The Waterfront in Ipswich

Food served luke warm, asparagus was raw, sent back, came back raw again, overall poor lunch, staff very good except for the manager/owner who is a very rude individual, refused to serve coffee as too busy, couldn’t care less. Sad that one individual could put you off a place so much.

A group went out for an overdue catch up over the Easter weekend (all in our 40s/50s so not teenagers) We were enjoying ourselves but were consistently ask to be quite (? We’re in a pub effectively). Realised this was due to a well know figure being at the venue…. We actually got asked to leave!

Group of friends went for a catch up. Asked to leave after being told to be more quiet and after a well know local figure entered.

Perfect spot and lovely views accompanied by some very Nice food. Highly recommend. Ask for dining upstairs which offers lovely views over the harbour. All 4 of us enjoyed our fish & chips and chicken and chorizo. Very good selection of wines as well.

I had lovely Sunday dinner with my mother. We were served by a lovely young lady called Beth who explained the menu and answered any questions that we had. The food was excellent and reasonable priced. Overall it was a wonderful experience and I look forward to go again. Excellent food and service!

Fantastic Mother's Day lunch at the Waterfront. Perfect food in a Perfect location served by perfect staff. Highly recommended.

Went for a Mothers Day celebratory meal .The set menu had plenty of choice and the food was excellent .Ambiance and service was good as always . Really enjoyed the lunch today

Very good Sunday roast dinner, followed by music, very good atmosphere

We had a works Christmas lunch booked last week. In the run up, the staff were dismissive, rude and uncommunicative. Upon arrival it was clear the staff did not know their drinks menu, or seem to care. Service was ok during dinner but the food was awful. Pre packaged crisp breads (not crostini) served with the terrine starter. Anaemic pigs in blankets, frozen roast potatoes, rock hard carrots, generic stuffing and instant gravy on the Turkey dinner. My treacle, pear and walnut tart was frozen in the middle when served (although quickly whisked away and reheated when mentioned) and no walnuts at all. I would really expect better quality food, especially when serving a pared down menu. There are local competitors charging two thirds of the price, using fresh ingredients, serving delicious meals.

Superb location over looking the Marina. It was my first visit to the Bistro and it was mid week so probably not the best time for judging the atmosphere. The Food and Service were good and I would certainly go back again.

I visited here with a client on a Friday lunchtime and we had a lovely experience. We chose from the 2-course for £26 menu which was great value. The food was excellent and well-presented. The restaurant has a lovely ambience and I would recommend it for a lunch for either business or pleasure.

Had dinner here before going on to see a concert at the Corn Exchange. What a fantastic bistro. Food was excellent - 2 Sea Bass and a Steak were all terrific. Lovely decor and ambience and the staff were excellent, providing for a really enjoyable meal.

Had lunch then stayed for the fabulous “Soul Sunday”. The singing was beautiful and the lively atmosphere was great fun. Staff and standard of service were excellent. Had a great chat with Greg, one of the owners, who clearly took great pride in the Waterfront and was a pleasure to meet. I would highly recommend a visit and will go back whenever I get the chance.

Great place - lovely atmosphere especially for couples. Good value set menu, great that you can have this on a Saturday eve! Will be back. Had such a great time thank you so much!

Very dissatisfied with how a quiet complaint to Greg the owner about my meal which I wasn’t happy with was met rudely and handled aggressively with excuses and complete disregard of my opinion and experience. Greg seems to have an answer for everything and really doesn’t care about how a customer feels in his restaurant. This has caused the loss of a regular customer plus friendship group moving forwards. Very unprofessional and badly handled indeed. Although, acknowledging his wife for the understanding and listening to feedback. I also noticed that this isn’t the first time this type of thing has happened in the restaurant as July 23” a very similar review has been left which again, Greg had an answer for.

Sophisticated food, great service, good value. You very rarely get all three together these days. We were particularly impressed by the freshness and quality of the ingredients from scallops to the stem broccoli. We eat out in London and Aldeburgh. This was the best we've had for a very long time.

