a fresh meal if we weren't prepared to pay! Tried to explain that we didn't want a fuss, and it would have made no sense to insist on another meal. Bizarrely he said this sort of thing happens all the time! To us dining out is all about the experience and he managed to put a dampers on what was otherwise a...