Darcy’s Seafood

I visited Brighton with my boyfriend for a romantic anniversary dinner on Valentines weekend. We were asked to pay a £15 deposit for the pleasure, which I must say rather took me aback and when we arrived there seemed to be some confusion over the fact that we had booked at all! We were ushered to our tiny table, sat far too close to other diners (I know the place is small, but come on!) and were subjected to a constant stream of waitresses bumping their derrieres against the table.

The food was absolutely nothing special, I had garlic prawns to start, which I could have made myself with some frozen crustacae and garlic salt and scampi for my main. The scampi was fine, but personally again I'd rather have stayed at home and bought a bag of frozen! My partner had the seabass, which to be fair he did really enjoy but overall I found the evening to be extremely overpriced and really not that enjoyable (and we never did get out £15 deposit back- it mysteriously disappeared into the restaurant booking ether.)
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Laura
Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 3
Saturday, July 11, 2009

We were up from London for the day and I fancied some fresh fish and were attracted to Darcy's outside tables and the fact that they offered gluten-free pasta (I am gluten intolerant).

My first warning that something wasn't right should have come when placing our order. I asked for the gluten-free pasta with half lobster and an avocado with crab to start. I asked the waitress if the crab seasoning was gluten-free and she said she didn't know, they don't make the mayonnaise there. No offer to go check for me. So I had it plain. It was ok, the avocado was ripe and my husband loved his whitebait starter.

While waiting for our main course, I was shocked to hear the waitress shouting, liteally shouting, at a couple two tables away. From what I could gather the lady had been brought the wrong main course and had eaten it, not wanting to send it back and leave her partner eating alone while she waited. She was then billed for this dish, which was much more expensive that the one she had ordered. She complained, and the waitress started to shout at them, saying that she ate it, she had to pay for it and she should have complained at the time. It went on for about 5 minutes. I've never heard anything like it before in a restaurant.

Our main courses arrived. My husband enjoyed his fish pie, but found it overpriced. My gluten-free linguini turned out to be gluten-free spaghetti, drowned in what tasted like a tinned tomato sauce, straight out of a can. The lobster was tough and tasteless. We definitely won't be going back again.
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Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 3
Monday, April 13, 2009

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