Great place. Beef carpaccio was one of the best dishes of my life.

Absolute Rip Off! Ordered Scallops and received 2 ..yes 2, of the smallest Scallops I have ever seen, around the size of a 50 pence piece!! Paid £15.50 for these 2 Scallops. Good thing there is a Pizza Express next door. Do yourself a favour and bypass this place and go there instead.

We had some wonderful food and the staff are the most friendly I have ever encountered. Top marks all round.

Ordered food and waitress not aware of what was not on menu

Came in for an early evening meal. The waitress offered me a choice or where to sit and couldn't have been more helpful. The food was out of this world and the service matched. The absolute best part of the whole evening was I felt safe and comfortable being there. Dining alone isn't my favorite past time. However here I felt relaxed and at ease. So much so, I came back two days later.

Love this place. The staff are all so friendly and welcoming and the food is exceptional. Would highly recommend. It’s nice to go somewhere where the staff are so friendly.

Friendly and attentive staff. Great tasting food on a varied and well put together menu, but a bit overpriced for the portion sizes. Music was slightly too loud but we didn't ask to change it and I'm sure they would have accommodated!

Booked for family birthday meal Fantastic food Great wine Great service Chilled place to eat and enjoy the evening If you have not eaten here you are missing out Would definitely go back Well done to you and your team 👍

Stopped off for a quick lunch on our way through Ipswich. The food was very tasty and arrived quickly, and the service was attentive and friendly, going out of their was to keep our two year old happy. Will definitely be back if in the area again.

One of best places to eat in Ipswich

I am still in shock at the absolutely horrific way we were spoken to by the owner and his staff at the waterfront during our visit here at the weekend. He was arrogant, rude, aggressive and quite frankly threatening when we tried to explain that the service we’d received wasn’t great during our meal. I just wish I’d read some of the reviews before I visited and never stepped foot in this restaurant. It appears there are many customers that have experienced the awful wrath of this man. We’d raised two issues with the waitresses over the evening. Firstly, we’d been provided the wrong information about our meals, despite clarifying with the waitresses before we ordered. They did replace the meals eventually but didn’t really apologise for the inconvenience or acknowledge the restaurant was at fault. We were then served the wrong bottle of wine, politely alerted the waitress who was argumentative, insisting the first bottle we’d had was the same as the second one we’d been given and we’d ‘happily’ drunk one bottle of it already - it was our word against hers but the point was they’d messed up our order and wouldn’t take responsibility. By this point we just wanted to leave. We asked for the bill and to speak to the manager just to say we hadn’t had the best experience and hadn’t received much by way of an apology from his staff for their mistakes and the unprofessional way they dealt with us. What came out of that man’s mouth was horrible, he took absolutely zero responsibility for the way they’d served us and went on to blame us saying we’d been difficult all night, he had two meals in the bin because of us, his waitress was outside crying because of us and his staff were not at fault for anything. I’d have expected some form of compensation but the only thing offered was to remove the second bottle of wine from the bill, we paid the bill because we just wanted to leave, the back and forth had gone on for nearly an hour, ruined our whole evening. The owner even threatened to call the police if we didn’t pay and sniggered that a restaurant bill over £100 was barely anything and could we not even afford to pay it! There are so many other restaurants in Ipswich which will provide excellent customer service, please do not spend your money or waste your time here - this man does not deserve it

Had a fantastic meal this evening. Superb food and as a coeliac it is fantastic going to a restaurant that will adapt every one of their dishes. The service was second to none. It was the best dining experience we've had for a long time

Went friday night as my wifes birthday meal. Nice table upstairs by window overlooking the marina. We had a couple of drinks and their summer menu, 3 courses for 30.The food was great. All served nice and hot,so my duck roll starter was not cold. Had the seafood spaghetti and finished with lemon tart with gin and tonic ice cream( was very good) . Overall, real good food, nice people with smiling happy servers. A great coffee after( cup was warm so coffee not cold) all undrr 80 quid fir a nice couple of hours as a birthday treat . The main test = would Happily go again

Very nice place, but was quite early to see if it "buzzed".

