The Cliff Hotel

I had previously been here before for a wedding and the food was extremely good, well cooked tasty wholesome British cooking. Because of this we returned for a friends 40^th Birthday party. Unfortunately, it must have been chefs night off.
To start I had smoked salmon. The salmon was very tasteless and the dressing was extremely bitter — a cheek suckingly bad combination of cheap extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice from a bottle and bitter salad leaves. Unfortunately, the salad hadn’t been washed properly and many people in the party were getting a mouthful of grit along with their salad.
For main course I opted for the Rib Eye Steak. One of my favourite cuts of beef, I always ask for it medium rare. It came to me an the rarer side of rare and it looked like the grill chef had just shown it the pan! A shame because it as actually quite a good piece of meat. The steak came with the obligatory chips, which were hand cut and probably would have been extremely good if the oil had been changed in the frier sometime this year.
There was nothing on the dessert menu that took my fancy so I played it safe and had the cheese board which was actually quite good. Most of the other people in the party had Profiteroles. I must admit they looked great when they came out, piled high with lots of cream and chocolate sauce so I tried a little of a friends. Unfortunately, the sauce was terrible. It had the texture of wet sand, the cocoa hadn’t been dissolved in it properly and it was extremely bitter. It shouldn’t have been served.
Definitely chefs night off.