Dreadful lunch experience. Food was basically awful.
Prawn and crab cake starter....the prawns (Malaysan tiger type, penaeus) were translucent/raw and not cooked, however one of them had a bit of pink showing. Would have expected Scottish langoustine prawn tails, but these were standard frozen catering prawns.
The single centrally placed crab cake was pretty much tasteless, and certainly had no crab flavour.
Felt quite nauseous after the prawns, and this queasy feeling persisted all day.
All served on a large cold white plate with pretensious circles of pink and lime green creamy paste, and none of it nice.
The calamari starter was dark brown in colour and had been deep fried to death. Mainly coating with next to no visible squid when cut into. It had been oversalted and some of the tiny pieces were actually slightly off. It was also very greasy with a strong flavour of over used oil.
The battered haddock was small and provided on a large barely warm plate, along with triple cooked fries in a little stack.
The fish was fresh and very tasty though, and there was a wedge of slightly seared lemon ... which was about the only nice touch in presentation as the plate was noticeably bare otherwise. The crushed peas were an interesting flavour, but watery pureed peas, or pea soup would have been a better description, as I could barely lift them out of the little dish with a fork, really needed a spoon.
I ordered a small side salad (extra £), but this was presented in a disgusting smelly metal bowl which had a really strong metallic, and slightly off, stale seafood smell.
I've been a food technologist in fish products all my professional life and am very familiar with this old seafood smell. It is particularly persistent and difficult to remove from surfaces, equipment and metal utensils in particular, and any chef worth their salt should know this. I don't ever expect this particular stale smell to emanate from a fresh green salad... which was roughly chopped with a lot of stalky bits.
The carafe of water had a strong chlorine /rotting vegetation smell, and was undrinkable.
Although the bar area was visually more interesting, the dining room was boring, dull and had no atmosphere or ambience.
The cutlery looked tired / well worn and possibly dirty, water glasses similar with no sparkle. Quality napkins though!
The drum beat "music" pumped out on a never ending loop was quickly driving me insane, so I mentioned it to the couple who were the only other diners in the room ...and they also hated it, so a request was made for silence. Quickly delivered, followed by some applause, and a palpable feeling of calm ensued.
Had a glass of wine and a ginger beer, both OK but bill £61 + , and they asked for gratuities on top.
Pleasant waitress, but she didn't enquire if we enjoyed the meal.
On a positive note, the dining seats were very comfortable, but that's about it!
Certainly won't go back, as the chef (also the owner), has strange ideas about food, and a penchant for serving things uncooked, which I noted in several earlier one star reviews, with roast beef and other things being served almost completely raw, and no refunds given for inedibile or returned food.
Decided to ignore the numerous bad reviews, and in the case of the prawns, thought I'd just go with the flow, but regretted it, and left feeling queasy, hungry and...
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