Fish & Grill (Croydon)

Had a good meal last night. However advertising a 3 course meal where the main course is not served with any veg or accompaniment is very, very poor.
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7 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 3
Friday, November 04, 2011

We have been to Malcolm John's Fish and Grill on many occasions and always had an enjoyable time. We were even considering hiring the whole place for a family celebration as it really was that good.

Unfortunately on our last 2 visits it seems to have taken a turn for the worse. The food has been consistent. The fresh seafood starters and mains are lovely, as is the steak, but the standard Bistro offerings such as the Aberdeen Angus Burger or the Chateaubriand are more average.

Where this place really falls down is on the service and ambience. It is situated on a busy road in South Croydon and when the frontage of the restaurant is open the traffic noise is fairly bad. This leads them to turn the music up to a level where it becomes difficult to hold a conversation.

The staff are also an issue. Service is very inconsistent and highly dependant on which manager is on shift at the time. It seems that the Chef-Patron model works well in the kitchen but less well on the floor. On our last visit it became so uncomfortable and unpleasant that we refused the 12.5% service charge. As fairly regular customers we left feedback on their website and received a cut and paste word document reply, which frankly was a bit patronising. All in all - a shame and very disappointing to see a good kitchen let down like this.

In summary, good food let down by extremely poor service. We wont be back (not that they care).
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Nathan L
3 Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 2
Thursday, October 06, 2011

Brilliant concept and the restaurant manager is lovely.

Very little interest when complaints are raised in writing. They let the first line people down.

Becoming a chain always have an impact on customer service and probably in this case on people's ego.

We have been customers in Croydon for more than 4 years. ( Cassoulet and Fish and Grill)

It's all over now! back to Albert's Table.
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A regular customer
1 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 1
Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Food OK but massively over-priced, service not good.

Entirely average meal at a top end price. Ate out recently at Les Deux Salons and this cost much more!

We ate here early New Years eve with my son. Asked if the BBQ chicken was hot or spicy for him and the waitress said it wasn't. Asked for his main with our starter. When it arrived (with our mains) it was really spicy and full of peppercorns and when I asked for something else the waitress chose to argue instead of replacing. When eventually he received a main course we had long by then finished. My mixed fish grill was the same type of white fish (haddock?) cut into 3 pieces with some shell fish. All in all very disappointing and distinctly overpriced. The steak requested medium rare, arrived rare. Even more disappointingly they asked via email for feedback which I provided but haven't heard since. Put me off going back to Le Cassoulet which I used to love and visited regularly.
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ALP
3 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 1
Friday, January 07, 2011

Food was so, so, I had taken my Husband for a Birthday Meal along with his parents last night for something a little bit different due to the wide range of fish dishes they had on their menu.

The food was overly expensive for the portions you actually got and the wine was a bit pricey for our liking, the service was good which for Croydon, we all thought, was abit OTT.

I don't think I will be frequenting this restaurant in the near future... Sorry F&G....
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Mrs G
5 Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 3
Monday, July 05, 2010