Seashells Bar & Restaurant — Restaurant in New Forest

Staff, service, atmosphere and scenery great. Food very average.

For starter I had the salt and pepper squid which was cooked really well and a good portion however a little on the tasteless side. My other half had the pâté, again good portion however pâté was average and just taste like a cheap shop bought pack, butter came in a little sachet the best thing on the plate was the pickled red onion.

Then it came to main, we both had the surf and turf, I was a little surprised to see rump as the meat option for this but then again you can get good rumps especially if dry aged so went ahead. Once served a good portion again, prawns were nice, onion rings were good, steak was cooked really well - medium rare as asked for, however the rump its self was a cheap rump and fatty which of course let the meal down as that is primarily what you are paying for. I can't remember exactly how much it was now just over £20 I believe, so not badly priced but still expect a little better meat wise for that.

Lastly and unfortunately the worse part was the cheeseboard, I was looking forward to the award winning Cheeses they have at their disposal with Isle of Wight across the water and some of the locally made cheeses. Unfortunately I was presented with what I am sure they must have just bought from tesco was a really cheap slab of brie, cheddar and Stilton so as you can imagine was very dissapointed.

Maybe I set my expectations slightly to high as i was told this was the best restuarant in Hythe and only heard good things.

However even after my moans, I still had a nice evening there, the staff were brilliant and attentive can't beat the views of course, I probably will go back as there are very limited choices in Hythe but would lower my...

Got a £60 parking ticket for using the car park next to the restaurant. I contacted the venue who batted away my complaint saying they have no control over the car park, fair enough however you do have responsibility for your customers if you want repeat business .My mother is disabled and cannot walk very far so parking next to the venue is ideal - in total it took 2.20mins to serve 4 of us the Christmas meal (we had pre-booked so the new what we were eating) service was slow (which wouldn't of been a problem if I had known about 2hrs parking limit ) we had on several occasions had to get up out of our seats and locate the staff leaning against the bar and ask for more drinks, coffee , bill, etc although food was nice and service friendly the staff are not attentive. I wander how many other patrons have received a fine for using this venue? maybe you should put a sign up inside the restaurant or verbally warn your patrons ? better still why not talk to the landlord and get these fines removed for people who are using your establishment. Unlikely we will return as I wouldn't enjoy myself knowing I have to hoof the food down to...

We spent a couple of nights in Portsmouth and when we saw this restaurant and its reviews we had to travel to Hythe. I had the fish pie which was bloody lovely and possibly one of the best fish pies I've ever had. The vegetables that were served with it were cooked lovely, not like some of these places who serve crunchy carrots. My boyfriend had the surf and turf and the steak was cooked perfectly. The king prawns were so fresh and juicy and the Stilton sauce he said was beautiful (coming from someone who doesn't like blue cheese). They have a great selection of wines as well. We didn't go for starters as we knew we wanted a pudding and they didn't disappoint! I went for the chefs special of sticky toffee pudding with a hot toffee sauce and vanilla ice cream. The portion size was incredible, a right slab of pud and it was really tasty. My boyfriend had a creme brulee (one of the reasons we came!) And he said it was one of the nicest puddings he has ever had. We would definitely visit again if we are ever in the south. We must also add that the staff are lovely, covid measures taken and the prices are...