Gmbklm's Reviews

This was our first visit to this branch of the Canteen, despite our many visits to the Festival Hall and the nearby National Theatre.

The décor, design and location are very good, but we felt that the restaurant PR around the quality of its food was quite misleading.

Consistent with other reviewers, we thought the food was very mediocre at best – more like a up-market chippie – bland, over cooked, little obvious care etc. If they really are buying good quality ingredients, something is going badly wrong in the kitchen.

Front of house was a bit off hand, and service was generally inattentive and not very professional – when they bring the wrong item, it must be your fault, not theirs. It’s a long way from being a British food version of Wagamama.

Most of the customers were quite young, so perhaps the poor service and poor food were acceptable, given the genuinely low prices. However, I would prefer to pay a few pounds more and have an enjoyable rather than a poor finish to an evening.

Conclusion: Give it a miss.

This was our 2nd visit this year. As previously, it was after the theatre, and the restaurant was again very busy. It seems to attract a local special occasion crowd, plus the theatre go-ers.

The dining room decor is very pleasant, quite modern and warm, and the tables reasonably spaced.

I’m afraid we again thought the food was very OK or very average – Not actually bad, but our starters were both rather bland and tasteless, and our main course beef was tender but a bit overcooked and not that tasty.

Service was efficient and pleasant, although the waiter didn’t know how to react to the non-positive answer to the “did you enjoy your meal” standard question. I also dislike it when waiting staff insist emptying the wine bottle sediment into my wine glass without asking.

I seem to remember this restaurant being much more up market when it first opened many years ago, but its now very much a mid-range restaurant or perhaps a brasserie.

Overall, I would say it’s main or only selling point is its proximity to the Almeida theatre for post or pre play dining. I won't be rushing back for the food, and it could not be described as good value at c£100 for 2 ex wine. Compares badly to a good gastropub.

The restaurant is in a great elevated position, on a steep hill at the back of a small coast side public park, with lovely views along the coastline – at least when it’s sunny. It must have one of the best English seaside restaurant locations; similar to Tresanton in Cornwall.

The restaurant is small, but since it has large areas of glass with very simple brasserie / café style furniture, it is very bright, breezy and airy. Not sure how it will feel on a cold dark wet winter evening ?

Service was generally very competent and friendly, and reasonably knowledgeable. There was also no pressure to push us out after our very nice very extended lunch.

The menu was short – I guess in the interests of freshness and efficiency – but with sufficient choice . We both ordered grilled bream, which was very fresh and very good – high quality whole fish with its head, simply cooked and presented – as we like it. The starters, side orders and wine were equally as good. Not surprisingly, the cooking and food style is the fish equivalent of Hix in Clerkenwell.

You can’t change the weather or the roads, but it makes a very nice change to be able to eat at such good quality seaside restaurant, without having to catch a plane.

It will be very interesting to see how locals and tourists take to this style of cooking and service, with simple quality dishes, served in a relatively informal way in smart café style interior; since it doesn’t really fit the traditional model for a relatively more expensive quality restaurant.

A quick weekend cooked breakfast turned into a rather long drawn out affair due to the very chaotic and disorganised management of staff, orders & service. They are newly opened, but it was unimpressive for them to lose / forget an order twice. At least they kindly and very sensibly offered us complimentary drinks to calm our annoyance.

A great shame, because its a great location (for outside in summer) and the food was actually very good. Hopefully, service will improve as things settle down.