Port Kitchen at Shoreham Port — Restaurant in Adur

Please improve your service! I've dined at Port Kitchen a few times now – because it has a nice atmosphere, decent food and more importantly, it's one of the only decent options in Southwick for families.

It's a pleasant experience at Port Kitchen but as others have said, do NOT go here if you're in a hurry. The service here is laughable. The team are made up of seemingly untrained, young staff that have no clue about how to be attentive or how to use their initiative.

On one occasion, when getting a takeaway coffee, I saw a man waiting outside in the cold at the window and he ended up leaving after waiting about 15 mins to be served. I was the only person in front of him and had been served (a simple chai latte) but it was taking ages to come, despite nobody waiting inside. I told a member of staff who I assumed was the manager as she was slightly older, and she seemed really disinterested.

Most recently, last weekend, I went for a coffee with my husband – we weren't in a rush and knew service would be slow but that didn't matter. A few young girls were behind the counter when we walked in not really doing anything. There was some sort of fiasco in the car park outside that they seemed engrossed in. After waiting about 5–10 minutes to be noticed, I simply said "hey, is anyone serving?" a lovely polite girl stopped making smoothies and said "sure, the girl that's serving has disappeared so I'll jump on" and she took our orders – this was much appreciated, but of course it meant that some other poor person was then waiting a really long time for their smoothie.

This is all teething stuff, I'm sure, but it is SO frustrating as a customer and I sincerely believe that if you fix this suff, then this place has potential!

Please invest in proper training for your staff, hire smart, invest in a decent manager, and you'll notice a huge...

After seeing posts of Port Kitchen I was really looking forward to coming for breakfast with hubby and especially looking forward to the blueberry drop scones with maple syrup and bacon! We arrived and parked up easily. Really friendly staff and a great location, we placed our order and went and sat down outside. When our drinks arrived hubbys coffee was great, but my tea cup was really grubby so had to get a fresh one. No sugar on table so popped in to get it, then realised to teaspoon so again went back in to get it. When our food arrived there was no sign of any maple syrup and the pancakes were covered in what I think was a raspberry compote. I asked what happened to the maple syrup and I was told initially it was on there, then on a closer look the lady said it had been forgotten and she'd grab it. She then said " oh you didn't get the memo about the self service cutlery" she offered to go get and when she came back I asked what she meant. I was told there was loads of signs inside telling people to grab their knives and forks which we'd obviously missed. The pancakes and bacon were lovely, shame no blueberries as advertised and that cold compote had been smothered on them dropping the temperature to luke warm, but they were nice and hubby really enjoyed his buttie. I popped in to use the loo and while I was there looked around for all the signs I'd missed which were nowhere to be found. I asked a member of staff and was taken away from the till, past the kitchen serving hatch to a Cutlery stand with a small sign saying self service. If you go outside you'll never see it! Just tell people at the till like they do at National Trust cafes. All in a will definitely go back as I did enjoy it and the location is great. I just think a few tweaks...

Shocking service - they need to sort themselves out!

Service is shocking, completely disorganized, no one knows what you're supposed to do when coming in - do you grab a seat or join the queue? Know one knows so as the British do.....we just queue

Staff don't know what they are doing. If there's a problem with staff or kitchen, have the decency to tell people who are patiently queuing so they know why and can make an informed decision. Lots of frustrated people and parents trying to keep their kids going while standing in a great British queue

Queue for 30 minutes to order and then wait over an hour and a half for food, no apology, no updates, no free tea/coffee while waiting......no nothing.

I just hope they don't charge you for service when you pay - you pay before getting your food! What happens if there's no space to sit once you've ordered.....do you hover over everyone already sat at tables?

And it gets better...... apparently their "new" IT system hasn't taken our order....taken our money but not the order.......an hour and a half of waiting, asking for where the order was and being told it was coming.....and only after noticing others had received their food and being told to be patient. Kids has been so patient, taking me there for a father's Day breakfast, they were in tears, so upset. What a let down!!!

So many better places to eat that value their customers and provide decent service. Didn't offer anything to entice us to come back and see what they could do. Just a horrible, shocking, very disappointing experience, we won't be...