We had the misfortune of discovering a live hairy worm in one of our oysters! Whilst this was a concern, what annoyed us the most was the attitude of the manager. He offered nothing in the way of an apology, stating that 'you occasionally get worms in your oysters' and that he had eaten one in the past and wasn't sick! He actually made us feel like we were being unreasonable for mentioning it in the first place.
We obviously did not finish the rest of the meal, but were surprised that we were still charged for it!
I would not recommend this restaurant to anyone, nor will I be going back.....not because of the worm, but because of the way our complaint was dealt with.

Having enjoyed a number of excellent meals at the Leeds branch of Livebait, when I recently was in London and having invited colleagues to dinner, I had no hesitation in booking a table at Livebait in Waterloo. What a bad move.

Despite having asked for a non-smoking table, we were initially seated in the smoking area, the staff, having said there was no room in the non-smoking area, then reluctantly found space next to the kitchen area. However, the air-conditioning unit above the table was seriously malfunctioning, alternately blowing out blasts of hot and cold air. The wait before we were able to order was only equalled by the delay in producing the food.

Seated as we were, we could see the activity (or lack thereof) in the kitchen. When the food arrived it was badly cooked, the sauces were badly prepared and seasoned and the general attitude of the staff was one of ill-disguised indifference. To add insult to injury a "discretionary" service charge was added to the bill. When I deleted this and explained why, the reaction of the waiter was along the lines of we don't care as there will be another mug along soon. This mug won't be!

Although Livebait is an attractive enough a restaurant, this was to prove a disappointment.

The service was reasonably cheerful in parts, but slow and haphazard. The food when it arrived was pleasant, but I am afraid it was hugely overpriced - £6 for a bowl of very ordinary fish soup, and £14 for fish and chips which were decent but nothing that a decent local chippy couldn't match, despite the good quality of the fish.

With one side-dish (mushy peas) and no wine, the meal came to over £30 per head. Do yourself a favour, give this a miss; there are better fish restaurants around.