The Crab and Lobster, Bembridge

VERY expensive for small portions of badly cooked and unimaginitve food. A place this close to sea and trading on its reputation for sea food should be able to identify decent quality shell on prawns and cook them to perfection. Sadly, they cannot. If you want to pay �15 for 6 rubbery prawns and a packet of pre prepared basic catering salad, without any dressing, then go ahead, but you can do a LOT better than this on the IOW. I am amazed that apparently this place has won "dining pub of the year" on the IOW for 2010 and I just cannot comprehend how. Seriously. It is very clear this place is simply trading on its (admittedly lovely) beachside location and probably doesn't have to try very hard because of it. Maybe they stepped up their game when the judges of the "dining pub" came along, I don't know. My mother ordered crab cakes. Very bland, hardly any seasoning and should have been called potato cakes, not crab cakes. My husband thought his meal was ok, just average really. We complained (which actually isnt something we do very often but we were genuinely shocked at what they were expecting us to pay for such poor quality) and were offered a paltry �5 off our bill. Interestingly, we also heard another couple complaining (to no avail) while we were there about undercooked fish. Don't get me wrong, we are not the kind of people who expect Michelin star food when we eat out at a pub, but we are also the kind of people who wouldn't enjoy the food quality at a Harvester, for example. So, if you want to pay the prices of the former for the quality of the latter, I'm sure you will find The Crab and Lobster is for you. However, my recommendation for MUCH better food would be The New Inn at Shalfleet, The Garlic Farm at Newchurch or Coast in Cowes.

10 Mar 2011 11:25

The Good Intent, Puttenham

This pubs website states they are child friendly. They are NOT. We called ahead to ask if a high chair was available, we were told there was. When we got there it was not a high chair but an old, dirty booster seat with NO SAFETY STRAPS. We were not even able to sit down and had to find another pub to eat our lunch (which cost us an hour of our time on a Saturday lunch time when we should have been enjoying a day out) and a screaming hungry baby . Staff dealt with our concerns with utter contempt. We will not be going back but if you really want to go, take your own high chair and note that there are no baby changing facilities in the toilets or space to put your own changing mat. How they can call themselves child friendly is beyond belief.

3 Nov 2010 13:11