The Crab at Bournemouth

First time to this restaurant for a wedding anniversary and it did not disappoint. The atmosphere was lovely the staff all welcoming and attentive. The seafood was so fresh and we indulged in the hot seafood platter which was a good array of seafood. It was a Saturday evening and we had the absolute pleasure of listening to their very talented pianist. He was amazing and this added to a superb atmosphere. Overall this restaurant is a seafood must.

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!!

We were staying at the Central Park hotel so it made sense to have dinner in their adjoining restaurant. It was very high class,situated just off the seafront with a lovely ambiance,a piano player serenading us. The food was amazing, the waiting staff friendly, attentive and professional. I would definitely recommend it. If I have to be picky, I should have had a finger bowl with my prawns and the floor was a little dirty with leftover food under my table but overall,we would certainly come back and enjoyed our experience.

I don’t feel the need to go into detail on the point that was lost rather more about the other four stars. These were awarded to firstly the host Casey who was polite, informative and professional throughout our evening and personally was five stars. Secondly to the nearly perfect food.Without his input into the evening I’d question the rosettes. Give that man a pay rise !

A bit disappointing really We have eaten here many times and always been very happy However this time we tried to book a table at 5.30!pm but were told restaurant was busy so we had to book at 4pm. We sat in restaurant alone and even at 5.45 pm there were still only 6 people What the hell was that all about Anyway we sat at table and to be honest it was not clean, there was evidence of previous food on table and floor Food was sort of ok and service was ok ish Anyway as we were staying at hotel we sat at the same place, and guess what, the food remains on table and floor were still there Only difference was that the female waitress in duty in morning was rude and totally disinterested, sorry but for that money never again