Tempura Cod Cheeks
The Crab at Bournemouth

The Crab at Bournemouth

Exeter RoadDorset BH2 5AJ, Bournemouth, United Kingdom

Kebab • Steak • Resort • Seafood


"This was part of our bed and breakfast of the Park Central hotel, to which I 've written a separate review. But I have to start by saying, I have no idea why it is attached to that hotel. I 4 star rated that hotel, and 2 star this, and even that I was being generous! the dinner on our first night started off very nice. We were seated quickly, drinks came relatively fast. As with all offers there is a separate set menu, we optioned to pay extra for the main menu as I wanted some good sea food! We started with oysters which where lovely, this and one factor at breakfast, gave it that second star, other wise it would have been a one star! Ordering off the main menu my husbands sea bass was quite nice as I had a little taste, my hake on a bed of risotto was awful!!! And I say awful because it was, the hake tasted like hake, no flavour or anything to recommend it by, the risotto was just terrible! I 'm not sure if the chef had just discovered saffron, but it was overpowering and just the worse!!! I filled up on the maybe 3 x 3 inch piece of Fish and veg and my husbands side salad! I could not bring myself to eat it, I 'm not a lets be polite and suck it up kind of diner I 'm a, I want good food, this is what I paid for kind of diner!! to add insult to injury, the waitress asks how our meal was, my husband raved about his sea bass, I went on to say my meal was not adequate, she went on to LOOK at me like I smeared it on my face, no apology, no replacement, not even an acknowledgement of the fact the meal was awful!! Wanna hear the SECOND insult to double injury?? I went to use their ladies facilities and saw a board with their specials! I would have easily opted for one of those, but was not given the opportunity or told about it! Unfortunate the picture I took of the specials board was burry due to maybe anger or frustration, or after a bottle of Prosecco just couldn 't hold the camera straight!! It took a while for our bill to come, and by this time I am already fuming at my first night here ruined by a horrid meal!! I kept getting louder to get a server to bring up our bill, and again I mentioned I was not happy with the meal, again to be TOTALLY ignored! If I was paying for the whole meal I would have complained to the manager, but as we only paid for the alcohol, oysters and balance of the meal, I let sleeping dogs lie as everyone else seemed to be having a good time in the restaurant! I did not want to be that guy . Now....breakfast!! I thought, surely they cannot screw this up!! Time for them to redeem themselves!!! Ohh how wrong I was! Instant coffee, awful! I was told there was a pot of filter coffee, it was just as bad, and horribly watered down! My husband said his tea was FISHY!! What the actuations heck?!?! Do you guys wash the water urn with the same spong as the fish board!?!?! That is disgusting!!! Two english breakfasts ordered, I had scrabbled eggs (the ONLY redeeming point at breakfast!! my husband had fried and awfully under cooked! No one wants runny eggs! The mushrooms clearly batched cooked, tomato, halved and lightly fired I hope you like partially raw tomato! Bacon, very generic, beans were beans, what else can you say? Maybe add some spices, a condiment or two?!?! I ended up eating my scrabbled eggs and bacon, but desperate to get some vegetables in my ate my mushrooms and beans under protest! And ended up filling up on pots of yoghurt! My husband spotted flies on the pasties on the open buffet where the tea urn was, so we stayed away from that! I know its a fish restaurant and flies are expected, doesn 't mean I want them doing the Charlston across my croissant!! Morning two, I opened for an omelette as that is crack some eggs and add the bits, I wish I took a pic as it was hilarious!! It looked like a egg pancake with bacon bits and mushrooms!!! Good heavens! Once again I filled on yohgurt and toast, which was freshly made thank goodness! I noticed there was specialist coffee available, lattes, mochacinno etc, I ordered two to get told those cost extra!!! OMG! What kind of Mickey Mouse, back garden, off the books kind of eatery you guys running here?!?! For Petes sake! Would I recommend this place, NO! Would I eat there if it was free? Clearly as I had no choice and was part of my stay, but if they offered me compensation for the poor service in the form of a free meal, I 'd say NO!!"

Sheldrakes

Sheldrakes

Banks Road, WIRRAL, United Kingdom

Kebab • Pizza • Steak • Seafood


"Re-think!. Right. A stern correction to my glowing review below, as we've now had a couple of duds. The first was a dinner on New Year's Eve Eve which seemed very much B Team eg the lardons in a salad were just thin strips of anaemic supermarket bacon. Not horrendous, but not exactly covering themselves in honour. Then another dinner last Saturday, when, despite booking and arriving on time, we were left standing for almost twenty minutes whilst waiting staff ignored us, the owner assured us she'd be a minute, but then just hovered round other waiters serving a large table. Pressure to sit in the bar area and order drinks (presumably to aid the margin) and then a grace-less seating at our dining table.My son's rabbit terrine with ham hock had multiple small rabbit bones in it. Not good. We complained and were promised something compliementary, which never materialised, and it was left on the bill. His red snapper was then woefully overcooked.My sea bass with textures of rhubarb' and salad was an OK cooked fillet with slices of cooked rhubarb and a supermarket, undressed salad. My venison was MUCH better, thankfully. They also messed up my son's wine order.But the thing which now sticks in my throat a bit about this place is learning that the owner advertises for staff in Eastern Europe. All the waiters have been transplanted. That makes me worry a) how much/little they're paid and b) just seems a bit wrong on the Wirral, given it's had the stuffing kicked out of it with the demise of industry, to such an extent the biggest employers in the county are Tesco and Aldi.It's had chances now to follow up on its early promise, so won't be back.Destination Dining. Sheldrakes is an old converted sailing club/beach shack overlooking the marshes of the Dee Estuary and the North Wales coast.The interior was utterly unexpected opulent, funky, cocktail lounge type without being up itself. And the menu was moderately ambitious which, again, was a surprise for somewhere mins walk from our front door and, tbh, in the middle of nowhere.Prosecco to start served in proper champagne glasses, then wonderfully cooked HUGE scallops for me, on morcilla, with a swoosh of pureed salsify and pumpkin dust, and braised pigs cheek for himself with a Scotch quail's egg (never one to say no to slow cooked porky products).A lamb rack, again perfectly cooked to a blush, with a fennel and potato rosti and truffle sauce for me, and seared snapper (skin was so crisp) and a crabby parmentier potato base with a pear cider and mussel sauce for him.All really, really good. There's clearly a dab hand in the kitchen as everything was cooked to the teetering on the brink of undercooked point (which I love), and the (oddly, entirely Romanian, apparently the restaurant advertised there so loads of people came over and live locally) waiting staff were charming and efficient.We were on the for courses Autumn special, but were actually too full for pudding, alas, but will be back. Again and again.Other intriguing highlights on the menu include: home roasted smoked salmon with a lobster cake and vodka chantilly, Autumn mushrooms on gingerbread toast, pan fried turbot with a salsify and port reduction, peppered venison with an aniseed and parsnip puree and a beetroot and potato dauphinoise, lime panacotta with a G&T sorbet and olive caviar...I will enjoy our menu exploration! They do a sounds-a-bit-better-than-Toby Sunday carvery, and bistro dishes at lunch. Only word of warning, which came from the waiter, is that they make their money by hosting weddings at the weekend (we were one of only tables last night). They actually have three this wet-and-wild October Wirral weekend. So call ahead as, with the best will in the world, I think you might get a bit ignored if they have wedding guests to look after too.But thoroughly recommended. For once, food to match a view."