Loch Fyne - seafood restaurant

47 Haven Road, Canford Cliffs, Poole, Dorset BH13 7LH

Tel: 01202 609000

There are not many full blown seafood restaurants in Dorset, apart from West Beach and Storm, so it was good news when Loch Fyne took over an old hotel and turned it into another one of its chains of restaurants.

I have been to their Nottingham and Portsmouth restaurants before and it was a welcome surprise that Angela took me to the one in Poole for my birthday yesterday.

Started off with a nice bottle of Viognier (Domaine de la Provenquiere) whilst waiting for my seafood platter to come. Angela has the yellow tuna that was nicely chargrilled to medium. Even the tomato and mozzarella salad tasted nicer than normal.

My seafood platter came on two plates. The top one was of mussells steamed in garlic and wine. Not the biggest or plumpest I have had but nice to tuck into whilst hot.

The larger dish had a huge mound of ice that was littered (if that is a nice term when it comes to food) with a brown crab, crevettes, shell-on-prawns, scallops, oysters and langoustines. There was also a small round dish of squid and a dish of mayonnaise.

The oysters was my next target. Although lively enough on their own, a dash of the shallot vinegar and Tobasco brought them kicking a bit more into life. The crevettes were nice and meaty. The shell-on-prawns were a bit hit and miss as some were a bit too brown.

The langoustine bodies were nice and meaty also but the legs weren't great. I have probably been spoilt as a child on these things as my dad used to get huge bags full of the stuff from the fish quay in Sunderland as well as lobsters.

There were only a couple of small scallops. Would have loved some large ones with the orange roe though.

I was taken a bit by surprise when the waiter came across and asked if I had finished when there was quite a few bits left on the ice. I gave him a stare as if to say "Don't you dare!"

The crab legs are the fiddly bits. The body and claws were easy. Not sure if biting into them to crack them with a loud noise is the done thing in a posh'ish restaurant but heck it was £30 and my birthday.

There are 8 rooms in the place as it is also a hotel and you can buy fish direct from their counter.

Overall, a very nice evening and good food.

Looks good but pretty tasteless

<update> I have now decided I will no longer go for the seafood platter. It just doesn't come up to scratch. The prawns are always too fluffy, the crab pretty much bone dry and overall just a tasteless gathering. I have been spoilt before by being close to Sunderland fish quay where my parents buy the freshest of everything.