Livebait (Covent Garden)

Absolutely delicious food. Was late on a busy evening and yet the atmosphere was calm and organised. Cannot recommend the spiced seabass with sweet potato enough! :-) Will definately be returning!
Comment on this reader review

Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 8
Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Visited Livebait early on a Friday evening and thoroughly enjoyed the food and also the service. Due to a prior engagement, we needed to be out within an hour, but even so we did not feel at all rushed as the service was quick and efficient.

I had tuna which was cooked to perfection and my partner had salmon encrusted with poppy seeds, which was delicious.

The waiters & waitresses were chatty and helpful but not overbearing.

All in all an excellent evening and one that I will be repeating soon!
Comment on this reader review

Michelle
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Wednesday, April 30, 2008

This has to be the best fish resturant ever, great service very nice polite people, and the food is out of this world would recommend to any body, great value for money .

My husband and I booked through buy a gift theatre and meal, had a really memorable time thanks to that lovely resturant and its staff.

Many regards Mrs A Clarke

meal booked for the friday 11th April 2008 at 5.30
Comment on this reader review

Mrs A Clarke
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Saturday, April 12, 2008

This is our fourth time eating here but our first in the evening. We hadn’t booked a table so had a 10 min wait and sat at the bar being entertained by the ozzie barman. We were shown to the table and given the customary fresh bread, butter and salmon pate which was marvellous. We ordered the sole goujons with onion rings and tartare sauce (16 quid each), we also ordered chips but the waiter suggested one bowl maybe as the portion size was large and if we needed one he would get a second fresh bowl. We decided that was for the best. We are glad we did as the three sole goujons were massive!, nicely cooked and the onion rings delicious. We just about finished the portions but were stuffed! All through the meal the staff were pleasant and chatted if you wished them too. All in all good value and good food. Will go there again.
Comment on this reader review

Simon Heath
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 8
Sunday, March 02, 2008

On tuesday 19th, my wife and I had pre booked for lunch at Livebait. We were really looking forward to it as we rarely get the chance to eat in London, especially without the kids. The meal was a tale of several stories.

Starting at the beginning. Our welcome was nice enough, but when we were being taken through to the dining area I asked wether we could have a booth. I'd also asked for this when we booked because previous review recommended this. Unfortunatley I was completely ignored and we sat down at a table in the middle of the dining floor. Perhaps I should have been more assertive? Within seconds of sitting down we were approached by the most miserable waitress with a tray of lovely looking breads.She also offered us still or sparkling water. She then went on to ask which wine we wanted. At this point we asked her to come back because we had only just sat down and hadn't even got used to our surroundings. Now to business, the menu was very good and We had real trouble choosing from a lot of delicious sounding dishes. I chose the fish soup followed by indian tiger prawns. My wife also went for the soup followed by whole sea bass. We hadn't noticed the specials board and it wasn't brought to our attention by the waitress, but very soon our soup arrived, which I thought tasted great! Just the right textures and strong in good flavour. The croutons were very oily but thats ok. Our delightfull waitress didn't bring this to us and she hasn't been back to check on us yet. She did arrive shortly after we had finished to take away the bowls but wasn't interested in how the food was at all. Our mains also turned up very promptly and were also delicious. I could have eaten the prawns all day. Still no attention from the waitress until clear up time and our water ran out some time ago. Time for the bill. We had been charged £1.50 for what we thought was complementary bread and butter each! We had been charged £2.99 for the water, we should have known really. Then when we left, there was no one to say good bye except the bar man, and he just ignored us!

All in all, good food, disappointing service and atmos. Would probably not go again.
Comment on this reader review

gregnuts
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 4
Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Very disappointing. My pre-theatre meal consisted of Microwaved fish pie (plenty of bones), mushy peas, 1/2 bottle of Chilean Sauvignon (charged at £15 ... but probably worth less than £2) and a small espresso ... and just a few shekles change from £40.

Inattentive service ... with attitude! Service charge applied of 12.5%.

Another disappointing chain.

Cafe food at restaurant price.

Not recommended.
Comment on this reader review

Roderick Jaynes
Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 1
Wednesday, February 20, 2008

We went to Livebait and have to say the service and atmosphere was good. However the food left a lot to be desired. I shared a livebait platter and we had another crab but still failed to find any meat. we paid for a big plate of very small prawns. This platter was also very expensive so dont order it. The minted potatoes with the Large Prawns were hard and not minted.

The scallops were good and the fish of the day not too bad. Cost for 6 of us was not cheap when they added in the extra for the bread and the service charge. Of course they make money on the wine so we were glad a big chunk was paid by tesco vouchers. All in all I felt as if I coudl eat more.
Comment on this reader review

Julie
Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 4
Sunday, February 10, 2008

This is my second visit to Livebait, and it's my friend's birthday.

The experience, and the treatmeant we got from the management was appauling. Firstly, they couldn't find our booking for 5 ppl, and only when they asked if we made the booking online, then they realised they didn't take the booking properly. Lastly, we brought a cake for our friend, and asked if we can cut the cake in the restaurant. This time, the manager came to our table, and said there is a policy to charge 3 pound per head, because not all of us ordered 2 courses.

I understand it's a normal practise to charge customers for having birthday cake in a restaurant, but he surely sounded like we have to pay because we didnt order enough food.

We expressed our comments, again no apologies from management at all.

It absolutely ruined our night.

Ok, it's a review, the bread and salmon pate was nice, grilled sea bass was ok, there are definitely nicer seafood restaurants in London and I will not recommend it to my friends
Comment on this reader review

C. Lau - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 3
Saturday, January 26, 2008

Wow.... what a meal we had at the livebait restaurant in Covent Garden tonight !. complemented by the professional and friendly service from a young turkish waiter. We started with a selection of soft homemade bread and salmon spread. Our meal was served with style in an simple yet elegant black and white toned restaurant setting. The fish is seriously tasty. It was cooked with real understanding of flavour and texture so none of the moisture was lost fom the fish. The shellfish were mouthwateringly fresh and had a sweet succulent taste. Lovely sancerre wine to complement the dover sole and poppy seed covered salmon. We then had the fruit flavoured sorbets and delicously decadent chocolate ice cream. The cappucino is in a league of its own with that rich coffee taste and white froth. I read AA Gill's review every Sunday and wonder whether he has discovered this gem of a sea food restaurant yet ! We were there to celebrate something special. Its not just the food, its the service, the atmosphere and the real value for money that makes this restaurant special. A great place to 'catch a bite' before or after the theatre. !!
Comment on this reader review

Philomena
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 9
Monday, December 10, 2007

Great restaurant, we thouroughly enjoyed our meal, and managed to all eat excessive amounts of truely scruptious seafood! The evening was made all the more enjoyable by the couple of reduced price bottles of champagne we managed to squeeze in during 'happy hour' which runs to an inpressive 7:30pm, even at weekends!
Comment on this reader review

Oliver Cooke
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Thursday, November 22, 2007