The best restaurants serving Seafood food in Canford Cliffs Poole South West

We have visited the restaurant last night for dinner. Our table was booked for 17:30 as it was the only slot available, for 3 people. We were there for a special birthday so we somehow had high expectations. Unfortunately we arrived about 20 minutes late to the restaurant and the first thing we were made aware of was that the table has to be free by 20:00 for another booking. We were then seated at a great table, towards the back of the restaurant, with a sea view. Despite having limited time for our dinner the order wasn't taken untill around 20 minutes from being seated. We have then ordered a stir-fried salt and pepper squid, a seafood gnocchi and garlic prawns with soft polenta for starters, crab linguine and 2 seafood curry for mains. The food arrived late, the squid was more of a salad than a stir-fry, the prawns were delicious , however they were served with bread instead of polenta, the linguine was way overcooked, the seafood gnocchi was ok and the curry was delicious. We have also ordered desert and we had 2 bottles of wine which was very nice. I must say that it was a rather disappointing experience as it was reasonably pricey. Our high expectations were definitely not met, the service was slow and was lacking attention, I had dropped my fork and I had to ask 3 times to be brought another one, the main course plates drips of probably dried sauces under the rim, the prawn starter did not match the description on the menu. There were people that have arrived after us and received their food long before us.

My wife and I were invited out to lunch at the Sandbanks Hotel in Poole yesterday. The main restaurant was closed so we three seated ourselves in the outside snack bar area. There was not a great choice but the food was said to be Italian and run by Italians, and having been to that country expected to be served a good standard of food. This was absolutely not the case. We ordered two box salads - one chicken and chorizo and the other a smoked salmon nicoise, and also a pizza. The two salad boxes were about 150mm square and contained mostly lettuce and tomato - the lady who had the chicken said the chicken pieces were so small she could hardly see them. I had the pizza, and because I was hungry I did try to eat it - but had to leave about half. I would compare it to an inferior supermarkey pizza. I have had pizzas in Naples at a quarter the price and they have been far superior. Added to the food were a J2o orange, a 250ml glass of wine and one beer. The total cost £62.00! We left still hungry and went to an Italian restaurant in Westbourne a couple of hours later, and for about the same price we had seafood risotto, sirloin steak and sea bass in a champagne sauce along with the same drinks. It does not take an expert in Maths to work out who is giving value for money! A complaint was made at the time, and to be fair both the kitchen and the hotel manager offered a refund - which was declined, as the point of the complaint was not to get money back but to highlight what was thought to be an unacceptable situation. The place looks lovely with great views over the beach and sea, but it is an "eatery" not a viewing platform. We obviously would never lunch there again - but we all felt that they are serving inferior food at inflated prices. It is a shame as it denegrates the overall reputation of this Hotel. If you charge top prices you should serve top quality food.