please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
Pleasant enough pub, 5 real ales on offer when we visited but a bit pricey for the area (£4.50/pint) compared to under £4 in the 2 other pubs in Bembridge which we visited. Good views and nice food too.
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Was in here October last year, nice pub decent beer and food, and probably a good vibe usually, this was rather spoilt by a lady celebrating her 40th, to say she was loud and foul mouthed would be an understatement, she must have been a local as anyone else would have been ejected, I'm from Southeast London so not easily shocked
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Pleasantly surprised. Decent beer and a nice garden.
Having been disappointed with so many IOW pubs this was an unexpected treat.
MarkM - 21 Oct 2014 12:32 |
Excellent real ales and great choice from the menu. In a lovely location, a little off the beaten track, adjacent to the Coastguard Station, with a lovely beer garden for those sunny days. Can be a little difficult to find, but well worth a visit.
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Not the best food to be found on a recent visit to the Isle. Our seafood grill lacked flavour and surely in this day and age no-one should serve limp chips. The staff however were all very pleasant.
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Visited this pub on Sunday just gone. Food was a bit pricey but could not be faulted, limited menu after 1430 hrs but still good enough choice. Views fantastic the interior was good and plenty of space. The host was however
efficent, not rude but this should have been a perfect place to visit but will
not go back. Yes this has so much going for it but where I work you in the
customer service business a smile and a bit of enthusiam goes a long way.
On the upside the lady that accomadated a young childs meal request got a bit nearer the mark although this could have been done with a bit better grace
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Had an excellent value-for-money jacket potato with salad here once, but it was a good many years ago.
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Outside appearance of pub was scruffy, lawn uncut, shabby fence spoiling what should have been beautiful views out to sea. Changed hands? Pub is now pink!
Our party ordered prawn jacket, cheese & coleslaw jacket, crab & prawn salad, ham egg and chips (requested eggs to be broken and cooked well).
Waited approx 40 mins for food to be served. Not offered any dressing for salad, brown and red sauce along with dirty cutlery already on table in a container.
Eggs were runny, not cooked as requested. Chips greasy - undercooked over fried.
Jackets OK but way too much greenery. Menu should have read "SALAD and Jacket".
Crab & prawn salad (�17-95) was terrible. Sauce for prawns arrived in paper cup, over enthusiastic green salad badly needed dressing, unripe tomatoes. Red crab meat was mushy, unseasoned. White crab meat contained plenty of shell. Supposed to be served with bread, came with 4 small rings of baguette with DIY portions of semi melted butter. Has put me off eating seafood for a long time to come. Not at all good value for money, AVOID!!
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VERY expensive for small portions of badly cooked and unimaginitve food. A place this close to sea and trading on its reputation for sea food should be able to identify decent quality shell on prawns and cook them to perfection. Sadly, they cannot. If you want to pay �15 for 6 rubbery prawns and a packet of pre prepared basic catering salad, without any dressing, then go ahead, but you can do a LOT better than this on the IOW. I am amazed that apparently this place has won "dining pub of the year" on the IOW for 2010 and I just cannot comprehend how. Seriously. It is very clear this place is simply trading on its (admittedly lovely) beachside location and probably doesn't have to try very hard because of it. Maybe they stepped up their game when the judges of the "dining pub" came along, I don't know. My mother ordered crab cakes. Very bland, hardly any seasoning and should have been called potato cakes, not crab cakes. My husband thought his meal was ok, just average really. We complained (which actually isnt something we do very often but we were genuinely shocked at what they were expecting us to pay for such poor quality) and were offered a paltry �5 off our bill. Interestingly, we also heard another couple complaining (to no avail) while we were there about undercooked fish. Don't get me wrong, we are not the kind of people who expect Michelin star food when we eat out at a pub, but we are also the kind of people who wouldn't enjoy the food quality at a Harvester, for example. So, if you want to pay the prices of the former for the quality of the latter, I'm sure you will find The Crab and Lobster is for you. However, my recommendation for MUCH better food would be The New Inn at Shalfleet, The Garlic Farm at Newchurch or Coast in Cowes.
