The Sandbar fish restaurant Leigh on sea Essex

I just have to update this review by saying that when I went back in September 2011, it was not of the same standard as I have outlined below.  The fishcakes were still good, but the plaice and chips was terrible – put it this way there is more fish in a birds eye fish finger than one of the two so called fillets of plaice that you get on this dish covered in breadcrumbs.  At £9.95, it was one of the worst value for money meals I have had in a long time, so it just goes to show, chefs and food can change in restaurants rapidly.  When I asked for more fish and told them why I got a piece so small, that when I took the fish out it was one mouthful!………OLD REVIEW AS OF MAY 2011 – We visited this restaurant for lunch in 2007 and I now have no idea why we didn’t go back as it was really good. However, in March 2011 we had an evening meal at the cosy window table in the corner. Lamps, candles and white tablecloths give this place a real relaxed feel yet it is smart and the staff professional with attention to detail.

We really loved it. As for the food, it was very good indeed. We started with a pork belly dish served on a shallot and bacon puree and a salmon fishcake on roasted creamed leeks – both original flavours and cooked to perfection. For mains, I had the dover sole with new potatoes and a brown shrimp butter, and Michael had the duck from the specials menu. This was all topped off with a crème brulee. This is a very good food and a very good venue, right in the heart of Leigh on sea. This restaurant was opened in 1998, so has plenty of years experience with listening and acting upon its customers requests.

Date of visit – March 2011

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How many dined? 2

Average price per person for 3 course meal (excluding drinks) – High (£30+)

Service charge included? no

Food – 9

Service – 8

Ambience – 8

Value for money – 8

Email:  thesandbar@btconnect.com

Phone:  01702 480 067

Website: http://www.sandbarandseafood.co.uk

71 Broadway, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex SS9 1PE

The atmosphere was great as well as the food. To start I had the ‘Grilled wild tiger prawn piri piri, flat bread & salad’ It was all great, except that I got something more like a ciabatta rather than a flatbread, but it was all delicious and the prawns were large and mosit. Michael had the ‘Pressed pork belly & spanish foie gras terrine with pickled mushroom, apple compote &sour dough toast’ which he enoyed.

For mains, I chose the ‘Pan roasted lamb rump with kohlrabi turnip puree, puy lentil, baby spinach and red currant jus’ and I will be back to have that again. The lamb was cooked beautifully, just as I had asked, and the flavour fantastic. All the accompaniments were just right and the whole dish was lovely. Michael had the ‘Zabrano beef bourginogne, braised cabbage, pearl onions,butternut squash, candied pancetta & red wine’ which he enjoyed, but he said he preferred my dish. I did try his though, and the beef was tender and sauce very good and I would recommend it if you fancy that sort of dish.

I will be back again now, and I am so pleased that they have now sorted out the staffing issues as it is a great restaurant to dine in and the chefs have always been excellent, together with the use of fresh, quality ingredients. The prices do reflect this.

(I will add the photos from our meal soon…)

Restaurant name

Zabranos

Date of visit

March 2010

Website address

www.zabrano.co.uk

Restaurant telephone

01702 476999

Restaurant address

127, Leigh Rd, Leigh-On-Sea, Essex SS9 1JQ

Service Charge included?

No

Average price per person for 3 course meal, excluding drinks

moderate (£20-£30)

How many dined?

2

Value for money rating?

8/10

Atmosphere Quality rating?

8/10

Service Quality rating?

8/10

Food Quality rating

8/10

Rak Chang main meal

This new contemporary Thai restaurant opened early 2010, so we tried it out. It has stiff competition with the longstanding Manolys restaurant up the road (which has had a refurbishment this year), but it has brought a fresh approach and it has worked.

The interior is smart, yet cosy and the chairs are really comfortable. It has a laid back feel, with plenty of space between the tables, and friendly, efficient staff. The extensive menu made it hard to choose our dishes, as there were some dishes that are not seen in other restaurants, which is great news. I spent 7 months in Thailand when I was younger, and have been waiting for a restaurant to serve some of the more unusual things like the Northern Jungle curry and the minced pork salad, which I will be back to try!

To start, we shared a beef salad and asked for it a little less hot than usual (as this is a very hot dish) and it came out just right – plenty of red chillis if you choose to eat them, but medium hot throughout. We always ask for “no MSG” as we do not get on with Monosodium…

…Glutamate, and yet everything still had plenty of flavour and really fresh ingredients. The beef was good quality and the portion very generous.

We had seabass in chilli and lime, which is one of my favourite dishes. The fish and juices were delicious, but I did find that the steamed seabass was overcooked, which does spoil such a delicate fish. To go with the fish, we tried their king prawns in sweet and sour and, again, the sauce was fresh tasting and had just the right amount of sweet and sour without being too thick and sticky like some. The large juicy prawns were cooked perfectly.

