Riverside Restaurant

Dennis O'Leary (3 September 2008)

When visiting continental coastal areas, restaurants serving fresh local fruits of the sea are taken for granted. Sadly such restaurants are comparatively rare in England. The discovery of the Riverside Restaurant was therefore all the more exciting. A crab salad featured such fine salad leaves that my wife commented on them to the waitress, only to be told, ‘they are good aren't they- we grow them ourselves’. My lobster was excellently cooked while the accompanying chilli jam, at first sweet tasting, then hitting the mouth with a delayed chilli hit was a joy in itself. I later bought some at the restaurant's sister Deli in town. The lobster salad was listed 'at market prices' - on our visit £15. Three days previously I had bought a lobster for £10- i.e. half lobster £5. Here is the formula - main ingredient times three = £15 spot on! The excellent whole sea bass was precisely cooked, while the sea food platter was just that - excellent fruits de mer simply cooked - who could ask for more? The service was fast, efficient, friendly and knowledgeable. The weather might not have matched the shores of the Mediterranean, but this cooking on the banks of the Deben was more than equal to its continental cousins.

Mike (2 September 2007)

Four of us had dinner there on a Saturday night, the food was generally good. The wine list was very uninspiring though and the wait for main courses long.