Crystal Rivers

Came to this restaurant for a friends birthday and we all had a fantastic time here. The restaurant was very busy as you would expect on a saturday night so the service was not too good. However the food, atmosphere and the drinks were very good. We are definately going back again despite some very negative reviews we had seen.
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Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 7
Saturday, February 13, 2010

Really enjoyed our night out here, despite the reviews we decided to try and give it a go. The main courses looked a delight and tasted great.

I think the unisex toilets need re arranging but apart from that, all was great.
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Michael
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 7
Tuesday, February 09, 2010

DO NOT GO HERE we went for a birthday meal, there were 23 of us and it was truley awful. The service was extremely slow - after being seated and order food at 8pm the starters finally arrived at 9.30 and the main at 11pm. the food was cold and tasteless, most side dishes did not even arrive, and the service and attitude of the staff was terrible.

the attitude of the manager when we complained at the end of the meal was terrible and they continually tried to find excusses not to make a reduction to the bill - even though most of the main courses were inedible!! We later discovered from other bar tenders in the area that this is not uncommon and that there are always the same complaints. This is truely the worst restaurant in Birmingham and I strongly advise people to stay away.
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Jenwar
Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Monday, February 08, 2010

The evening began full of potential; the atmosphere was seductive, the menu had a suitable amount of variety and our order was taken promptly. Our table was booked relatively early at 7pm a Saturday night and our tasty bread and dips appetizer was swiftly followed by the starter. That's where it all went wrong; my crab cake had a vague taste of fish but was otherwise bland. The generously portioned main course of a decent sized piece of salmon on a bed of mediterranean veg. arrived swiftly, but was also tasteless. In desperation I ordered desert. 40 minutes later ( the restaurant was busy by now) the, you guessed it, bland apple & pear crumble arrived.

I was not alone in my disappointment; my 6 friends were also unimpressed with ther food and, glancing around the room, it became apparent that other diners were dissatisfied with their dining experience and were making this known to the manager.

Just to make matters worse there was chaos in the toilets. They were failing to flush and required the attendance of 2 members of staff to keep order.

Clearly not an experience to be recommended; i wonder how much longer Crustal Rivers will be in business..?
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Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 1
Sunday, February 07, 2010

I had a brilliant time here with my girlfriends for my hen night. Would definitely recommend it to all, immensely gratifying for the birmingham restaurant scene!
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Melanie
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 7
Tuesday, January 26, 2010

My wife and I went to this restaurant for my birthday, we had a couple of cocktails at the bar which were ok, then decided to have lunch here as well as the atmosphere felt great, the waiter forgot to give us our menus and we had to wait, we were sitting down going through the menu, and there was only one waiter running around trying to deal with everyone even though it wasn't that busy people still had to wait a long time and they were getting frustrated.

When the waiter finally came to take our order he started to give us a long list of items which were not available on their small menu, but luckily the things we wanted were still available. We ordered our food, the starter arrived after about 30mins, the garlic bread twirl, looked more like a bread with cheese on, but tasted nice, the chicken was also ok, it would have been better if accompanied with some sort of sauce as it was very dry. Our mains arrived after about 30mins, we had ordered some pasta with a side of fries, we had asked for some extra vegetables in our pasta and the waiter wasn't very helpful as he looked like he had got a bit annoyed.

When our mains arrived we asked him for a dip for the fries, he said the chef doesn't allow us to give dips in the restaurant, which I found quite strange, as all you could taste from the fries was oil and salt, we hardly touched them, as they were too dry, oily and salty. The pasta was very oily and bland, all you could taste was oil, lucky we had asked for those extra vegetables, or we would have had a bowl of pasta and oil. We tried to force down as much as we could but we were defeated and gave up. We asked the waiter for the bill, which took ages was shocked at the price they had charged us almost double for the mains, just for a few extra vegetables, lucky they didn't have any dips, lol, don't know how much they would have charged for them. All in all nice restaurant atmosphere, shame about the service and food, if they tried they could really do a lot with that restaurant as its a prime location, but wouldn't recommend to family or friends, but hopefully they can turn this restaurant around soon, it was a shame as we were both looking forward to it
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Sukhi
Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 0
Friday, January 22, 2010

A group of us visited this place on Saturday, OMG, didnt know a place like this existed in Brum! What a fantastic atmosphere and amazing music! The place was full for a January night, they told us we would have to wait for an hour would you believe it! We shall be back but wil defo book next time CRYSTAL RIVERS!!!
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Jennifer
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Monday, January 18, 2010

Gorgeous restaurant situated and almost hidden in The Mailbox! Very friendly welcome to the venue followed by a superb relaxing evening. You could almost believe you were amidst the swanky restaurants of London. The only downside being the toilets in the venue did let it down! Try the cocktails as they were brilliant.
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Casey Davids
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 8
Wednesday, January 06, 2010

LUSH!!!!

Love this place! popped in Saturday expecting everywhere to be dead as this was the first saturday after NYE and the place was buzzing! Loved the Funky House music, Loved the cocktails, Loved the staff, Loved the decor!

The only downside was the hang over on sunday lol.

You have to hit this place up!
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Tony
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Monday, January 04, 2010

Discovered this restaurant on new years eve 2009. At first looked very stylish and modern. We were asked to wait a couple of minutes for a table for two, in fact we waited approx. 20 minutes. The owner had to come over, as the staff had forgotten about us. The service was really bad in this place, we were waiting about 45 minutes between courses. The staff had an arrogance about them, like they are better than us (at the end of the day they are only waiters on minimum wage, bet their parents were proud, shame). Any way, poor service let the whole experience down. Avoid at all costs. You have been warned!!!!
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Vikz
Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 5
Sunday, January 03, 2010