The Reef — Restaurant in Isle of Wight

I'll start with the positives first. Beautiful location and the restaurant itself has a lovely decor. I had the chicken chorizo pasta from the specials and was the best thing I've eaten in a long time - real credit to the chef.

Unfortunately everything else let this place down. The service from staff was non existent. After being sat down we waited 20 mins before we had to flag someone over to take our order. The restaurant was only at 1/4 capacity so no excuse. The waiter also had to ask us how much my meal was. When the drinks were slammed down at our table by an extremely unfriendly woman serving we knew we were in for a bad night.

Not once did anybody come to check on us to see how our meal was and my girlfriend who only had a single option to choose from as she is vegan did not like the burger in the slightest. It had a strong earth taste to it and wasn't to my liking either and I can eat just about anything.

We had to wait another 15 mins after finishing our meal before I then had to go in and ask for the bill despite being told it was table service.

The same woman who bought the drinks over, bought the bill and did not ask any questions about how we found the meal despite looking squarely at a mostly untouched burger.

£37 not well spent in the slightest. Such a shame as when we sat down we loved the atmosphere and had the food and service been good we would have come back next time.

Would...

From the outside and with the sign it looks more like a bar I would have gone to in the 90s but because I was looking for places to eat in the area that were GF it popped up and the menu looked good.

We booked a table for our last day of our holiday and can honestly say we managed to save the best till last!

It's really difficult to find places that have a variety of GF choices available, even the deserts (bar one) was all GF which makes a change from ice-cream or the standard brownie.

For mains we had the sea bass, the sirloin steak with Stilton sauce, child's burger and chips and halloumi fries. With the exception of the child's burger all was GF. It all got devoured and I mean devoured. My son loved the burger bun which looked really nice so much that when all the burger was gone he then added the chips to eat rather than leaving it like he normally would. The fries were very tasty so much so both my partner and son wouldn't let a scrap be found. For desert we had profiteroles (GF) and new York cheesecake (GF) and my son had the malteaser cake which was like 2 slabs of brownie with malteasers in with 2 scoops of ice-cream. The total including drinks (peroni(GF), appletiser and a diet coke) was just under £100 but portions and quality of food (and GF options) made it totally worth it and would definitely go...

Stopped off for lunch before ending my visit to Sandown. I was warmly welcomed by a member of staff and left to decide where to sit. I chose to sit on the balcony which had beautiful sunny views over Sandown beach. A member of staff attended to me roughly 5mins after to take my order. I asked for recommendations on a suitable wine to accompany my meal and I settled for a small red wine out of the 2 choices available per glass. My beverage was presented roughly 5mins later, which I wasn't very impressed with after a sip. I made the staff member that attended to me aware about this and I asked to try the alternative. She proceeded to pour me a sample of the only red wine alternative available to try. The sample was a little better than prior option which I agreed to have. I don't think the lady took it very well as she whispered something her colleague. I found it rude that when I asked what she said, I received no response from either member of staff. My meal arrived roughly 10mins later served by another member of staff. The steak sandwich I ordered was tasty served with plenty of salad and chips. The chips were tasty but luke warm. I had the whole meal but I think I will try elsewhere on...