Ravens in Southend-on-Sea

We ate in the restaurant on Saturday.This venue needs to decide which market they are aiming at.The noise from the music in the bar downstairs was so loud that we couldn’t have a conversation whilst in the restaurant.We had 4 different people serving us and asking if everything was ok with the food. Which, to be fair, was good.The waitresses served the men on the table first with water and wine, and they were wearing black jeans and vests?When leaving the venue, we had to push our way through people in the bar downstairs, and then navigate our way through the smokers at the entrance!If they are aiming at a fine dining experience, things need to improve.It doesn’t work as a nightclub downstairs and restaurant upstairs, unless you don’t want to hear anything your friends have to say over dinner!I was really looking forward to eating b here but was disappointed.

I had high expectations - it's owned by the same guy that owns The Vine in Leigh, which I quite like. I first visited Ravens just after it opened, just for drinks - it was dead, and yet it took forever to get served, I put it down to teething problems.I then recently returned for a meal, the list of things that went wrong is quite shocking...First of all, the booking was for just 4 of us, but they wanted to put us on a giant round table. We had to wait at the bar for a further 20 minutes until a smaller table was available (even though the restaurant was only half full). While waiting, it took ages to serve drinks, again!Finally once seated, it took over half an hour for anyone to ask us if we wanted to order. I'm a vegetarian, and there wasn't a single veggie mains option on the menu! The waiter went off to talk to the chef and ask about options. We eventually had to call the waiter back over again as he didn't return for another 15 minutes - by the time we'd made our order it must have been close to 9:45, our original booking was for 8:30!The waiter couldn't use their computer order system, so slapped a pad down on the table in front of me and leaned over my wife to write orders manually. Nearly every order we asked for, he repeated back the wrong thing, and wrote the wrong scribble on his pad, we tried hard to get him to take the order correctly, but when he left, we had no confidence we'd get the right things. Or favourite misunderstanding was "Skate and a side of veg" was heard as "Steak and 2 veg, got it!"When our meals came, it was of course incredibly late to be eating by now, and, as expected one of us had the wrong meal. Instead of pork belly, my friend was served a completely different meal. My off-the-menu veggie option turned out to be a nice (if not a bit rich) pasta dish with white sauce - enough to feed all 4 of us though. 10 minutes later my friends pork belly eventually arrived, I'm not sure how they cooked it that quickly.We all agreed the food was actually quite nice once it had arrived, it's just a shame it took so much effort and time to get to that point. An interesting highlight is the fries - they were identical to McDonalds fries, we joked that they'd nipped round the corner to get them - this isn't a complaint, they were really nice.We were then asked by no less than 3 people throughout eating if "everything is ok?", 2 of which were people, up to this point, we hadn't seen before. No one took a drinks order so we went to the bar and got them ourselves at this pointEventually, getting close to half 10, we had our desert orders taken. And there was one final set of mistakes to be made with those, we ordered hot chocolate cake with ice cream - we had the same thing, they all arrived cold, with no ice cream.Honestly it was all a bit laughable really, rather than horrific. We still enjoyed ourselves and the food, but I suggest people either wait until they've got themselves a bit more sorted, or, if you do want to go, make sure you've got all evening spare, and have a bag full of patience with you.

Went on Saturday night and was turned away from the door (by very rude bouncers) for wearing smart chino shorts and loafers in the middle of the summer heatwave, even though there were several guys with shorts on inside. When we questioned why they were let in we got nothing but bad attitude from 2 bouncers even though Google highlights this as Casual dress code and nothing on their website states smart wear only for the evening. Ravens didn't even have the decency to reply to a private message in relation to this. Disgusting customer service and rude staff!

Great place. Nice atmosphere and excellent cocktails made for us by a lovely barmaid called Pippa! Will definitely be returning.

Dj and music over the weekend was banging slightly older age range which was get no silly youngsters getting trashed.grt food in restaurant and service was good and friendly, nothing too much effort.Definitely recommend ravens just what the town needs.

Nice bar. Food was ok but staff could learn to be polite in the resturant

Really nice food and nice restaurant staff, we have had a lovely work Xmas meal.

Newly opened so all is fresh and tidy. Bar set up is good although as orders are taken at counter, let's wait and see how it works on a busy night. Bartender, mixologist knowledgeable. Cocktails were well mixed and tasty and mostly around £10. No service at tables. Menu is original with bites that might not cater for all taste.

Espresso martini are good and ok price at around £9-£10 each. This place is new so everything is tidy and fresh. To get the extra star really does need to offer table service. Ordered at bar and although it was really quite no offer to bring the cocktail over to the table when ready.

Lovely place great for food and drink and very clean and tidy,would give 6 stars if I could.