The Tides Portrush

We booked well in advance as getting a table here on speck is normally a one hour wait. I have been here before and the food was disappointing and the service worse , but we decided to give it another go, one year later.

We arrived on time and the place was like a zoo, super noisy and full of young families. We were told we could stand and wait at the bar, and watch out for a seat, we were lucky and after 15 minutes a dirty table which was never later cleaned became available. No one came near us to ask if we would like anything. After 30 minutes I asked when our dinner table would be available, and they said they would check, after another 10 minutes I again approached the receptionist to be told "can you not see we are very busy" i asked did they often make people wait 45 minutes for their table after they had booked and she said "yes".

Finally I did ask to speak to the manager and told her that this was not acceptable and we would leave. She unlike her staff was at least was polite and did apologize, but also admitted that there were often long delays. As I was talking to her another guest approached to say he had been waiting an hour since his booked time.

The upside was we went to one of the other local restaurants where without a booking we had a 20 minute wait and had a great meal.

One other issue is that parking is very limited and you often have no choice but to park on the pavement across a very busy road , it is very dangerous for people getting out of their cars and i would think exceptionally dangerous for children.