The Crab — Restaurant in Shanklin

Whilst on holiday on the Isle of Wight, my wife and I paid a visit to this pub after we had been recomended to have dinner there. On entry, it was busy, but our reserved table was easy to spot, and the manager informed us, that a server would be only a moment. Not being over fussy, we ordered our drinks, but couldn't see the menu as they were showing the use of the day, as they were dirty and unappealing. The waitress immediately rectifed the problem and duly gave her our order. We did n't have to wait very long before both dishes arrived. I had ordered the hunters chicken which looked and tastied really nice, but my wife's dish of king prawn and chorizo risotto, with crumbled feta cheese and pesto green sauce appeared not quite what we were expecting. usually a risotto is made with Arborio Rice not cooking rice. The plate was swimming with the pesto sauce, the choriso had very small pieces and there were only four king prawns , no sliced egg, or other appealing ingredients. My wife did not make a fuss, because probably, the same sort of thing would come out of the kitchen again, she ate what she could and left it at that. We both ordered the mini desserts with coffee, wife had a strawbery cheese cake and I ordered a mini eton mess. The cheese cake looked and was delious, where when it was brought out, was a chocolate brownie. I spoke quitely to the very attentive waitress, who went back to the kitchen and brought me out a large eton mess, of which I profusely thanked her for. Coming to pay the bill, I found that I wasn't charged for the brownie, nor the large eton mess only a small one. Again, we both thanked her very much and duly showed our appreciation as we left the pub. So apart from grubby menu's a very poor risotto, and a reduced bill, we both said the Crab was worth visiting. What I haven't mentioned, which I should of done, is to congratulate the waitress involved. Her name was ELYNA, a very usual name which we enquired about with her, but she was miss dynamite, a happy smiling face, a lovely attitude and very pleasant. She should be recognised by the management...

This has always been a favourite place of ours to eat Sunday lunch. We come 4/5 times a year. The staff are lovely, the place itself is clean and accessible. BUT the food has gone down in quality over the last year. We had a meal that wasn't great last year and just put it down to bad luck. Unfortunately it has gotten worse not better. We booked an earlier slot this time in the hope the food would be better as in theory it would be freshly cooked and not reheated or sitting on a hot plate. Sunday dinner should be served piping hot. It was lukewarm. Some bits such as veg were barley that. The gravy was the hottest part. The veg were not great. The carrots were cold and hadn't been peeled. The peas were poor quality and overcooked. The broccoli was raw. I know many people like it al dente, but this was hard to cut with the cutlery. The cauliflower cheese used to be delicious, served in the little pans and with a crispy cheese top now its bland. Its unheard of in my household for EVERYONE to leave the roast potatoes. They were anemic, dry and rock solid. The meat (beef and turkey) was very dry and just not great quality. Even the amazing Yorkshire puddings were chewy and had been reheated. What has gone wrong? Its such a shame as I would previously have recommended this place to everyone when asked where to go for a great Sunday dinner. I hate posting bad reviews especially for places ive loved. I even double checked by going again but had the same experience and asked others on groups that recommended food for island visitors. I really hope that the food goes back to its previous excellent quality. And that I can change my review. But right now when people cannot afford to waste money on a bad meal an honest review is vital. And before anyone jumps on asking if I told the establishment, yes I did. The staff member simply said "oh thats a shame" when I showed her it was impossible to cut the pie. The photos I've included are from May and July this year. The 2 visits where we gave it another go just in case the first meal was...

The kitchen service was excelent. Delicious food and came very fast. The service staff and manager should be questioned. We went on the bank Holiday weekend and we didn't book as we weren't sure we can go out without the kids. We were a group of four myself with my husband and my brother with his wife. Everywhere else was fully booked so we didn't have anywhere to go. At first they told us that it is fully booked and we asked if we could stay at the bar, they said yes but the wait for food is up to two hours, so we left to look for something else. As we couldn't find anything else that had availability we've returned and decided to bare the wait and sit by the bar, hoping that some beer and peanuts will make the wait not that unbearable. While me and my sister in law went and sat on a free table at the bar, my husband and brother went again and told the manager that we've decided to wait the two hours as there was no where else to eat. They were told that the kitchen is closing soon and they've stopped serving food, so they were kicked out. Bare in mind that this was at 8pm and not some ridiculous time in the night. As I've noticed the guys weren't coming upstairs to the bar I ha e called my husband and asked what happened, and he said they were told that the kitchen is closing and we can't order. So I said we are already sitting down and let's try to order through the app with the QR code on the table. And it worked, the starters came in less than 10 min and the mains came in about half an hour. When we were brought the mains the member of staff that turned us out twice was visibly unpleased. Aside from bringing out the food that came out as usual without any wait, nobody attended our table. Not that we needed it anyway, as we've ordered drinks from the bar. So I don't understand what was the fuss and why we weren't...