The Steamer Inn — Restaurant in Shanklin

A perfect lunch.

While spending a day out in Shanklin with my mother and two children, we decided to have lunch at the Steamer Inn.

There was no queue when we arrived and we waited until we were allowed up the steps and seated outside under a parasol. This was a sufficiently cool spot, offering a nice view out over the beach.

Our waitress Yasmin then arrived and took our order. Despite the QR code on the menu for ordering and paying, Yasmin explained that it was still a full table service.

As it was lunch time and a hot day, we only ordered a single course.

After reviewing the children's menu, both my children ordered the chicken fillet burger with a side of chips.

My mother decided on the Prawn Appetiser "Prawns on a bed of mixed leaves with a Marie Rose sauce, served with crusty bread and butter".

After some deliberation, I opted for the Steamer's own Seafood Chowder "Poached fish, mussels and prawns in a creamy potato, sweet corn, garlic, white wine and cream broth, served with crusty bread and butter", along with a small glass of house Chardonnay.

The food arrived promptly and was served with due care in accordance with COVID precautions.

The children both agreed that this was the best chicken that they had when dining out. They offered me a taste and it was flavoursome, cooked perfectly and not at all dry. I did not taste the chips,but they were a proper chunky cut and all got eaten.

The Prawn Appetiser was certainly enough as a light lunch. The prawns were very fresh, the salad was also fresh and served undressed (which is always good in my reckoning), with the Marie Rose sauce served in a side pot. The bread was exceptional. A small baguette style which was not too crusty and very light. A wonderful flavour.

The Seafood Chowder was excellent. From personal experience I know that it is not easy to balance garlic, white wine and cream, but this was done very well to create a wonderful flavour. I'm not sure how many different fish were in the chowder and I did not ask, but there were numerous spoon sized pieces. The prawns were the small ones and the mussels served without shells, all forming a very nice flavour. With the inclusion of potato, I expected it mashed in with the stock to make for a much thicker chowder, however these were small pieces to include in the mix of textures. Once again, the bread was delicious.

In summary, the whole experience was delightful. The food met with unanimous approval and the aforementioned Yasmin was professional, polite and courteous throughout.

I definitely recommend...

EXTREMELY RUDE STAFF! We have been loyal customers for the past 30 years, always looking forward to a trip to the Steamer Inn on our visit to the island, however unfortunately we will not be visiting again.

My Father went to the bar to order two more drinks whilst eating outside. He was rudely informed by a young, unprofessional member of staff stating "you have to join the queue" and nothing else. Over the past 30 years of coming to the Steamer Inn, there has always been one queue for food and the bar area to order drinks. I also do not know of any other pub whereby you can’t go up to the bar to order a drink. He instead decided to come back a little bit later when his first drink was finished and on this occasion there was no queue at all. He was met by another member of staff and asked her a simple question as to why a customer can’t just go up to the bar to order a drink, especially when in the summer months the queue would be much longer. She went on to (in a very monotone expression) that “it has been like this since COVID” and again with no professionalism or politeness. As he then moved to the bar area waiting for his drink and was served by the first member of staff on the earlier occurrence, he tried to engage in conversation just to understand why the service has changed to a system that doesn’t exactly work, the second member of staff rudely interrupted stating “If you don’t like it, you can go next door”. Taken aback by her rudeness, lack of professionalism and attitude, this caused much frustration to my Father, as it would to anyone.

I am extremely disappointed that this once lovely establishment now has a team who clearly indicate that they do not wish to be there. I even attended the Steamer Inn myself on bank holiday Monday and felt that the atmosphere and overall vibe from the member of staff was bland and inhospitable. I have also read many reviews stating the same thing.

After so many years of lovely memories, I can promise that we will never come to the Steamer Inn again and, will in fact, “go next door”.

I highly advise that in preparation for the summer months, you may want to re-think your...

Disappointing experience here. Popped in during a day at the beach with family and friends. The first occasion we went in to enquire if we could buy some drinks for take away if possible. I hold my hands up, the two of us that went in had just come across from the beach, so admittedly not dressed appropriately, in beach wear and no shirts. I completely understand and respect this policy requiring shirts to be worn in a pub / restaurant, but the sun was shining, and it had simply slipped our minds as we crossed the road to pop in. What I can only assume to be a manager behind the bar, was unnecessarily rude and direct with regards to the ruling on wearing shirts within the premises. As I say, I completely respect this requirement, it was just something that we hadn’t thought of as we crossed the road from the beach into the pub. However the response and poor attitude from the staff member (manager?) in question was unnecessary.

We duly left as instructed to pop on shirts, and returned a few mins later with correct attire. A different staff member was at the bar this time. Before I got the chance to ask if they offered take away drinks, I enquired about a specific drink which I was led to believe was served here from friends at the beach. Maintaining consistency, another less than courteous and disinterested response from this other staff member on this occasion.

We then subsequently realised that it was likely we were in fact at the wrong venue, as the drink we were enquiring about which wasn’t available, was perhaps being offered at the establishment next door, and we had maybe come to the wrong place. Needless to say, considering the poor attitude of the two staff members we had encountered up to this point, it was an easy decision to take our custom elsewhere, to the venue next door, where we received a far friendlier and pleasant service on the multiple occasions we...