Esplanade Bar and Restaurant — Restaurant in Northern Ireland

Returning to update my review after two consecutively poor visits, which is sad as I've been going here at least monthly for 10 years. Firstly my wife's rhubarb crumble was ice cold in the middle. Our roast dinners were £18 and had 2 slices of beef, a bit of mash and two carrots with a Yorkshire pudding, it was not worth £18. The temperature was all over the map, some of it was nuclear hot in the centre and was clearly out of the microwave, while the other half was assembled from presumably a pot that had been cooling down a while. On the previous visit I ordered a blue steak which I would describe as well done 3 minutes prior (infact I didn't want to order blue as its never done to a good standard in NI but the waitress encouraged me). It was also close to cold. The cherry on the cake was the very drunk 25 year old man at the bar in the front lounge next to our table at 3pm that dropped the F bomb every 10 to 15 seconds next to my 4, 6 and 9 year olds. While it doesn't bother me it was rubbish to see my daughter keep staring at the floor. The bar staff just let this continue despite I could see they were uncomfortable with it. I don't normally update reviews, so this is...

Shame about the drab decor and terrible flickering lighting in the front lounge, not to mention there being no real ale on draught (not a single one!), so having to make do with slightly too cool bottled ale, of which there is, mercifully, a reasonable selection of about half a dozen or so. Also having staff in uniforms detracts from the air of friendliness that used to be there in spadefuls. Due to prices having been hiked up by 25 - 30% we haven't eaten there again, and the absence of some popular dishes from the menu hasn't helped either. Neither has the abolition of the "Specials" blackboard, which was changed daily and offered some great value, especially with a reasonably priced bottle of wine accompanying. The new management/owners have some way to go to make the place a friendly unpretentious retreat for locals and visitors alike. It wasn't "broke", and the "fixing" leaves much...

Sunny Saturday so thought we’d stop by the Esplanade to get some lunch. Was told to wait on a bench and order a drink as we waited for a table outside. Once a table was free we were sat for at least 15minutes until a staff member appeared for us to ask for a menu and order a sparkling water. Another half an hour passed until someone came to take our order. Still no sparkling water. Hour later, still waiting on food, no update, no sparkling water. The staff didn’t seem to know who ordered what or what was happening. Food finally arrived with the sparkling water that we had now asked for 3 times. The steak was well done when I had asked for medium-rare. Sent the food back and asked for the bill. Was charged in full for all the drinks we got, very disappointed in the service and communication. Would think in this situation a small jester of goodwill would have been given regarding the...