Billy Bunter (19 September 2008)

The Waterfront Restaurant is less like a restaurant and more like the home of a friend who fancies himself a cook. Six tables crowd into what would be the living room; the newly painted walls are adorned with artwork that yearns to look Mediterranean and tries way too hard for a certain carefree joie de vivre. Instead of a cosmopolitan French brasserie, the room reminded me of my great-aunt's stifling parlour. Mismatched china and paper napkins complete the picture of a dinner party gone wrong. The Waterfront Restaurant offers six main courses, all of which come with the soup of the day, an appetizer plate, and dessert. As one of the owners, a friendly Frenchman from Toulouse, explained the menu, I had further misgivings. The spaghetti with chorizo at £10.99 sounded like something you'd eat in summer camp, the kitchen was out of the beef strips in red wine and orange juice at £15.99, and the salmon fish at £15.99 was just flat-out and scared me. So, we chose the pineapple chicken at £13.99 and the bistro's signature dish of a Moroccan lamb and couscous tagine at £19.99. After we ordered, the owner-chef, who was also filling in as waiter that evening, warned us that he was a bit behind and he hoped we weren't in a hurry because we were going to be there ‘a long time’.