Livebait

The worst meal we've ever experienced...

Evening commenced not too bad. Ordered bottle of warm dry white wine only to be replaced with warm dry white wine.

Food: soup - blended something or other tasting extremely fishy and damp, however, it was well seasoned and hot. Bonus. Prawns were still in defrost mode and very heavily pregnant. Mussels were a funny texture to say the least accompanied by a split, foul sauce. Crab wasn't even dressed and the reward for defeating such an obstacle was a weird, very runny, funny coloured specimen. Mackerel was just edible, but again with a strange musty, damp flavour.

Our waiter was, at first, very attentive and he was, overall, quite helpful. Upon leaving our feedback/paying the bill, which was hard work to say the least, we were confronted by the manager.

Given the current economic climate I am completely bewildered how a service has the audacity to farm out dreadful food at over inflated prices and treat customers as though they were something scraped off the floor. Poor. So very, very poor.
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Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Friday, April 01, 2011

Went here last night using some vouchers - so glad we had them because I would have been upset if I'd had to pay £70 for a bland meal and poor service.

Our waiter was very pleasant and apologetic for the fact we were left 40 minutes before anyone came to take our order - that's 40 minutes without even a drink. There were not enough staff - we heard him apologising to other couples about the waiting time, he said it had been busy for the last couple of weeks as lots of people had vouchers - the management should be ashamed then as they've had ample time to get more staff in.

The food did then come quickly but my calamari was awful, the batter was thick and chewy (not tempura as stated on the menu) and the squid was also chewy and bland. My husband said his crab starter was ok, nothing special. We ate it because by this point we were starving.

Mains were also poor, my husband had tuna with wasabi mash - a bland, unseasoned tuna steak came with plain mash and a blob of wasabi on the side - not good. We drank our (Hardy's) wine and got out asap. I know 10% is added as standard and normally I'm happy to pay, I did on this occasion because I wanted to get out of there but if they're having to aplogise then don't add the service, very cheeky!
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Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 2
Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Booked my table online 4 days before dining there. I was informed that it was fully booked so I booked the last table at 9.30pm . When we arrived there the place was empty! No atmosphere at ALL! Well not exactly empty apart from 4 other diners. The guy who took us to our table was to say the least rather less than welcoming and may I add his trousers and shirt were at least 3 sizes too small for him, poor chap. Anyway the waitress arrived and her english was very bad indeed, I had to ask for a beer menu 3 times until she realised what I was asking for. I looked at the menu and I really fancied some crab. However I was informed that they had no crab. I could understand if they were busy but it was empty! The waitress then brough us a basket of cold burned bread with the smallest portion of pate known to man! Needless to say we left without eating. There is no way I was going to pay over £100 on dinner in a place that had the atmosphere of a morgue. I would NOT recommend Livebait at all. Save your money please!
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Pabilto - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Tuesday, November 09, 2010

went along last thursday night, i was really pleasantly surprised at what a great evening we had. they had an oyster event on and we got to try 5 different varieties at the bar, with the chefs opening them right infront of us. we had a thoroughly great evening, the food was fresh, attractively presented and really tasty. the service very warm, freindly and nothing was too much trouble. can't wait to visit again, i've been dreaming about the smoked haddock with mustard cream sauce ever since.
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eleanor heaney
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 8
Friday, October 08, 2010

This restaurant was recommended to me by a work colleague because of my love for seafood, i was utterly disappointed.

The restaurant itself was a pleasure, as were the staff. The food was honestly the worst seafood I have ever eaten. My partner and I both order the battered calamari rings for starters, the batter was tasteless. There was no taste whatsoever. We just left them after eating a few.

The main course, my partner had the cod in lobster sauce with crushed potatoes which i have to admit, he really enjoyed. I have gamba prawns on a stone baked bread, the stone baked bread was a little over baked... it tasted burnt. The prawns were, number 1 - tasteless, number 2 - the prawn heads were mushy when i peeled the shell off. I ate 3 prawns and left my main course.

I did complain to the waiter when he collected our plates, and the hostess came to have a chat with me. She told me that the prawns were perfectly alright and it was because they had been moved around they were mushy.

I just wanted to go home so we quickly settled the bill and left.
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Riz
Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 1
Monday, June 21, 2010

I booked to go to this restaurant for my Mum's birthday as it was recommended me by many of my friends. We were instantly welcomed and had excellent service throughout the whole evening. As for the food- the starters were good, and the main courses were fantastic; in particular the sea bass and fish and chips. Everything was so fresh, and full of flavour. I am surprised to read the below review as our visit was such a pleasant experience. I will be sure to recommend it to my friends, and definately be visiting again soon!!
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Rachel
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 8
Thursday, April 15, 2010

Simply horrible. I actually expected that the food here might be ok, but was I ever wrong. I had "fish cakes" as a starter that were without a doubt the single worst dish I've ever eaten in a restaurant. Mealy, tasteless and truly disgusting. If you'd given me a bite with my eyes closed and asked me to identify what I was eating I would not in a million years have guessed fish cake, or for that matter fish ANYTHING. It would be pushing it to say it tasted like "food" in fact. Really, really bad.

My main was a fish "casserole" which brought out a (this is a familiar tune) virtually tasteless soup, with some bits of fish and some mussels. Again, awful, though perhaps not as bad as the fishcakes.

My companion had fish and chips, which were declared to be "ok, but a bit mushy". That would be ok for £3.95, but for £13.95?? No misprint, almost fourteen Pounds for below average fish and chips that a local chippie could beat for £3.00. If you set foot in this place you have no excuses, you have been warned.
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Adam Roberts
Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 0
Thursday, March 25, 2010

Dined out at LIVEBAIT for my 21st Birthday Party and to be honest I have never begrudged giving money for food before. The food was absolutely disgraceful and FROZEN for god sake. I was so disappointed it was a shame and so was everybody else. The service was OK but very slow indeed, more staff needed and the food was just so expensive. I was just so frustrated by the end of the night as I had wasted a good birthday night out and I left the restaurant starving!!!

NEVER AGAIN.
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Mete Dursun
Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Saturday, May 02, 2009

The bait may be live, but the chips are frozen! £15 for fish and frozen chips? A restaurant that can't be bothered to make proper, traditional fish and chips - it's a disgrace!
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mal fletcher
Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 3
Saturday, April 18, 2009

Dined out on 13th Feb 2008 . Very disappointed. service poor, very pricey and the food was just ok
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scottish visitor
Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 3
Monday, February 16, 2009