The Thistle - Port Alfred

Port Alfred's fine dining restaurant. The food is good. So is the service. A bit more variety would be welcome.

Lovely quiet setting and friendly waitress. My duck dish wasn't amazing and a bit dry. So a bit average. Pudding was really nice but again quite dry.

We were a party of 9. The service was equal to that of a fast food takeaway. The waitress left an opener on the table for us to open the very expensive wine ourselves. Many of the wines were out of stock. 3 out of the 9 ordered Estpedas. Even the fillet piece was tough. The host eventually had to go look for the manager to let him know about the poor quality of food and service. Very little interaction from the staff. All in all very dissapointing. Definitely not recommended.

Very Disappointed!!! Normally, I'm not one to complain but on this occasion I feel compelled to make an exception. I ordered the poached fish in broth. If the chef doesn't know how to prepare fish they should not put it on the menu. The fish was rubbery, most likely rapidly defrosted in some way. I couldn't use my fish knife and had to resort to the table knife to cut it. My first bite I found a bone, my second too. I then missed a bone and swollowed it. Not a pleasant experience. At that point my meal was over. The waitress was apologetic and very pleasant, she was quite upset. My experience was not very good my fellow diners did enjoy their meals though. Stay away from the seafood.

We heard a lot of positive comments about this establishment, but they failed to impress me. Upon arrival there was no-one at door/ reception to welcome us, which you would expect from a fine dining restaurant. The kitchen staff were very loud, shouting out orders for the next door pub. We ordered a caprice salad it had loads of cheese, no basil and only 3 very small tomatoes. . Def not a winner When main corse arrived almost every one complained that it was cold. They clearly are more geared for the pub than the fine dining. Only good factor for the evening was that the waitress was well-spoken amd kind.