Darcy’s Seafood

We hadn't eaten here before, as the prices had put us off slightly, so my partner a friend & I thought we'd give it a try.

The garlic bread appetisers were lovely, just as well as we had to wait almost an hour before our mains arrived. When my partners steak arrived, it wasn't cooked how she'd asked, so it went back, whilst the peas (£2 extra) sat on the table getting cold. The portion was tiny, a few chips & half a tomato.

It will never cease to amaze me how a chef can cook a steak wrong. Hardly rocket science. I'd ordered the sea food linguine (which was actually spaghetti), along with our friend. It had to be the worst sea food pasta dish i've ever had. It was a tasteless, sticky mess devoid of seasoning.

If they can't get the basics right, there's no way i'll be going back to order an expensive fish dish!
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Matt D
Sunday, August 24, 2008

I took my two children to Darcy's as we love fresh fish and was left seething by the quality of the food, the hidden extras which you would expect to be included and the surly waitress/owner. My eldest had mediocre cod (not particularly fresh) and chips, my youngest had lovely scampi but ludicrously priced at £15.99 plus another £2.50 for chips and I had a tasteless half lobster served on a bed of iceberg lettuce with some chopped carrots. The Creme Brulee was good, but my strawberries were the hard and white in the middle variety that you get in bad supermarkets. I left them and although the watress/ owner asked why, when I explained, she said it wasn't the season for strawberries! They were also tasteless and were served with thin cream which was suspiciously UHT tasting.

For this joy, we were charged £70. I complained about the £2.50 for chips in a meal already costing £16 and was told she 'couldn't do anything about it as the manager wasn't there'.

Overall a huge no to this place. Especially if you know the quality of good food.
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Ruth
Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 0
Saturday, August 09, 2008

Having read previous reviews, my wife and I went to the restaurant with mixed feelings, erring on the positive side. However, on arrival there were staff vacancies displayed in the window which immediately set the alarm bells going, particularly as this is a very small establishment! Nevertheless, we had pre booked (but didn't need to on a Friday night) and when we arrived we were quickly ushered to our table and given the menus for our deliberation. The choice of food was excellent if not on the expensive side but we chose our dishes and waited in anticipation. I had moules marinere and my wife decided on whitebait , both of which were fine apart from the fact that the mussels were literally swamped in cream! Main courses were grilled sea bass and Scottish salmon with various potatoes and veg. The bass was fine but my wife was extremely disappointed with a mediocre salmon STEAK that looked like it had just come off the shelf of the local corner convenience store. For a mere steak the price was high and would normally warrant a good salmon fillet. With a bottle of average white wine the bill came just over £70. Paying by card, I suggested a tip of £7. On presenting me with the PIN machine the owner had craftily rounded that the bill up to £80 saying she could change it if I wanted her to! I couldn't be bothered by this time. Overall, a disappointing meal, and with so many other seafood outlets to visit , I doubt whether D'Arcy's will be visited again.
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Andrew and Sharon Bowling
Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 4
Saturday, June 21, 2008

ace, all good
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jason
Sunday, March 09, 2008

I can not comment on other peoples experiences but my own. I had a very lovely and romatic meal in D'Arcy's which I and my partner enjoyed very much in beautiful and very quaint setting.

If you like god fresh fish and vegeatbles then I would highly recommend D'Acry's.

As for the service it was good and the charges where in keeping with any city establishment.
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Michael Cohen
Monday, October 15, 2007

I must admit I am a little surprised by the reviews and I guess people only make comments when they are unhappy with something...which is fair enough, but to give balance then people should make comments when they are also happy. I was very happy with my meal at Darcys. My wife and I took a couple visiting from abroad because the Lanes has such a good atmosphere. We sat outside the restaurant and watched the world go by. It was a thoroughly delightful experience, the food was tasty and well prepared and the waitress very freindly. From a cost perspective it seemed about the same as all restaurants around, so it didn't stand out as being too costly to me. I agree if your a student it may be costly, but then the is of course MacDonalds and a McFish.

P.S. Our guests also enjoyed their meal
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Neil O''Neil
Thursday, October 11, 2007

Very disappointing meal. Starters were fine (whitebait and fried squid) but main courses were a lazy, bland waste of time. Seafood risotto and linguine didn't taste of fish, they simply had dried white fish and handful of muscles chucked on top.

Service was slow, bordering on rude, food was over priced, music dire Sixties crooning stuck on a loop, and the pino grigio barely drinkable.

An expensive tourist trap. Avoid.
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Friday, June 15, 2007

The restaurant looked lovely from outside with a good location and the menu looked good so I chose it amongst the wide variety of seafood restaurants around.

Unfortunately, I did regret this as I was served my starter, it did not get better for the main course, the quality and presentation (cheap tacky crockery)of the food was extremely poor.

Service wise, the waiters looked tired and not motivated.
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Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Overpriced food, overpriced service.

Main courses averaged £15-20 but then you had to pay extra for veg and potatoes, bringing the cost per head for a main to nearly £25.

Fish was nice, I had halibut with shrimp sauce, but you could count the shrimps on one hand, my husband had trout with almonds (almonds were soggy). Vegetables were over cooked and had no flavour to speak off (not good for £4.50, didn't have potatoes as they cost even more). Salad (£3.95) was small and boring, lots of Iceburg lettuce and not much else.

Drinks very expensive - vodka & coke and a bottled beer was £7.20!

Service was terrible, staff were grumpy old women or non-English speaking eye candy. The owner who seemed to do nothing but strut around barking orders at her staff, looking miserable and not chating to her customers at all.

They added 10% service charge to the bill, we were only a table of two! What service? they brought out the drinks and food and left us to serve ourselves.

When we queried the bill, because the drinks seemed expensive, they were surly and unhelpful making us wait 10 mins while they claimed to sort it, when they came back with an explaination as to why we explained that's not what we'd had, the waitress agued with us, surely if the service is worth 10% of the bill they should be so good they'd know exactly what we'd had.

Total cost of meal was over £54 for two main courses and three drinks.

Dreadful place, we'll never go there again or recommend it to anyone.
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Helen Shone
Monday, July 31, 2006

Some of the best seafood I have ever had, and I travel all over the world. Price is what is expected for fresh fish, Fantastic atmosphere and friendly service
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Raffaello Boscardi
Wednesday, April 05, 2006