Place at The Ship, The

Karen Luff (19 September 2008)

My friend and I went there for a meal and we were not very impressed. You are initially hooked into thinking that you are going to get two courses for £10.50, which is what was advertised on the board outside. But what it does not tell you is that if you want to have potatoes with your food for example you have to pay £2.50 for them. Also the portions size of the food that is on offer is very small. When our food for the main course arrived, the plates were cold. Then when the waitress said she'd just get the potatoes that I'd ordered she took another plate of food to another customer, when she should have been serving me. I queried what she was doing to another waitress; the original waitress that had been getting my new potatoes said it would be a few moments as the chef had made the wrong type of potato dish. It was nice of her to tell me. Then after a short while they bought to our table - hot plates and heated up food. When we were ordering our main dish and pudding I asked if they could make an exception for me as I have food intolerance and if I could have ice cream, the waitress checked if that was okay with the offer and it was. Once we had finished our main course a waitress asked if we'd like pudding, we advised her that we had already ordered it and when I told her about the pudding exception they were doing for me she piped up that's not on the menu, I then advised her by pointing to the waitress who had okayed it. We asked for coffee with our pudding and when my friend ordered her coffee the waitress did not even ask what type my friend would like. All in all the meal was pretty much a shambles and although we had eaten there in the past, not on the supposed £10.50 menu. It's a case of the early evening menu, which was not great; we were disappointed and won't be going there for a little while.

Barbara Shaw (10 May 2007)

My sister had booked Place at the Ship because of its nearness to Chichester Festival Theatre. On arrival I ordered a Peroni and was given a Corona. This was changed but I had to ask for a clean glass.

There were seven in our party and we ordered mains and puddings from the lunch time menu.

Whilst the food was excellent (my fishcakes were the best I've eaten in a long while) the service was slow. Our mains arrived but not the side order of chips and the waitress had to be reminded.

We had explained on arrival that we were attending a performance at the theatre, but when we reminded the waitress that we were short on time after a long wait for puddings that had been ordered the same time as the mains, we were confronted with an argumentative waitress who quite clearly was not interested in her customers.

Go here for good food but be prepared for a long wait.