On The Corner (Permanently Closed)

The food was very good. The chef and senior waiter were abrupt.

Sadly this restaurant closed in 2016.

A birthday celebration that didn't exactly sparkle. We were not exactly welcomed when we arrived a couple of minutes before our booking time of 6.00 PM. The food was ok, but the mussels were off the menu. The acoustics upstairs are awful and when it filled up we couldn't hear ourselves think. The bill was unreadable due to very faint printing and we had to take it downstairs to ask the owner to decipher it. He was very rude to one of our group. On our way out the same owner remarked - in earshot of all 'Check that they have left the right money'. Not a good experience. Will not be going back.

We had a warm welcome from the manageress, although slightly rushed us upstairs, a shame really as it would have been nice to have a drink by the “bar” area first.

The tapas were mostly excellent, although the choice was slightly limited and the quantity of food larger (and more expensive) than the typical tapas. The Halloumi stood out as being bland (and we are regular tapas eaters so we have plenty to compare this too). We had no idea what to expect when ordering and we were not guided through the menu at all and no photos of the menu were available to provide any further insight. It would have also been great to have a type of set menu – maybe a taster menu with a larger quantity of smaller tapas. The atmosphere was nice with candles and mood lighting – no complaints here. I had a meal upstairs and where served by two young waitresses, who I feel could have been more outgoing and more attentive. I was slightly surprised to have the menus removed as soon as we ordered as we only ordered a few tapas and intended ordering more later – we never got the menus back to have a second chance at ordering food. I also ordered a bottle of still mineral water, but they had not got any so I was offered tap water (which I declined). The tapas arrived a couple at a time and last came the salad which we left because we had already eaten everything else (and the salad was really large and ideally would have gone great with some of the tapas that we ate before it arrived). We asked for the bill and it arrived quite quickly and we immediately gave cash, but it took about 15 minutes for the waitress to return with our change, so we decided to leave and met her as we were walking down the stairs. The waitress said quite loudly that we had forgotten our change and we embarrassingly said that she could keep the change, although we would have preferred to leave a tip on the table or give it to the waitress at the table, rather than mid-way down the stairs in view of the whole restaurant. The manager greeted us in a friendly manor as we passed the bar area to leave the restaurant. We left feeling that something was not quite right with the place and yet the owners have obviously tried really hard here. The owner / managers should train the waiting staff more and actually do rounds of the restaurant frequently themselves, rather than hide in the bar / kitchen areas. It is also sad that the restaurant does not open in the day during the week and yet they have a massive potential. I would so love to give this a higher rating and I will return to see if things improve as the owners are lovely!

I went with three other people for tapas. The tapas were actually wonderful - no complaint there. However, the attitude of the manager was extraordinary. We were the only people in the small room upstairs, so we turned up the dimmer switch so we could read the menu. He came in, turned it our down again and said 'I am turning down the dimmer switch because we like it like that'. Further words fail me.
Liked: food, hated: attitudes.

The atmosphere can be a bit uptight. Manageress unfailingly rude - like she's doing you a favour as she has better things to do. Food dull. Coffee very, very good.