Attended this venue for a Hen party meal expecting gorgeous food and plenty of drinks to keep the buzz we had been feeling from the morning celebrations. However unfortunately visiting The Waterfront, this did not happen. We arrived and had a lovely waiter, ordered our cocktails and simply waited, we persistently asked staff for our drinks to which were told they were coming yet managed to order starters, have them come, eat them before we even got a first round of cocktails! (Which was over an hour of us being there) we therefore asked for a second round of cocktails and yet again waiting for ages, ordering and eating dessert before anything even started to come out. Where we were sat we could see down to the bar and at times, the barman was tidying up and not making drinks! We cancelled the second order of drinks and decided to move on after being there for 2.5 hours having received one round of drinks. When we spoke with the manager to say how disappointed we were with the service, we were met with excuses of being understaffed and lots attitude Which further dampened the evening. He asked how much our bill was and scoffed when he commented that we had only had starters and desserts! Almost Applying that we had not spent enough to even be moaning! We explained we would have of ordered more rounds of drinks if they were served in time but service was shocking! He was very rude and spoke to us like he was not sorry we had a bad experience but that he was sorry for himself being understaffed that evening but not one person came to our table to apologise and say drinks were on the way. Although I did see him come up to shout at the waitress and point at our table for cancelling the round of drinks which we could see had not even been started! Overall Food was good but the managers reaction left us feeling angry and disappointed and certainly will not be visiting there again. For the price you pay, you expect good service and apart from the waiter, this was not at all!!

Oh my goodness, what an amazing lunch. 3 courses.. The Seafood spaghetti was absolutely amazing couldn’t rate it highly enough, such a wonderful mix of flavour’s 😍 Then the Lemon tart with the ‘gin and tonic’ ice-cream. I wasn’t a lover of ice-cream but now converted with this one- out of this world. Plus an amazing surprise-thank you 😘. Dawn & Rob xx

Very Decent food though not the cheapest venue. Upstairs offers great view over waterfront

Absolutely brilliant! Visited for the Italian 3 course meal and unlimited prosecco night. Food was sensational and we certainly had a lot of prosecco. Staff were very attentive and made sure our glasses were never empty. Can’t wait to go again

Throughly enjoyable evening meal here, great food and service.

Lovely Sunday roast dinner, reasonable drinks prices, friendly atmosphere, good service and on Sunday’s they have live music, all acts have the ground floor bar area enjoying their Sunday. Highly recommended

What a lovely place for dinner our first visit and not disappointing, the set out, and the staff and really nice and also friendly, the food was delicious the only slight downside was the actual size of the Sea Bass, it was on the small side.

Very tasty light lunch. Steak baguette and duck spring roll. Lovely

Thought I had booked bistro on the quay so was disappointed to turn up there and find I had in fact booked waterfront bistro. However venue, service and food couldn't be faulted. I thought the bottles of wine was overpriced and possibly our server could have known a bit more about what he was serving (he couldn't tell us which ice cream he was serving us) but we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and I would have no hesitation in recommending.

Love the scenery. Absolutely beautiful. Very helpful and friendly service too!.

Great atmoshere,friendly staff and owner,the decor and paintings make a lovely setting..be back soon

Fabulous food and great atmosphere. Our meal was absolutely perfect and so was the service. A real Easter weekend treat. Can’t wait to come back!

First visit here, very impressed. We will be back.

We had a lovely evening here last week with food expertly cooked. This was only tempered by the inflated prices on the menu that didn't reflect those advertised on their website beforehand. The staff were attentive, especially Rachel and we enjoyed ourselves. £15 for a...

Excellent service, fabulous food, drink and music. All I can say is a massive thank you to the team at the Waterfront Team! We booked the restaurant a little last minute for my 40th birthday celebrations. You were accommodating, professional and fabulous. All of the...