We also had stir fried vegetables in oyster sauce – again very fresh and a lovely mix of crunchy vegetables.

With plenty of Singha beers, the bill came to £56 with service, which we thought was very reasonable. We will, without doubt, be back!

Restaurant name

Rak Chang Thai Restaurant

Date of visit

16th March 2010 and ongoing into 2011 – it remains the same!

Restaurant telephone

01702 711180

Restaurant address

93, The Broadway, Leigh-On-Sea, Essex SS9 1PG

Service Charge included?

Yes

Average price per person for 3 course meal, excluding drinks

moderate (£20-£30)

How many dined?

2

Value for money rating?

8/10

Atmosphere Quality rating?

8/10

Service Quality rating?

8/10

Food Quality rating

7/10

Soya leigh salmon main course

This boasts oriental fusion food in contemporary surroundings, and it does deliver just that. We have only been the once so far, but really enjoyed it and will be back. They also say that they use fresh ingredients and use less MSG (Monosodium Glutamates), which is good, although we always ask for no MSG when we have Chinese or Thai food.

The service was great – friendly and efficient – but then we were the only people in there at that time, as it hadn’t been open that long and it was mid week.

We had salmon Teriyaki, and it was gorgeous – fresh and a huge portion of quality fish.  The scallops were cooked with ginger and spring onion and were a hearty portion and delicious and the vegetables and noodles were fresh and good quality.

We will definitely return!

Restaurant name

Soya Restaurant

Date of visit

July 2009

Website address

www.soyarestaurant.co.uk

Restaurant telephone

01702 411766

Restaurant address

1613, London Rd, Leigh-On-Sea, Essex SS9 2SQ

Average price per person for 3 course meal, excluding drinks

moderate (£20-£30)

How many dined?

2

Value for money rating?

8/10

Atmosphere Quality rating?

8/10

Service Quality rating?

8/10

Food Quality rating

8/10

The Boatyard as a venue is smart, yet the food and service are pretty bad and overpriced. It was good a few years ago, but seemed to go downhill every visit we made.

We have been a few times for special nights out, as it was in fact the place for my first date with my partner. I love the interior, which is modern and comfortable enough, with a piano player and a bar shaped as a boat as a central piece. It is laid out on two floors (mezzanine) so you do get the feel of being in a decent place, but all too often we have found the waiters/waitresses to be rude, unprofessional and they seem like they have not had any training in the industry. This does not count for them all, but it does spoil the evening a little.

The menu is pretty basic, and I often go for a fillet steak, which is a bit of a boring choice, but it is one of the things that they cannot ruin too much. At £22, without vegetables, it should be alright though!

We don’t mind paying for good food, but the food isn’t worth the prices, plus you have to pay extra for side orders with the mains. I have been for lunch and it was pretty good, but they wouldn’t serve it outside on the sea view terrace which is a shame as it is a nice spot out there and it would not have been much further for them to walk.

They will park your car for you, although the car parking facilities are limited, and to be honest, it seems to depend what car you drive as to whether they will park it for you or not! If you have a new Bentley you will be alright

We were going back each year for the anniversary of our first date, but this year we missed it, so I really don’t know if we will go back. We constantly see bad reviews of the food and I guess until we are convinced otherwise we will not bother.

Restaurant name

The Boatyard Restaurant

Date of visit

multiple until early 2009

Website address

www.theboatyardrestaurant.co.uk

Restaurant telephone

01702 475588

Restaurant address

8-13 High St, Leigh-on-Sea, SS9 2EN

Service Charge included?

No

Average price per person for 3 course meal, excluding drinks

expensive (over £30)

How many dined?

2

Value for money rating?

3/10

Atmosphere Quality rating?

8/10

Service Quality rating?

4/10

Food Quality rating

4/10

The Dining Room prawn cocktail

The interior of the Dining Room is modern, contemporary and comfortable. We liked the layout and were seated at a nice table near the bar. The Manager was very friendly and took time to chat and the service was very good – they serve wine and food in a professional manner which we like.

The menu was inspiring enough and I opted for a Prawn & Crayfish with Mixed Salad & Mary Rose Sauce to start, which was a huge portion, but with a light and delicious dressing, so I managed to polish most of it off! For main, I had the sea bass fillets (Fillet of Sea Bass with Grilled Courgettes & Olive Oil Dressing) which were cooked beautifully with the creamiest mash I have had in a long time.

(please click on the images below to enlarge and press the back button on your browser to return to the main page)

Michael’s choices were not quite as successful, but not bad either. He had the Chargrilled Vegetable with Ciabatta Bread & Balsamic Reduction vegetables to start. They were really good – just perhaps lacking something….. His main of Lobster Linguini, Chilli & Sun Blushed Tomato Sauce, unfortunately, didn’t have much lobster in it, so he was disappointed, but the flavour was good.

