Tartare Tartare
Loft

Loft

23B George Street, St Albans, United Kingdom

Steak • British • European • Vegetarian


"Well at least we can laugh about it now…not the special night we were expecting for our daughters 18th. The warning signs were there with the non-matching cutlery and the spelling mistakes on the menu, Halloumi fires, ****** merry or peppercom sauce anyone? The waiter took my beer order and disappeared leaving the rest of my family staring aghast and thirsty as he walked off. My daughter was looking forward to her first legal drink, a cocktail, unfortunately when it came there were a few ants in the drink, maybe off the mint leaves. Obviously we asked then to make a new cocktail. Things went from bad to worse….the replacement cocktail again had a few ants crawling in it, back it went, after ordering Pork Belly Bites starters, the waiter returned 5 minutes later to say unfortunately there were none left, and the two steaks we ordered medium rare tried to crawl off the plates as soon as they arrived, not sure they even said hello to the grill. The steaks were taken off to be cooked properly whilst the others ate their duck, which was fine. The steaks came back fine, albeit three of us had finished. At least the waiter gave the kids a laugh hitting his head on the low wooden beam, not once but three times, perhaps the best value for money of the night. Things sometimes don’t go well, I offered 50% which was accepted with apology and no argument, fair enough, 3 stars for effort!"

The Square Fish Café

The Square Fish Café

The Square, Maidstone, United Kingdom

Fish • Full • Wine • Meat


"Fine food and Issues Decided to visit as the reviews were mainly great. Arrived to find it looked ten minutes after due to be open. They were just opening the door. I went in and quickly used the toilet, not flushed by last person that used it! It's a well laid out, well decorated restaurant. I chose the Escargots as my starter, well cooked with a very small amount of sauce sadly no tongs to hold the shell. They were 6 very nice molluscs. The main was an absolutely sensational tasty seafood salad. Interesting dressing on a generous variety of sea food and nice salad. I had ordered a lime and soda, it transpired they had no lime so someone went out to buy some and could only get lemon, which was ok. When it came to the desert I liked the idea of four of them but ordered the lemon tart. A few minutes later the lady running front of house (I later discovered it was her first day in post!! Returned hugely apologetic telling me sadly they had no lemon tart. I chose the cherry clafouti and a few minutes later the young lady came back devastated to tell me they had none of that either! I eventually had a brownie, which she didn't charge me for. Must confess it didn't excite and the supplied ice cream was quite crystallised as if it had been refrozen. The table next to me were told they had no more Escargot, so clearly they opened with only one portion available. Front of house was good, 2/3 of the food I had was great but clearly someone needs to sort out the kitchen too many problems to give customers confidence of availability. Was it worth the trip? Oh yes but they have some serious organisational issues to resolve."