Visited The Waterfront on Saturday. We booked last minute and was fitted in. The surroundings, staff, and food were absolutely incredible. We were greeted by friendly staff. The waiters and waitresses were very knowledgeable about the menu and were happy to advise and were very...

Great place to eat and lovely vibe

Ate at the Waterfront on Saturday evening. Staff and the food perfect as always.

Great food. Friendly service. I had the scallops followed by the lamb. Blown away. Best scallops starter I've had. Anywhere. Eat here, you won't be disappointed.

I had their Christmas lunch menu with a main of feather of beef and the food was delicious. The service was also excellent.

Service was excellent, food well presented, hot and delicious.

Location is amazing. A beautiful day on the Quay. The veiwfrom the windows upstairs are superb. All the yachts and the scenery . Greg the manager is fabulous . You always receive a friendly welcome and the people there including staff are lovely. You really feel at home. The wine is the best and the food excellent. Definitely recommend.

The best roast dinner we have ever tasted. Staff very polite and well mannered and friendly. Rachel was very nice. Venue was spotless. Thoroughly enjoyed the singer, Georgie B.

Wonderful lunch at the Waterfront. The food was perfect along with the view! Restaurant staff were very friendly and welcoming. 10|10 highly recommend.

Absolutely the best food I have had in a LONG time! Amazing the side bread selection with balsamic vinaigrette and olive oil was fantastic especially the cracker type bread!! The pan fried macaroni is such a good idea and the meat that was on top so flavourful hats off to you guys!!! Also the sea bass was cooked perfectly and the presentation really was impressive. To top it all off we had an excellent waitress who was warm and pleasant so welcoming and accommodating. I will make this a new regular for me and my family. Outstanding 👏

Excellent food, great service. Quite quiet, but it was a Wednesday evening.

Nice place, lovely views and and really helpful staff. Food was good but not as good as the price they were charging for it would suggest, but perhaps that's just the way things are going everywhere. Had a great night out.

Popped in to ask about Christmas menu and was told one would emailed to me! This happen about five minutes after we’d left. Great job! Walked around the waterfront and decided to drop back in for lunch. Superb service from both of the guys on...

Havent been for a while. Had our Anniversary meal what a lovely atmosphere great food choices very busy evening great to catch up with Greg again . Keep up the good work

A great venue for food and drinks. A chic bar area, contemporary decor complemented with excellent food & drinks. Great views across the River Orwell and the busy waterfront. This restaurant & bar sits beside other original buildings now repurposed to form a great vibrant...

Decent looking bar, uniformed staff, overpriced drinks but what's worse is this bar only sells one alcohol free beer, Ghost. Ridiculous all the trendies sell at least two booze free beers! Some of the better ones even have it on draft.

We had such a fabulous meal here. I struggled to choose from the menu as so many options appealed. The service was great very quick, friendly and accommodating. The vibe and decor is so lovely. The food portions were generous and absolutely delicious.(must have a great chef !) Very reasonable prices for the quality.of food Really genuinely cannot fault it. We will definitely be going back there.

Manager booked our table for 1445 28/08/2022 knowing full well but unknown to us that his kitchen closes at 1500. We arrived early 1410 and he asked us to get drinks and would let us know when table ready. This never happened. We sat waiting and we’re asked at 1455 for our menu choices. We where then told we couldn’t have starters and desserts as kitchen closing. We asked the lovely waitress to ask the manager to come to our table. He never did albeit he was only a couple of tables away from us but made the waitress tell us could do mains only. The waitress never took the booking and the manager should have had the respect to speak to us. Very disappointed as have had a few great nights there. The food is lovely but not taking the risk again to be disappointed and ignored.

Great service. Lovely food. Very friendly staff. Will be back.

Poor service /experience from grey haired manager or owner, not sure what his role is but made to feel very uncomfortable.

