Rumours Fruits de Mer Restaurant

Rumours Fruits de Mer Restaurant

14/15 Monmouth Street
Lyme Regis
Dorset
DT7 3PX
Tel: 01297 444740

Rumours is located in the centre of town, in a side street just off the main shopping street. No parking is likely to be available outside. Lyme Regis is an attractive but busy resort and parking not easy in the holiday season, although there are a number of public car parks within easy walking distance.

My wife Sue and myself visited this restaurant whilst on a short break in Dorset. We just succeeded in a late booking on a Saturday night in early July thanks to a cancellation.

Rumours is quite small and cosy, with a pleasant ambience using a musical theme in the décor – old instruments and a wind up gramophone on display (but thankfully not playing!). Unobtrusive piped music was playing. All tables were taken.

There was a menu with a number of a la carte dishes, many non-seafood, together with a blackboard showing today’s specials, with about 6 main course dishes. All were seafood and sounding quite appealing. We chose from the specials.

To save some appetite for the desserts, we decided to share a starter of Garlic Tiger Prawns, quite pleasant but not exceptional.

For main course, Sue chose the Sea Bream with Basil Aioli, whilst I chose Blackened Fillets of Sea Bass with Mint. Accompanying this was a shared dish of vegetables, all fresh, consisting of Sautéed Potatoes, Broccoli, Courgettes, Carrots and Cauliflower, all well cooked but not overdone. The portions were not huge, but we prefer it that way. Both of us thoroughly enjoyed our main courses, which were attractively presented and cooked to our satisfaction.

As accompaniment we chose a bottle of House Dry White – French, and which although a little bland, slipped down well with the food.

We did not study the drinks list in any detail but it appeared to be average for this type of restaurant.

For dessert, Sue chose Poached Apricots in a Brandy Basket with home made vanilla ice cream. I chose Lemon Tort with Blackcurrant Sorbet. Both of these were from the daily specials, were delightfully presented and delicious.

To finish, we had coffee, and the staff were attentive enough to offer refills.

Overall, we thought this restaurant was good, the service was friendly and quick enough under the circumstances that the food was being cooked to order. The total cost was around £50, with main courses in the range £9 - £15

Bob Hay

Saturday 12^th July 2003

Update February 2006

Rumours has been awarded an AA Rosette. Congratulations!