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| - Meh. I've experience better is exactly the right description for Starfish. Sadly we went during Summerlicious. What might have started off as a brilliant idea certainly hasn't lived up to it, despite being in it's 10th year.
The evening started off alright, we were seated promptly. It took a while to get our drinks but nothing appalling. Our server was Niamh (pronounced 'Neve') and service deteriorated as the dinner went on. By the time I was ready to order a second drink, it was difficult to get her attention. Dessert took surprising long given that it was Summerlicious and presumably, most of the desserts are easily on hand. Given that the sticky toffee pudding is a popular item, I'm not quite sure what they anticipated in terms of the number of orders. Niamh apologized for the long wait for dessert around 8:35. Again, while waiting for dessert I tried to order a coffee but with not much success. I ended up ordering it from another server who was passing by our table. By 8:50 our desserts arrived and at 8:55, just as we had started our desserts, Niamh gave us our bill and informed us that the table was booked for another seating at 9:00 pm. I get it: Summerlicious is busy. But having said that, if there are delays on the part of the restaurant, I hardly think it appropriate to rush your customers.
Food. We all ended up ordering the mussels from the menu. An unacceptable number of my mussels were unopened (i.e. dead before they were cooked) and a couple of them were just off tasting. Issue with quality control. I get that mussels are going to be stronger tasting now that say in the summer months, but that doesn't mean you send out subpar food.
All in all, it looks like Starfish tried to cut some corners (number of staff? quality of food?) to capitalize on the volume of diners coming in for Summerlicious. I will say that I have previously gone to Starfish and had had a pleasant experience. The mistake of going again during Summerlicious has far outweighed that prior visit and I would not go again. There are plenty of other quality seafood joints in this city.
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