The Idle Rocks

Overall very good. Lovely grand sea room, great food. Upon booking you are asked if it's a special occasion and I let them know it was my wife's birthday yesterday. Not mentioned until we checked out this morning, I wasn't expecting freebies but an acknowledgement on the day would have been nice.

Went for dinner there tonight with my wife. Venue is beautiful and in an absolutely amazing spot overlooking St Mawes harbour. Things started well for my wife wotha. Lovely Champaign’s cocktail. The local bottled beer I chose was undrinkable. Service was good throughout. The menu was extremely limited but made it clear that no allowances would be made for people with allergies. We each had a starter and main course. The portions were tiny. Zero carbs across any of them and no opportunity to add side dishes. Flavours were ok but every dish would have benefitted from more attention to detail rather than just tarting the ingredients up as far as the chef possibly could. There was no ‘wow’ factor at all. My barbecue lobster was like chewing gum and my wife ordered the vegetarian option which was basically a cauliflower cut in two dipped in some tandoori flavouring. Hugely disappointing. Bear in mind we were paying £45 for a main course, there was barely 4 mouthfuls on the plate for my Sea Bass. We left after our main courses and headed straight over the road to the Rising Sun for a couple pints of the wonderful Hawks bitter, a bowl of chips for me, and a desert for my wife!!!!! Would never go to the Idle Rocks again.

Unfortunately something has changed since out last stay a year ago, and not for the better. We had dinner there of Friday 13th December. Maybe that was the wrong day to go! We ordered pre-dinner drinks, a glass of champagne and a vodka based dry martini. When I tasted it, it was sweet so took it back to the bar. The barman had added normal martini to the vodka. When I explained it needed to be dry vermouth he said he'd make me a new one. 5 minutes later he came to us and said they had no dry vermouth, so I had a glass of wine. There were no complimentary nibbles. The menus came but no canapes. We sat down at the table and were offered no bread. My starter was the mackerel and was delicious and my wife had the 'rabbit pie'. It was overly rich and salty and almost inedible. My main was suckling pig (which was actually a piece of belly pork). The sauce was over reduced and salty which spoiled an otherwise decent meal. My wife had the wild mushroom cottage pie which was inedible. It was based on the same over reduced, salty, strong sauce. Doesn't the chef taste the food they prepare? If you charge London prices in Cornwall in the winter you need to pamper your guests. The nibbles and canapes you used to serve were delicious and a lovely touch. The variety of breads you used to offer were a delight. Why have you stopped? Given that, and the poor quality of the food, you present yourself as no more than average as with hundreds of other restaurants in Cornwall. The difference is that you charge a fortune for the privilege. At the prices you charge for drinks and food, you can afford to pamper your guests with small things like canapes and nice bread. That's not expensive, that's what can differentiate you. For the first time in 6 stays, we felt like customers in the restaurant not guests. I should add that all the staff (we didn't meet your kitchen staff) were very friendly and helpful, a real credit to you. The hotel room was great and the bed very comfortable, as usual. And you can't beat the location. If we do stay again next year, we'll probably drink and eat elsewhere in St Mawes.