Garden Bar Restaurant

I 've never written a TripAdvisor review in my life but I feel like I have to warn people! I 'm a coeliac. We had stated this when booking but had felt confident in visiting as they mark gluten free items on the menu and there seemed to be quite a choice. However, I 've never had such a terrible experience in my life! When we arrived, my wife mentioned to the waiter that I 'm a coeliac. The waiter didn 't seem to understand, and got another waiter. This waiter just seemed to ignore the fact and get drinks orders. He came back having obviously read our booking notes to congratulate us on our anniversary and that the glasses of procesco were on the house! Very nice... But literally the only thing that was about this experience. Then we tried to order food... we had a voucher for a free three course meal for two that stated it was valid for a year. We asked the waiter if there was anything we couldn 't order using the voucher and was told it was fine. But if course, when we came to pay, he said he spoke to his manager and the voucher was no longer valid!!! they discounted us £45 or so supposedly cover the value of the voucher but had we known this when ordering we would not have ordered dessert or drinks to keep the bill reasonable. We were so mad at this point that my wife just wanted to go home, so instead of arguing further, we just paid the £40 or so remaining on the bill and left. The reason we were so angry is that throughout the whole evening, they were consistently so terrible handling what is in fact a very common allergy! When they took our order, we reminded them, AGAIN, that I can 't have gluten. The starter I chose was okay, but when I got to the main (marked gluten free on the menu!!! I ordered it and specified gluten free. When he read the order back however, he didn 't say GF, so I double checked that it was okay to eat. He seemed confused and he said he 'd have to check. He came back and said that it 's not ... I gave them the benefit of a doubt, and thought that maybe they were just out of GF pasta so it wasn 't available that night. So I asked what was available and picked steak. (None of the options were veggie btw We would normally ask about separate fryers for the fries etc but I had a feeling I would be talking to a brick wall so decided against it. The mains arrived. I had started cutting into the onion rings when my wife thank god asked the waiter to double check everything was gluten free. The other waiter rushed over and said that the onion rings I had already cut into were not in fact gluten free! My wife sent it back to the kitchen and reminded them that they would have to re cook the steak as the onion rings were lying on it and it was probably cross containimated. Lo and behold, the dish is returned suspiciously quickly with a suspiciously cold steak. They also didn 't offer to replace the steak knife that was now covered in gluten. But I was hungry and frustrated, so I just dug in. Luckily, I did not have a reaction. THEN it was time for dessert. Which, let 's remember, was supposed to be free, so even though our mains was a disaster (my wife 's was burnt btw we decided to stay. I asked the waiter to find out what I could eat. He went to find out, returned, and I ordered the Eton mess. But what turned up other than the wrong dish, and one containing gluten at that!! They promised the crackers on the cheese dish we 're gluten free but my wife was very suspicious of this given that they were branded 'hovis ' which, to our knowledge, don 't make GF biscuits. Anyway, after nearly being poisoned for the third time, they bring out the Eton mess, which was thankfully okay. Now you understand why we just sucked up the £40 bill (which probably should have been about half that and left. Utterly atrocious knowledge of allergens in both the wait staff and the kitchen. The food was average. The free glass of prosecco the only time the wait staff were at all nice to us. And I spent the whole time anxious that I would be glutened. One mistake I can forgive, miscommunications happen, but three times?!?! It speaks of ignorance and entirely uncaring for their guests health.

Had dinner here for my partners birthday. Staff were warm and welcoming. Food was very good quality. The team even brought out a dessert with a candle (on the house) as they knew it was my partners birthday which was a lovely touch. Only downfall was we were put on a table which had some used wineglasses on which isn’t ideal when you have the table pre booked. But overall, would highly recommend.

Seafood board as main dinner is completely mistake. 90% of this meal is served as cold food perfect for breakfast or starter. Prawn tagliatelle taste like oat soup with pasta. Horrible experience. No atmosphere, no vibe.

We had a super evening here. The welcome, food, service and waitress was first class. My husband had the Cornish steak which was cooked to perfection and I had the Linguini which was lovely. We had a view of the swimming pool with the harbour in the background which was beautiful when all the lights for the evening came on. Only short 10 min walk from Harbour car park.

Absolutely fab meal tonight at The Garden. Lovely table, friendly efficient staff. Meal was superb! Highly recommended!