Aqua Restaurant & Bar - Bath

Aqua in Bath is situated in an interesdting building not too far from the centre. We went in on a Saturday lunchtime and went for the lunch deal. We had 2 courses for £9.99 and it was excellent value. The starter was well presented and fresh-looking. The mains (we chose pizza - original!) were ample portions with nice crispy bases. The Tiramisu was very tasty indeed - no Marsala wine flavour but a good dose of espresso - it wasn't cloying and tasted home-made. Definitely recommend a visit.
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SD
Wednesday, April 30, 2008

This restaurant is a classic example of show over substance. The building its self is lovely, and is the high point of the experience, meanwhile the food is quite average and the service is appalling.

My family and I popped into Aqua yesterday afternoon at 3pm after helping my brother & his girlfriend move into their new flat nearby. At this time on a Saturday afternoon the restaurant was almost deserted, therefore we were very suprised to be met with a very rude response to our request for a table for 7: "Now? No reservation?" said waitress no.1, and then stormed off to push 3 two seater tables together in a far corner. When we then requested that another small table very close by also be pulled up for our use (it being difficult for 7 people to fit around a space designed to accomodate 6) the waitress resorted to face pulling and foot stamping before grudgingly allowing us sufficient space to eat.

Waitress no.2 took our order, as fast and as abruptly as she could, with the result that she missed one of our starters and one bottle of wine from the order.

When the food did arrive, quite unceremoniously, the bruschetta was on the hard side of crunchy, while both my salmon and my side salad were drowning with oil. The tagliatelle ragu was uninspiring by all accounts.

The only pleasant encounter during our meal, was with the friendly waiter who dealt with coffee and dessert orders. However, any chance for Aqua to claw back some respect was irretrievably lost when the bill arrived and we realised that they had attempted to charge us all for full price al a carte meals when 4 members of our party had ordered from the set daytime menu.

Any large restaurant, empty on a Saturday afternoon, should welcome with open arms a largish group of adults, who quite clearly are going to be spending over £100 at least on their meal. Further, but for this bad experience, Aqua may have found themselves with a number of new regular customers.

Aqua thinks its something special - its not. And it has a silly name.
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just - View all reviews by this user
Tuesday, April 22, 2008