Saturday 31 August 2013

Thalassa Seafood Restaurant Review

Thalassa Chase Side Southgate Consumer Qualms
Din and I happened to be on Chase Side, Southgate enjoying a glorious sunny day when I realised my stomach was barking growling at me. Great. Not being interested in Southgate's KFC (or any KFC for that matter), I was seeking something a bit more wholesome, light and tasty. Whilst scanning the highstreet, Din spotted Thalassa and suggested we check out the menu. At this point I was getting flashbacks to a review I had read in a local newspaper about this restaurant. It was pretty positive as far as I can remember and although I'm never sure whether these types of reviews are totally unbiased and objective, I love seafood and it looked promising.

Thalassa Chase Side Southgate consumer qualms


We consulted the lunchtime menu (served from 12-3pm) which consisted of one course for £5.95 or two for £8.95. The starters sounded especially delicious and as it was 2.45pm, we headed straight in. We were greeted by a friendly waitress and chose to sit between the bar and the window. Ahem, the sliding window. Oh yes, this baby opens. It was fantastic on such a hot day. I digress.


Thalassa Chase Side Southgate

We were offered the lunch menus and were straight away asked what we would like to eat. This kind of threw me off because I felt slightly rushed but what with the time constraint and the dissipating likelihood of getting a good value lunch, I shut up and ordered. I chose the Seafood Spaghetti and Din went for the Salmon Gravadlax. We also opted for cocktails and I got a Sex on the Beach whilst Din had a Long Island Ice Tea. The drinks took quite a while to come but a lot of work went into making them so that didn't bother me! Both were gorgeous and delicious although Din wasn't so pleased about the strawberry and girly umbrella in his drink. Muhaha. The food followed quite quickly and we both gawked at my starter.


Thalassa Chase Side Southgate Cocktails
Long Island Iced Tea and Sex on the Beach
Thalassa Chase Side Southgate Seafood Spaghetti
Seafood Spaghetti

Doesn't it look fantastic? Thalassa's Seafood Spaghetti consisted of mussels, a king prawn, clams, a generous amount of calamari and well, spaghetti. Oh, I almost forgot the sauce. The delicious sauce. To be honest, I think that was the best part of it, it was just so full of flavour and gracefully caressed every taste bud. There was quite a lot of it which more than pleased me, I was happy to slurp every last drop of its tomato-ey goodness. The prawn, mussels and clams were great albeit awkward to eat and I really didn't succeed in finishing them off. I can't say I'm an expert mussel eater and today wasn't really the time to try, not when I didn't want to get my clothes splashed with sauce. I offered a forkful of my starter to Din and he immediately regretted getting the Salmon Gravadlax because my starter was so good.


Thalassa Chase Side Southgate Gravadlax
Salmon Gravadlax

He didn't think the Salmon Gravadlax was worth it because he "could have salmon any time" and the salad didn't look fresh. He was also disappointed that he could not have white bread instead of brown, and he thought the simply toasted bread was boring. Regardless, we munched away and soon I was feeling full. Annoyingly, the heaven sent sliding windows granted entry to every fly in town to join us at the table. What can you do, eh?

Thalassa Chase Side Southgate Grilled Sea Bass
Grilled Sea Bass

My main was the Grilled Sea Bass Fillet. Perhaps a distasteful joke with the fish on the wrong end of the stick, but the chef created a large swimming pool of oil for it's fried corpse. The oil was not nice. I don't know, perhaps it was sunflower oil? I have no idea why so much was on the plate; it was impossible to consume as part of the meal because nothing on my plate would absorb it. Regardless, the sea bass was amazingly moist and ever so juicy. I was quite impressed and thoroughly enjoyed it, apart from chewing on the odd bone once or twice. Although I should have anticipated the bones (duh), it would have been nice to have a small reminder on the menu. As for the rest of my meal, well... A massive heap of lettuce with raw onions on it? Boring. There was just too much lettuce. It could have done with more tomato or something. Or maybe less lettuce.


Thalassa Chase Side Southgate Calamari Rings
Calamari

Din opted for the Deep Fried Calamari Rings which turned out to be the better choice as it was really nice! The calamari was fantastic with a squeeze of the lemon wedge and a dusting of salt, I could have devoured the whole lot. Instead, Din did that for me. The tartar sauce was good (can't say I'm a fan of it in general) but the hand cut chips which are apparently made from Cyprus potatoes were a little disappointing. They were nice but slightly over cooked and too soft.

The meals and drinks came to a grand total of £29.80.

Things to improve:
  • Where were the mofo napkins?! We were not given napkins at all (although one came underneath my Seafood Spaghetti which I failed to notice at first). Apart from that, our cutlery was laid on the bare table which I'm hoping was clean. Luckily I had some napkins with me or things could have become messy.
  • The male barman could have been a bit more polite. He was a little too speedy when removing our plates. About a second after I put my cutlery down after both meals, he arrived and asked "are you finished?" before snatching the plates. A smile would have been nice. Or perhaps a simple "how was the food?" regardless of whether or not he cared.
Would we return? Yes. We since have and upon our second visit, the chips with the calamari were absolutely perfectly cooked. I could not fault our second visit!

By the way, the toilets were nicely decorated, clean, the sinks were beautiful and the mirrors, large. Happy Mirry.

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