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Four of us visited this pub last week. Advertised as a good menu with lots of pub favourites but mainly seafood. Nice setting and views but very busy - best to book a table. Quite a long wait after ordering. When the starters came only two arrived and the other two took ages (we had to chase them up). The first had finished theirs before the second two arrived. Then all at once we had the main courses too - table not cleared and two of us still eating starters. Prices average and food nice but service awful. No apology or offer of a free drink to compensate. Certainly would not return. Sad to say we were not the only unhappy customers that night - at least two other tables having problems.
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Has an excellent location on the clifftops with nice views from the outside patio. Inside appeared quite cosy. The seafood platters looked extensive and tempting. Real ales were from Green King IPA, Sharps Doom Bar and Goddards Fuggle Dee Dum. We had to wait a while, as the bar area is quite narrow and was crowded with people propping up the bar, leaving others to queue in single file for drinks and food orders. The staff did their level best to serve everybody promptly. But it would have helped if the people at the bar had taken one of the many spare tables, instead of causing an obstruction. Worth a visit if for the views alone.
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Arrived by chance during bike ride. Very warm welcome, the place was busy but they seemed genuinely pleased to see us. Excellent food (if somewhat pricey) and well conditioned local ale. Left reluctantly but well fortified for the ride ahead.
mally - 20 Feb 2010 11:02 |
Visited at lunchtime - very busy - good choice of beer, wine and food.
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I visit this pub a couple of times a year, and despite others comments, I find the food pretty OK although I agree pricey. Last time we all had fish of one sort or another and it was fine, quickly served and well-presented. The position is of course great, but that is not enough in itself. The current landlords are making a real effort in my opinion, and as I shall be back in August, we'll see how things are then. By the way, best to book in advance as in the summer the place is heaving even at lunchtime.
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If you want to eat 5 prawns and a sheet of lettuce with no dressing for �7 then this is the place for you. Over rated, overpriced, and sadly over here where I live. Stay away!....from the pub. They failed to deal with the ensuing complaint.
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Very warm welcome - good food, great service and it made for an excellent place to go for a romantic evening.
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I certainly agree that the prices have gone up a lot since the new owners took over. Food still okayish but a much narrower choice on the menu than with the previous owners. This used to be our pub of choice for a meal, but no longer as it is no longer any better than many other IOW pubs. Also my wifes club are considering switching their venue for meals as they are very disapointed with the meals they now get there. Shame really as it was an excelent pub with the previous owners, now its just run of the mill!
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Very popular pub in Bembridge that has recently changed hands and hasn�t lost it�s appeal. Booking is possible and is recommended
The menu provides a good mix of pub favourites as well as an extensive specials board. Anything involving crab or lobster is worthwhile and the seafood platter is a real treat, particularly on a hot summer lunchtime
Good selection of beer. The staff are very friendly
Strongly recommended
Sunday, 10 August 2008
JandJ - 11 Aug 2008 23:32 |
Dropped in here unplanned whilst on walking holiday - Goddards Ale of Wight superb and probably the best mussels I've ever had.
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New owners+large hike in prices=drop in standards
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I often visited friends who lived close to the airfield until a couple of years ago and frequented the 'slab and crobster' regularly. In recent years I have seen it gradually slip from being a high quality pub/restaurant to a 'ping-fling-and-bring' catering establishment that's overpriced for its products and pretentious for its capability eg, impossible parking, cramped spacing and iffy service. No rating left as it's over 2 years since my last visit but that would have attracted a high 4 or low 5. Visitors, the 'Yarbridge' at Brading is real quality and the Propeller is a decent place for a drink if Paul is still running it.
