Osters by Lovage — Restaurant in Newcastle upon Tyne

First time visiting Osters and it will be our last. We had a table booked for New Year's Eve for weeks and were really looking forward to it, arrived spot on time. We were greeted by a front of house member who didn't seem to be expecting us. We were the only people waiting at the time. The tone in which this staff member spoke to us came off as very abrupt, rude and unwelcoming. We were told to wait while they cleared a table for us. Meanwhile, another party of 2 booked for the same timeslot, entered the restaurant who were clearly known to this member of staff on a first name basis. A table was immediately cleared for them and they were escorted happily while we were stood not knowing what was going on. The staff member came back after a few minutes and casually said we could sit in the window seats to wait for a table, we no sooner turned around and 2 other diners pushed straight past us and took those seats. The staff member then said to us "they were already sitting there" as if we were supposed to know that. No apology or explanation of what was going on. It was now 15 minutes after our arrival and we stood feeling quite embarrassed in front of a packed restaurant. The table was finally cleared and orders taken. We waited a while for wine to come however the waitress (different member of staff) did apologise for this. We got a half-baked apology for the table wait. To us this showed they knew they had not been organised or dealt with the situation with care. I will say the food was impeccable. They clearly have a great kitchen and chef, the menu was fantastic. It's an injustice that the service is no where near the level of what the kitchen is producing. After all of this, at the end of the meal, a £15 discretionary service charge was added to the bill. We felt that the service was not worth this and asked not to pay it. After settling the bill, the original front of house staff member came and asked us why we had not paid our service charge. It shocked us really that she was that concerned and needed an explanation after the level of service we received. At the end of the day service charge is based on customer experience and is not a given. All in all, a superb kitchen but the service left a bad taste in my mouth and ruined our dining experience. Would...

I went there yesterday with my partner for our 5th year anniversary. I was really excited for all the hype of this restaurant but ended up leaving very disappointed. Shortly after ordering I was informed that they don’t have any more oysters at 7:30pm on a Friday night on a seafood restaurant which is named upon. We ended up ordering their sourdough bread from pink lane and home made pickles. When the bread arrived, the waitress decided to place the massive bread board on the edge of the corner of the micro table as she had no idea how to serve. When it was half finished they asked if they can take the bread away as th starters were on the way whilst our pickle were not to been seen. Waiter realises the mistake and takes upon himself to explain that the pickle nibble is an extremely delicate dish that takes a long time to plate… As for the starters, they arrive quite late (due to the pickle mistake). Halibut Ceviche was bland, tough and all we could taste was of raw tomatoes. We also ordered the king prawns with nudna sauce. While the prawns were cooked to perfection the sauce was bland and not well seasoned. I had to add salt to every single dish including butter for the bread. Main course was still a disappointment. My “grilled octopus” was not grilled at all, reminding me of the Costco octopus which is just boiled. It was also covered in a grainy romesco sauce to hide from their mistake or neglect. I ate half of it and finally ended up complaining it to the staff on which the Kitchen admitted their mistake and apologised for not grilling the octopus. My partner ordered the crab linguine which on his opinion was boring and it tasted like canteen food . Although each ingredient was well cooked, the flavour composition didn’t pair well. Also, he couldn’t find any wild garlic but loads of dill oil instead. Service very average, but at least waiter tried to save the day by discounting a couple of nibbles from the bill and offering us dessert which we politely declined. By this time all we wanted was to leave. I do not recommend this restaurant as it is to anyone. They need to up their standards for the price that they charge and not take their customers for granted and expect that they don’t know...

The food was underwhelming. The soft crab tempura was lacking in flavour and not worth the effort of eating. The lobster ravioli was fine in that the pasta was well cooked , the sauce was nearly spot on but something a little odd in the flavour and no sign of the bottarga. For mains the octopus tentacle was nicely grilled and very tender. The balance of the delicate octopus flavour was overwhelmed by the heavy handed romanesco sauce. £30 for an octopus tentacle seems laughable ! My chalk stream trout served with beetroot, avocado and sweet potato sounded appealing. However, the delicate chalk stream trout was grilled to within an inch of its life so was over cooked and dry but the skin nice and crispy . The chef needs to pay more attention to achieving the balance of crispy skin and to a soft delicate fish underneath. I was at a loss to the role played by the slices of avocado and funny little slices of raw courgette sitting on the plate . The two different beetroots paired well with what should have been and could have been a more earthy trout chalk stream flavour. The sweet potato was sweet and perhaps a little overdone as wet and mushy . Just such a strange combination of ingredients as if cooking by numbers and I would say the most bizarre plate of food I have ever eaten. The Michelin guide was false in it’s review and I would not recommend the food here hence 2 stars . Such a lot of hard earned cash and anticipation. I resent paying good money for this inadequate cooking. We knew pudding would be poor so opted for the icecream as cheap and just wanted it sit for a while in the lovely environment. Beautiful restaurant and the waiter was excellent , knowledgeable and attentive. The younger waiter learning the job came to remove our mains before we had finished hence only 4/5 stars...