text: It's such a shame really... I used to enjoy going to Howies Restaurant, enjoying there changing menu but I have to say that when I went last week I was quite disappointed with it all really.\n\nI should have known that it was going to be less then a great evening when we ended up seated next to the doors to the toilets, surely it would make sense to screen this off or have a whole other door to the them as the last thing either myself or my dinning companions wanted to see while we were eating was the loos, kinda puts you off of your meal a little bit.\n\nThey also had everyone squeezed into the same side of the restaurant for some reason, so we were left having to scoot our table even closer to the loos when the table next to us was filled and there was little room left to maneuverer on one side of the table.\n\nHaving received a bowl of bread with not quite enough in it to evenly share out and even less butter we all ordered from what looked like a rather good menu.\n\nI went for their tomato and crab soup which tasted mostly of pepper and was served so hot that my bowl was still steaming when the other people in my party had long finished their starters and i was left trying to conquer my molten soup alone. I have to say I was very disappointed by the soup as i love fresh crab but feel that it's sweet flavor was just lost.\n\nMy hope was now resting on my main of pan fried tuna, but again I have to say I was already concerned as when i had ordered it i had asked if it came still pink in the middle, which I have to say is one of the best ways to have a lovely fresh piece of tuna, but the waitress looked at me like i was speaking another language. So when it arrived it was safe to say it was very much cooked all the way though, but to my surprise that wasn't what shocked me the most. What really got me was the fact that it had a huge piece of bone in it. Now I have eaten tuna, a lot, in various places and I have never ever been served a piece with a huge bit of bone hanging of one end of it, in fact it looked more like a pork chop. It's saving grace was that it actually tasted alright and wasn't as dried out as it looked.\n\nAll my hope in a nice dish was gone by this stage and the pudding didn't fail to disappoint either as i was promised a chocolate and cherry fudge tart, but the cherries must have been misplaced some where as, while the chocolate was lovely and not too rich, there was not a hint of cherry in the dish at all. And strangely it was accompanied by a raspberry compote, is it too much to wonder why they didn't do a cherry one? Perhaps that would have helped to draw out the flavor of the cherries that where hiding somewhere in all that chocolate.\n\nI just feel that maybe Howies have become a little complacent, I do remember having fantastic meals there and the service was good enough to match. Maybe they need to do something to reinvent themselves, they certainly need to find themselves someone who can fillet fish properly.\n\nHowies is definitely somewhere that I will not be in any hurry to go back and visit, there are just so many other places that do what they try to do so much better.