Marine Brasserie - Sefton

We had dinner twice in the Marine Brasserie as part of a two night dinner, bed and breakfast stay at the Bliss Hotel. The menu included in this stay was a three-course prix fixe menu consisting of a limited selection from the a la carte menu. The normal price of this menu is £24.95, which is very good value for a dinner menu for the standard of food served. The first night my wife had carrot and coriander soup to start, whilst I had chicken, pancetta and hazelnut terrine. For main course I had sea bass whilst my wife had roasted chicken supreme. For dessert my wife had blueberry pannacotta whilst I had a trio of ice creams, chocolate, strawberry and mango and passion fruit. The second night my wife had pea and mint soup for starters whilst I had crushed salmon which was flakes of salmon that I think had been hot smoked. For main course I had crayfish linguine whilst my wife had duck breast served with dauphinoise potatoes and chicory. For dessert I had chocolate mousse and my wife had Cambridge burnt cream (crème brûlée). The first night we drank a bottle of Sauvignon-Vermentino which we liked so much that we ordered the same wine on the second night. The standard of the food on both nights was excellent and we couldn 't find fault with it. The service was friendly but seemed a little disorganised. For example when we were shown to our seats the waitress brought the menus with her but not the wine list, nor did she ask if we wanted to see the wine list, so when I asked to see the wine list she had to go back to the desk and fetch it. We asked for the wine to be served with the main course but it didn 't appear with the food so I had to ask for it again and we were well into our main courses before it arrived. The way they totalled the bill was a bit odd as they put on an amount for each course then deducted the same amount as DBB , so that the final bill was only the drinks. However on the second night they forgot to deduct the desserts so they had to redo the bill.

For my mother’s 80th birthday we organised an afternoon tea for 19 family members. 9 gentleman’s teas and 10 classic afternoon teas. The venue was lovely on a beautiful day, however the food was very disappointing. The gentleman’s tea consisted of 1 small pork pie, 1 small burger in bun, a small dish of monkey nuts, pork scratchings and some tiny Gerkins 1 pint of Carlsberg lager, not the locally brewed ale. Who in the 21st century has pork scratchings as part of a meal costing £16, which was not as advertised.The classic afternoon tea consisted of sandwiches cake, but was insufficient for 10 ladies, who are not the biggest eaters, costing £13 per head. The service was slow required prompting for drinks, including a teabag in the coffee pot and having to ask for milk! We had to order additional portions of fries to make the meal substantial enough. Having booked well in advance, we expected better service and for both types of afternoon teas to at least meet the advertised package which didn’t’live up to expectations marred the birthday celebration. We understand the hotel is under new management and hope will take on board this constructive review, and be rectified in future, otherwise we would not recommend the afternoon tea experience in its current format.

Went here for lunch with my aunt who had been through a bad experience. It was a gorgeous day weather wise. So it was her treat. 1/ we ordered a drink change never came. We were gong to leave as a tip but weren’t given the chance ! 2/ ordered spicy French fries They came like the top had fell off the spice jar! I sent them back ! 3/ lifted the top off the bun from the chicken burger can only discribe it as being nothing short of Creamated! We left. I emailed the hotel telling them. I got a reply from the deputy manager explaining everything an sent them the pic. Her an the chef told me they were embarrassed that the food should never have left the kitchen an couldn’t apologise enough. The deputy manager was emailing me back an forth an we made arrangements to go back an have a complimentary meal as away of an apology An rectify the bad experience. I was told they had reserved a table out side an inside it was our choice and that she would not be there but they was expecting us. On arrival I went to the young waiter an told him we were there. I explained to him about the DM an he knew nothing about it. He went to manager that was on an the chef an no one knew anything about it. It was totally embarrassing as people could hear. I showed him the emails Back an forth from the deputy an myself. There was no tables reserved. I found a table while they sorted it out. I would have rather just left. But the waiter JJ was adamant he would sort it an too wait. We waited. After what was a while JJ took the order. Other people were asking me what was wrong totally embarrassing! We just had our meal an left. J J. Was a lovely lad an I could tell he was as much embarrassed as we were he made the best of a bad situation. He looked after us an was very professional. A credit to his employers. I emailed the Deputy Manager how we had made arrangement date time etc only to go an know one knew anything, that she hadn’t communicated The arrangements we made to her staff an told her that no one knew anything least if all expecting us. Really bad for a DEPUTY MANAGER. needless to say I never got a reply. A bad experience to say the least. Shame as the hotel is lovely the position of hotel is fab. I spoke to people staying there an they loved it.

What a pleasure to have two pleasant professional local lads serving us on Saturday night They were both polite friendly and very good at there job They were a real pleasure Well done lads

The sea bass in Thai green curry was wonderful. The chocolate truffles and raspberries perfectly capped off a delicious meal.