Cullins Yard Reviews

Three of us visited Cullins Yard for the first time on Wednesday evening, and we had a wonderful meal. We all love fish and we were spoilt for choice. The prices were very reasonable and the quality excellent. The members of staff were friendly and welcoming, and there were lots of others diners, relaxing music, an attractive nautical setting and a great atmosphere. It was an evening to remember.

I ate a really delicious meal; the oysters were superb as were the mussels - cooked to perfection. The service was good, quick and with a smile. The jazz band was playing and the ambience was very nice. It’s great value for money and would recommend this place. It was a very enjoyable meal all round.

I visited Cullins Yard on a Sunday night and it was quite busy but had booked several weeks in advance. I agree with previous comments, the food there is quite good, my fish was beautifully cooked, however, the service was a major let down. After waiting fifty minutes for my food it arrived and the order was wrong, we had not seen our waitress since taking the order. Upon informing the manager he started to argue with me and offered no explanation or apology. Overall, food was excellent but service was downright unprofessional.

This place has great potential - fun, relaxed decor and atmosphere. The food is pretty good and, let’s faces it, there's not really any competition in Dover! Like so many places in the UK, I think they let themselves down by cutting costs on staff. Three waitresses - clearly students working the holidays - were not enough to cover a restaurant of this size. Worse, they weren't trained and hadn't a clue. Our telephone booking was lost, after sitting down we waited half an hour just to get a drink and give our order and then waited another 30 minutes after eating for the dessert menu. We gave up and I walked to the bar to get the bill. The service was unacceptable and I wouldn't go back.

I've been to Cullins Yard twice following a recommendation. Both times the restaurant has been fairly busy. Both times the food was excellent, the atmosphere is extremely pleasant, the décor is superb and the music is tasteful and quiet, so conversation can be continued as normal, which is just as well, as the service does take a while and it's not of a very high standard. In a way it's very pleasant to eat slowly and not feel rushed by the servers, but at the same time you get the feeling they really couldn't care less whether you're there or not. All in all it's a restaurant I'm very happy to go back to, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone in a hurry. In fact I'm there again the weekend, perhaps we'll take books.

I have been to Cullins Yard on two occasions, and both times the staff have been friendly and welcoming. The food has always been of great quality and I would recommend it to anyone.

It had a relaxed atmosphere with good background music, the conservatory overlooking boats was pleasant, would like to see it in the daytime. Friendly waitresses, food was excellent and plenty of it. Would highly recommend the restaurant and definitely go back.

We were staying in Dover at the Churchill and as we were near the restaurant we decided to visit it. The restaurant was full on Saturday night so we had booked a table for 8.00 p.m. the following Sunday. We were told not to have a table at 8.30 p.m. as they had too large parties in. We arrived about five minutes early and were shown to our table immediately which was a good start. We ordered drinks and waited for about fifteen minutes before our food order was taken. There were several dishes, which were notably not available on the busiest weekend of the summer. Most of these were fish dishes including Dover Sole. Both of us had ordered fillet steak. We had waited for forty five minutes after ordering and before we got the attention of a waiter, he had gone away. Then they had arrived five minutes later. There was no apology or explanation. The food was good however the rare steak was near medium.

We had just finished a boat tour on Monday and decided as the food was good we would give it a second chance and pop in for a midday sandwich and drink. We had ordered two docker sandwiches at the bar and taken our seats. Unfortunately, the sandwiches took over forty five minutes to reach us. The waitress went to chase them up and came back and did apologise but said it was due to lack of staff and when the sandwiches did arrive the guy who took our order said there had been a mix up with the tickets in the kitchen. It must be a recurring problem as the table next to us complained and the waitress said sorry but I don't own the place we haven't enough staff. Shame as the food is good generally and other dishes that appeared looked good too.

We had eaten at Cullins Yard a couple of weeks ago and the food was glorious - the Haddock was out of this world and cooked to perfection. It was a bit crowded but for a Sunday lunch time what can you expect - I would prefer a place to be busy then at least you know the food is good - if bad then you do not return - and if a restaurant is empty then I always wonder why. The music was good. I would recommend it to anyone.

We were a party of ten booked in for 7.30pm on a Friday night recently. The booking was made by some friends, who live in Dover, and who said they had had a memorable evening at Cullins Yard. On this Friday night we also had a memorable evening but for different reasons. We all ordered our main courses, but 10-15 minutes later, the waiter returned to say that some of the fish dishes were not available. Some members of our party re-ordered and 10-15 minutes later the same thing happened again. This went on for about forty minutes and by this time several members of our party were on their fourth choice of main course. It seemed bizarre to us that a fish restaurant should run out of some of its main fish courses so comparatively early on a Friday night. We spoke to the manager/owner, who said: "There's plenty of fish," which was an absurd comment as this plainly wasn't the case. Just to add to the farce, the waiter returned twice more - once to say that several more of the fish dishes were off, when he actually meant to say they were on, and then a final visit to check what we had all ordered. We didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but opted for laughing and imagined we were in an episode of Fawlty Towers. We didn't blame the waiter but clearly the management/kitchen was in a state of chaos. When our main courses finally arrived, some two hours had passed. The food was OK but nothing special. Needless to say, we won't be returning to Cullins Yard.