Biker - 18 Oct 2007 10:25 |
The views fro this pub are amazing. However the food I am afraid to say is not. We both had lasagne which turned up about 5 minutes after ordering it. Suspect it was frozen then nuked. The food ws not awfull by any means but it was just pub food - nothing more nothing less.
There are better places to eat in Bembridge.
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Go out of season or after 2045 if you want a seat or a place to park. Its a great pub, perched on top of a cliff at Forelands. The food is top notch, I'm always enjoying the Scallops. Fuggle-de-dum is the best beer in the world, although it is kept better elsewhere. Unfortunatly the Crab & Lob gets rammed with Hooray Henrys in the Summer all wanting dinner, so as I say, get there just before they stop serving food, get a seat and enjoy yourself. The negative feedback about Richard the landlord is wide of the mark, he is a genuine nice guy, who is most accomodating - and no I'm not related.
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This place has won lots of plaudits but I am of the view that it might be resting on its laurels a bit too much. When you book a table to eat there, you don�t get the table all evening, something that gets my goat. The food was okay but no better than that. You can almost see the � signs appearing in the landlord�s eyes as he views the crowds pouring into this tourist trap. Lovely pint of Goddards Fuggle de Dum though.
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Simply lovely, great views, good beer, and above all great food, no grumbles at all, and get down to the beach after - lovely.
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Just visited the crab and lobster very disapointing. Couldn't park anywhere near so got soaked before arrival.I had sea bass which was burnt black,vegetables that were greasy and inedible leeks that i couldn,t chew.Then to cap it all was told we were too late to order a sweet when i comlained i got no apology only a woman with attitude saying there was a sign on the door (which i could not find )any way as a local i will not be using this place again and would certainly not reccomend it. poor show
da1sy - 24 Jun 2007 16:32 |
Having found this is the 2007 Good Food Guide we were looking forward to our lunch as are both big seafood lovers. What a massive let down it was. Parking is a nightmare and the ordering system is impersonal and long winded as drinks and food has to be ordered at seperate points. These in themselves are not reasons not to go, however on top of that the tables were so close that the back of my chair was pressed against the back of a chair on the neighbouring table, so all in all not ideal before the food has arrived. Although the seafood was undoubtedly fresh and tasty we found what they did with it a shame. The pasta was overcooked, garlic bread soggy, as had been placed in the soupy pasta and the lobster and crab soup, very odd tasting.
To say that feedback was not gratefuly accepted is a huge understatement and I only hope we caught the owner on a bad day as if he treats all his customers in such a manner I dare say he will lose more customers than just us. I take no pleasure in leaving negative reviews and this is the first and I hope the last time I do.
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brilliant pub
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Simply superb. A wide range of specials, seafood a speciality like many pubs on the island!
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This is now the best pub for me fantastic sea food but they do other dishes too. The service was great and a lovley view the only draw back is its always full so make sure you book
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Excellent food, & prices are very good for this quality. Great to go when weather's good, as you can eat on the patio area with a fantastic view of the sea/beach.
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fantastic food great place to vist
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If you like good food & good beer a visit here is a must if you are in the Isle of Wight.
anonymous - 24 Aug 2005 17:07 |
The whole family went to this pub for a meal to celebrate my parents 40th wedding anniversary and what a meal it was! Fantastic food, great service and the B&B accommodation upstair is fabulous (along with a hearty breakfast the next morning).
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Excellent pub, very good food and family atmosphere.
Very busy in the season.
Always a favourite
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Fabulous location - food is heaven and well worth a visit. You may need to book in the evening though as so popular. Big thumbs up for this one!
Emma - 1 Jul 2004 10:47 |
Absolutely fantastic food and massive portions. Very friendly bar staff and good value for money for both food and drinks. A definite one to visit.
Sam - 23 Jun 2004 14:38 |
Friendly family pub, right on the beach, lovely seafood and a variety of other dishes all reasonably priced.
Naomi - 27 Oct 2003 19:12 |
