Serina — Restaurant in Waverley

I wanted to take a moment to share our experience at Serina on Valentines Day, as it was meant to be a special occasion for my husband and me, especially with our baby on the way.

We arrived for our 1 PM reservation a bit early and were promptly seated by a lovely young waiter. I want to emphasis that my feedback is not directed at him; he was courteous and attentive. However, we were disappointed to find that there was a set menu with very limited options for dietary requirements, which we were unaware of at the time of booking. We did not want three courses, and when we inquired, the bartender/ manager in a blue shirt mentioned we could order two courses for a reduced price.

I opted for the bao buns as my starter, but found it to be average at best, overwhelmed by the excessive sauce and lacking in meat. My husband chose the prawn starter, which unfortunately stained his jumper due to its messy presentation.

For the main course, I ordered the risotto, believing it to be a safe choice, while my husband had the steak. While his steak was acceptable, my risotto was disappointing—essentially plain rice swimming in a bland sauce that resembled gravy. After some discussion, I was allowed to swap my main for the Katsu curry. Unfortunately, by the time it arrived, my husband had already finished his meal, making it less of a romantic Valentine's experience.

When the Katsu curry arrived, I noticed that some of the chicken was pink, which raised immediate concerns given my pregnancy. The sauce also tasted sour and off, prompting my husband to taste it as well. He agreed that some of the chicken was not cooked properly and the flavour was far from what we expected. At this point, I simply wanted to leave.

We noticed that other tables around us were also expressing dissatisfaction, which led us to question whether it was an off day for the chef. When our plates were cleared, I shared my concerns with who I assume was the manager, who became defensive. My husband stepped in to confirm our complaints, but when we received the bill, we were shocked to see nearly £100 charged for our meal. My husband was understandably upset, especially when the manager suggested it was merely our opinion.

I work in customer service myself and understand the importance of delivering a positive dining experience. Unfortunately, this was far from satisfactory, and I believe it would have been more appropriate to acknowledge our concerns rather than dismiss them. Although the manager did remove the charge for my uneaten main course after some back and forth, we still felt that for £80, this was the worst dining experience we have had—especially on such a special occasion.

Additionally, I wanted to highlight that the table layout made it difficult for me to leave without discomfort, as they were packed closely together with no consideration for accessibility.

Edit in response to their reply: -The fact that the chicken was left and bright pink suggests that the chicken was not cooked. -2 tables around us left because of dietary requirements and the menu did not suit -The manager tried to charge us for the mains that we did not eat and got defensive when my husband asked for them to be removed off the menu. -I did send an email a week ago and had...

Had a disappointing meal at Serinas tonight.

We booked a table around 6 for 2 people as a last minute date night, we have been to Serinas a fair few times since it opened as we have loved their fish dishes, and were regular visitors back when they used to have the fisherman nights. We were super happy that we had found somewhere local that serviced delicious and quality seafood.

We were seated by a really lovely front on house man, then it took about 10/15 minutes for someone to come take our order. We ordered anchovy bruschetta and then two mussels and fries mains.

The anchovy starter came out with 1 mussel starter which we did not order, and it turns out there was a mess up with the order, so they took the mussels away and we continued eating.

Then the mains came out, one came in its own, to which I panicked thinking the order was wrong again, and I said to the waitress ‘there is another one coming just checking’ and she replied rather rudely saying ‘yes other one is coming but unfortunately I cannot carry both’. It light of the situation I would have probably advised that the other dish was on its way rather than placing one down and walking away.

When the mussels came out, it honestly looked like they had chucked the already cooked mussels back into the pan with some new ones to avoid waste. Some mussels were literally orange and minuscule and it was like chewing on a tyre. No freshness, no flavour, quite frankly disgusting. But some mussels in there were sweet and normal, which makes me believe they were just trying to be cheeky.

We complained to another waitress (who was really sweet and lovely) and then she brought over the front of house man from before who we showed the mussels too, he agreed and was really understanding. He asked the kitchen who obviously denied they had re cooked the mussels, so if this was not the case, this concerning as clearly the chef cannot cook mussels. The gent apologised and offered some free lemonchello which was nice.

Overall we ended up just paying for the starter and drinks, then leaving.

We have loved Serinas, but it seems to have really gone down hill since the last time we visited back in October. Sadly will not likely...

Unfortunately we had quite a poor experience on Saturday for a bottomless brunch with 3 friends. The brunch is advertised as tapas with cocktails and fizz as options, at £34.00pp a head.

Upon arrival at lunchtime, we were immediately told that they were out of normal prosecco and could only serve us rose prosecco - a bit annoying, but not overall a big deal. After one bottle, we were then told we couldn't have any more bottles of prosecco as they'd ran out and could only serve cocktails. After our round of cocktails, we were then told that they could only do a negroni (which none of us like) as they'd ran out - we asked for beer, and were told that we'd have to pay extra for it as it wasn't included in the bottomless brunch!! Whilst I can appreciate the beer isn't usually included, it felt like a massive rip-off given they couldn't serve us any of the other drinks on the menu, and we weren't getting the service (£34 pp) we'd paid for!! Incredibly disappointing. Not only this, the 'tapas' on paper was the choice of 2x tapas dishes per head - as with normal tapas, we expected this to come in small plates to be shared around the table, however were also disappointed to see the 2x dishes selected on standard-sized plates served individually to each person with a few chips and flatbread. Food was nice, however there wasn't loads of it and again, had we of known, I think we'd of ordered more or simply taken our custom elsewhere.

Overall not a great experience, and felt like we were massively ripped off from somewhere which has great potential, but simply a poor execution....