I typed this up a while ago and never posted, don't know why..! May be
I would know if I read it again - but I am busy today..! So, apologies
in advance!


We had another good reason to celebrate, so we decided to check out Eastern Sea Board.

So typical of me I left it till 3pm to reserve a table for the same
evening. The woman on phone started off stating they are really booked
out that night, and offered just two slots. One a decent slot and
another when A&Es starts filling up with drunks. We picked the
decent one, and strolled in just in time.

The restaurant is dimly lit around the entrance area, and as soon as
your eyes get used to the darkness, the controlled chaos wallops you
across the face. To the right there’s the main eating area where people
seems to be skinning their road kill, and to the left there’s drunken
people tripping over each bleeding from fist fights.

No, not really. It’s a bit noisy, but it’s manageable, unless you have
a headache, which I had. Anyway, the décor looked nice. Its has
semi-pub feel to it, but has a honest appearance too – may be it was a
tad bid cold, but may be that’s just the weather that evening. I not
the type of person who can take one glance at something and give public
seminars on what I saw, but we had plenty of time to take all this in
as we were left standing there for about three minutes. I won’t say we
were totally ignored intentionally, because most of the staff members
seems to be running in and out of the cash till to our left, holding
bits of paper and money, looking totally baffled by the technical
contraption in front of them, so I won’t blame them for failing to
notice us two indignant people by the door! Physiological Advantage
Easter Sea Board!

After another few more minutes of doing our best ‘sad doggy eyes’, they
did eventually took pity on us and guided us to a table near the drinks
counter side, and a warm and well spoken woman, who seems to run a lot
of the show there, came up to us and briefly apologized for the delay -
apparently they had a large birthday party dining going on and that is
keeping them on their toes. Explains the family road-kill feast that
was going on so.

I have to admit I am not as fit as I used to be (err, or when I used to
think I am), so I did find it rather tricky to get comfortable on those
high chairs – they had no footrests! We first got two single sheets
menus with an apology of printer running out of paper or something, and
within seconds, they found a few of those famous clipboard menus for
our reading pleasure!

We soon realised we are seated between two tables of old acquaintances.
I guess when the tables are close to the pub counter, people tend to
behave a bit like that too –they looked happy to meet, which they kept
reassuring every five minutes – no harm I suppose.. Except that now I
know where two of them work, that the woman to my left has a son who
moved to Australia and she is going to visit there and Toronto next
month to visit her daughter. Okay, lovely.. urgh.. Whatever! The only
plus side is that with the all the shouting around us, it wasn’t easy
to make ourselves heard to each other – which meant less talking –
which is not a bad thing I suppose since I was out there with my wife!

Wine list was nice, we picked some white, which turned out lovely and
mild, and not too expensive. They brought around some bread on
breadboard to the table – which was a class touch because it felt
really fresh and tasted pretty nice.

The starters arrived in good time, and it arrived well- read ‘a lot’.
Generous portion sizes seem to be their style at Eastern Sea Board.
Starter was yummy and left me half full, and the main dish (we had
picked steak) was perfect, and was nearly impossible to finish with the
generous massive side order portions. The food was well presented and
tasted lovely. We skipped dessert as we would have needed assistance to
help slide down from those highchairs..

On the side, we noticed we were being looked after by about three girls
– there were at least three attempts to take our order (one didn’t know
we just had our menus, the other got the order and the third didn’t
know we had ordered). And two attempts to get us order the dessert. And
three came around to see if we are all okay and if we need anything
else. I will never complain about too much care, but for their own
benefit, they might want to streamline this a bit – just the basics -
like assign a few tables to each, and have one senior person to get
feedback / build the rapport further etc.

Conclusion: Exactly opposite of my experience at Indus, which I
posted at the start of this thread (admittedly, that was a long time
ago). Tasty food, good quantity and not over-the-top prices (not cheap
either).

I still miss Lemongrass, but EasternSeaBoard does fill that gap – in their own way.