We shared an Eton Mess to finish as we were quite full, and that is worth having if you have a sweet tooth!

I like a restaurant that does champagne by the glass, as Michael doesn’t always want champagne, and we prefer wine with our meal, so I was pleased to find they had Paul Herard Brut Champagne NV by the glass – £7. Very nice!

I wish I could remember the wine we had, but I will update this review when I go back again and get the name as it was really good!

I would recommend this restaurant!

Restaurant name

The Dining Room

Date of visit

30/07/2009

Website address

www.thediningroomsouthend.co.uk

Restaurant telephone

01702 477499

Restaurant address

1356 London Road Leigh-On-Sea SS9 2UH

Service Charge included?

No

Average price per person for 3 course meal, excluding drinks

moderate (£20-£30)

How many dined?

2

Value for money rating?

7/10

Atmosphere Quality rating?

8/10

Service Quality rating?

8/10

Food Quality rating

7/10

The restaurant was small (they have since extended it into a covered outside area) but comfortable, with smart seating. Perhaps the tables were a little too close together though.

The menu was varied and had some lovely sounding dishes, so it took us a while to choose, but I opted for the whole Dover sole, which was beautifully cooked and a really good choice. Michael, however, had scallops with black pudding which was not so good. Far too much black pudding making it really rich and not one bit ‘fine dining’.

To top it all, the service from one of the girls was horrendous – rude and she even chucked our bill on the table. Not good!

To be honest, if the waitress was not there, we would go back for the food and atmosphere, so maybe we will check it out again soon.  I hope that Michael still works there as he is an asset to any restaurant!

Restaurant name

Simply Seafood

Website address

http://www.simplyseafood.co.uk

Restaurant telephone

01702 716645

Restaurant address

No.1 The Cockle Shed, High Street, Leigh-On-Sea SS9 2ER

Service Charge included?

No

Average price per person for 3 course meal, excluding drinks

moderate (£20-£30)

How many dined?

2

Value for money rating?

4/10

Atmosphere Quality rating?

6/10

Service Quality rating?

3/10

Food Quality rating

7/10

Tudor Thai interior

I have been to the Tudor Thai only once, and I was quite pleased with the food and service.

The staff are friendly and the interior is fairly small, with wooden tables and chairs, but comfortable enough. We had a Thai salad and Thai chicken curry, and found it authentic.

I have not been back since, but I have no hesitation in suggesting this restaurant as somewhere to eat good Thai food with a nice service, it is just that I have my own favourites in the area which I feel are a little better, and I prefer somewhere a little more cosy.

See the restaurant details below these photos – (open the photos by clicking on them and use your browser back button to come back to this page….

Restaurant name

Tudor Thai Restaurant

Date of visit

April 2009

Restaurant telephone

01702 389500

Restaurant address

1773, London Rd, Leigh-On-Sea, Essex SS9 2ST

Service Charge included?

No

Average price per person for 3 course meal, excluding drinks

moderate (£20-£30)

How many dined?

2

Value for money rating?

7/10

Atmosphere Quality rating?

6/10

Service Quality rating?

7/10

Food Quality rating

6/10

main meal and the restaurant zabranos leigh on sea essex

We went to Zabrano about three times, but the food and service got worse.The first meal was great – chicken Coq au vin I remember to be extremely good and their Sunday lunch was nice.Thereafter we tried two more times. The second meal we shared the 7 hours slow roasted shoulder of lamb. It was rich and tasty at the time, but for some reason we both got stomach upsets afterwards – although we did have prawns too. Undeterred, we went back again, as the dining area is actually very nice and the atmosphere is good.The falafel starter was inedible as it was so salty.The scallops were nice.The bouillabaisse had just too much cream in it and was very sickly, and my main and wine was spoilt due to the lingering salt in my mouth from the starter. We were polite about it but had a particularly rude waiter. It is first time I have been unable to leave a tip, due to the undeserving service.However, I would not put anyone off going to Zabrano, as the two meals we had previous were very nice, including the Sunday Lunch, and chefs/staff change a lot in restaurants sometimes.

Restaurant name

Zabrano

Restaurant address

127 Leigh Rd, Leigh-on-Sea, SS9 1JQ

Restaurant telephone

01702 476999

Website address

www.zabrano.co.uk

Date of visit

October 2008

How many dined?

2

Average price per person for 3 course meal, excluding drinks

moderate (£20-£30)

Service Charge included?

No

Food Quality rating

6/10

Service Quality rating?

4/10

Atmosphere Quality rating?

7/10

Value for money rating?

5/10