We visited on a warm Friday evening. Started off sitting outside with a couple of drinks, then moved upstairs for our meal, which was faultless. I had the lamb which came with a mini shepherds pie. So tasty. My wife had the duck.... I will...

Amazing food and drinks! Lovely and helpful staff. The location and the view is perfect!

A quality serving of pan fried fish, no batter so more healthy, with chunky hand cut chops and home made tartare sauce. My husband was well satisfied with large mussels in his moules mariniere. Designer loos, clean welcoming bistro. I recommend it.

Location nice. Lovely inside. Great service. Lovely drinks. Food portions were very small, left with a feeling of being cheated and still hungry after 2 courses.

Before moving out of Ipswich, this was a monthly date night for my husband and I. 4 years on and I still haven't found anything that comes close. We miss you 😔

Good experience if on the expensive side

Good food, good service, reasonable wine selection and a lovely chilled environment to eat in. Can't ask for more in this modestly priced waterfront venue.

We made a booking which honestly were quite excited about for Father’s Day meal, we arrived and were in an empty restaurant bar maybe 2 customer inside, we waited close to 10 mins before a member of staff even acknowledged us. My mother is quite...

We made a booking which honestly were quite excited about for Father’s Day meal, we arrived and were in an empty restaurant bar maybe 2 customer inside, we waited close to 10 mins before a member of staff even acknowledged us. My mother is quite disabled and they had put us on a table up stairs which she can’t manage well. We asked if it was possible to take a table on the ground floor which was met with a little bit of shuffling then offering a table with abnormally high stools, which again with a person who struggles with movement was just not ideal. We obviously couldn’t stay so I have no idea for food quality but we were met with a “there is a note part of your booking where you should have told us” which didn’t sit well with me. Just a few questions, along the lines of “how long will you be here?” or maybe moving a lower table to the higher table would have been such a better experience, I mean we were only there for lunch and was just met with terrible customer service and would not attend again. First impressions matter.

Absolutely wonderful, well worth a visit

We came to Ipswich to scatter my mums ashes. Called in the bistro for a quick coffee and finished up staying most of the afternoon. Really friendly staff and excellent service and food. A member of our party was gluten free and they were able...

Amazing and delicious main and Great Service. Super tasty daiquiri & overal 5* experience. Cannot wait to visit again.

A lovely sunny lunchtime, seated outside, looking out over the Marina, the Waterfront Bistro makes a wonderful setting. Extremely friendly and welcoming staff. Everything was very well-presented and cooked, with a freshness and lightness of touch. Good choice of vegan dishes. Highly recommended.

The Waterfront has always been a firm favourite of ours to catch up with friends and enjoy good food. We booked a table for 4 for a Saturday evening. Arrived early and enjoyed a couple of drinks first, service and surroundings as always were lovely...

Wasn't to impressed, had the Duck Salad last Saturday (14/5/22) and it wasn't even a salad, all you get is about 4 salad leaves, with a low seasoned duck in the middle. For the low amount you get you shouldn't really be calling it a salad especially when it was quite pricey. Not only that, seeing as I and my Mum only ordered 2 Duck salads and it took them nearly a hour to make. This would be okay if you were to order more things or be in a big group, however it was only the 2 of us, what makes it worse is the fact we were outside seated so it started to get very cold by the time we received the food. The Duck was nice however can be improved with more seasoning, though you should really change the name of it as it wasn't a salad. Hoping to be able to visit again with improvements to the meal, so I can change this review.

Really welcoming when we arrived for a drink. Moved on to other establishments to get a feel of what was on offer. Decided to come back to the Bistro. Menu was expensive but was interesting. Sadly, the food let us down - contrasting dishes. The 1/2 lobster (£25) smelled lovely with a promise of garlic and moist sweet flesh but had dried out somewhat - under the heating lamp too long maybe? The chunky chips were huge and disproportionate to the delicate lobster. Salad was over dressed. You always get a little worried when you see a main that shows more plate than food - the Duck Breast (£25). A few smears of celeriac purée, a few strands of TSB, three small chunks of breast, not pink but not over cooked, a small roll of confit of duck leg wrapped in very thin duck skin, and then a bland jus. That was it. A starter maybe but not a main. Needed potato fondant or other carb. And the wine at £21 (cheapest bottle) of Chilean Sauvignon was below par. We didn’t say anything because everyone was lovely. Don’t get us wrong - it wasn’t horrible. Just not worth £85. Just disappointing. However, Joe Lycett’s show at the Regent made up for it.

