Sankey's The Old Fishmarket — Restaurant in Tunbridge Wells

We’ve just had the most incredibly wonderful lunch here! Steve the chef has superb skill and the roasted half lobster and shellfish in the most exquisite sauce was absolutely sublime! My only tiny tiny criticism is that I would love soft French baguette to go with it as I didn’t want to miss a drop of the delicious sauce and I found that the sourdough, although really lovely and perfectly made, was just a little bit hard and didn’t do what a friend soft French baguette would do. But don’t let this put you off at all because seriously the cooking here is Michelin starred! Maya our lovely waitress was beyond attentive, patient, warm and genuinely interested in us as customers, she has a breadth of customer service experience and excelled in her high level service skills. Jack the general manager was professional, warm and genuine, passionate about his role and it really shows. This place is incredibly special. I’m so lucky that we have such a good value fine dining experience locally here. Absolutely five star rating. Excellent wine pairing selection too. Wonderful flavours, wonderful atmosphere and we keep going back because it’s so good. Thank you everyone for today’s memorable experience for me and my son. I also really love the fact that of you book online you get a free car parking space two minutes walk away. This is a really nice and important...

We have been visiting Sankey's in the Upper Pantiles since it opened. It has been one of our favourite "special occasion" restaurants in Tunbridge Wells. We had an early dinner there this afternoon and were really disappointed . This is putting it very mildly. The food quality has deteriorated enormously since our last visit and is vastly overpriced.Two (small) very average main meals and one glass of wine and a soft drink was in excess of £120. There was a loud, very drunk couple on the outside patio, swearing , shouting at the staff and being generally obnoxious. It completely spoilt our dining experience . The management did nothing to quieten this couple and even seemed to encourage their appalling behaviour. 3.The waiting staff , whilst quite kind , seemed to have no idea as to "service". No utensils, drinks menus, spoons, finger bowl napkins etc . They even got the wine order wrong. It was more like self service. Is there no staff training in your company any longer??

I am sure that my comments will have no impact on you at all, however, we will vote with our feet and never dine...

This was totally overpriced - we will not go back

We had the Crawfish and the Salmon.

The seafood itself was just above average. The seafood was fresh. It was not badly cooked at all, but not amazing. And certainly not amazing enough to justify the eye-watering price tag.

£48 for half a Cornish Crawfish. Having been to Cornwall, I was expecting something spectacular. But it was cooked at a level of an average seafood restaurant. The garlic butter was not flavoured properly, and for this price tag, I would've expected something like homemade mayonnaise or aioli for the dip, not the bland supermarket mayonnaise they put on the side.

This would have been 3 stars for the food, but I took off a star because of the service. The staff was polite. But did not provide a lobster cracker / fork, nor provide a finger bowl or wet wipes to wash my hands with. No one came to ask if the meal was okay.

Will not recommend unless there's nothing else in Tunbridge...