They excelled themselves Thursday evening, Just 2 of us in the party, we were dining for a girlie catch up, the staff were knowledgeable, curteous and helpful. Food from the Al la Carte was spot on and washed down with a few gins and a...

Enjoyed a lovely lunch here. Helpful and friendly staff. Great location. Recommended.

5 ladies celebrating a 70th OMG food fab. Entertainment great where you sing and dance to fantastic iconic songs. Dan the barman who totally looked after us from food to drinks. The owners also introduced themselves and made sure we were having a good time....

Lovely place for a nice drink on Ipswich docks waterfront with live music

We had lovely food and a drink in Bistro which was very good lovely buiding over several floors and lots of service points

Fantastic food and Fabulous staff.

We came here for a last minute lunch date with the family. Service was amazing and food tasted delicious. I don’t normally leave reviews but it was honestly that lovely. We will be definitely coming back!

Brilliant. We had our 50th Anniversary family celebration with all 14 of varying ages. Every one of them said the food was excellent, staff brilliant and atmosphere ideal. Nothing was too much trouble and made our special day perfect. Highly recommend

My family and I arrived at the Bistro around 5.30pm. We ordered a starter and olives and main courses. After 40 mins we asked where the food was. They brought all the food together! We stated we want the main course after the starter. When the main course came although it said a rack of lamb it was 2 lamb chops. We had to ask for the potatoes we ordered. The food was terribly salty. We did complain and they deducted £6 off the bill. At no time did the manger come to talk to us or apologise! The staff took ages to do anything, you asked for 2 glasses they brought 1!Would certainly not recommend or return.

The most delicious Sunday Roast , followed by a few drinks with live music... now thats a great Sunday afternoon. Goid atmosphere, friendly staff this is a place i most definitely reccomend.

Popped in late Saturday afternoon to see if they could squeeze 4 of us in for a quick bite to eat and a glass or two.Dan and the team were great managing to find us space in the restaurant. The food was great, the cote de boeuf superb and the lobster awesome.Service and interaction was super and will definitely be back soon.

Went with a friend at lunch time. Had an amazing meal, presentation, taste superb. Couldn't fault the service, bit expensive but was well worth it when you have a relaxing afternoon lunch in such nice surroundings. We came away with nothing but praise

We had a fabulous lunch today. Lamb was delicious. Dessert, cheese and coffee very fine. Charming waitress. Apologised for delay in service. Complementary glasses of wine. Highly recommended.

The food was excellent and the staff where very freindly and nice.The only one small thing I would say the fish was stunning but there wasn't many chips with it .

We had an excellent meal at the Waterfront Bistro this evening. Nice, relaxing atmosphere and the food was truly superb. I had the roast chicken (which was perfectly cooked - I hate it when it is over!) and my girlfriend had the rack of lamp which was divine. We finished off with the frangipane which was served with a delicious sorbet. Will definitely be returning.

Marvellous meal with Marvellous staff and great atmosphere

We went on a Monday and the place was reasonably quiet. The place was nice and warm with efficient friendly staff. My wife and I had different dishes and both were excellent. We will be returning soon.

Great food and an excellent atmosphere, music Sundays are brilliant !

As I live near the docks, I visit The Waterfront on a regular basis along with the other restaurants along the quayside. I. visited in December with my partner and despite the menu changing, it is still fab and value for money. The service was great as always, and the staff did all they could to make our meal great, including food and drink recommendations. You've still got it Waterfront! See you in the new year