The Basque Kitchen — Restaurant in England

Oh my. Such a bad restaurant. Going against the generic decent reviews of this place but my God what a terrible, terrible night we've had there on our last night of our staycation. Booked an outside garden table for 20.30 and got there bang on time to be seated inside next to the toilets. We told them we'd booked outside and were told there had "been a mixup" and could we have a drink inside whilst we waited for a table. We then tried to pre order the chicken and chorizo paella as it took 30-40 mins and the order was taken. Only for a waitress to then inform us there was no chorizo as "they can't get it to the island with what's going on with Covid". Would we be okay with a seafood one. No we wouldn't. So, we order different food when we eventually get sat outside. Table not made up and nobody dealing with us outside. Had to literally keep walking inside to get any waitress to do anything. On walking inside, see two of them stood doing nothing and the other had a order in her hands. Guess what it was? Chorizo, in a bowl. Nice! When questioned why this couldn't go in a paella was told that this was chorizo in cider and not the chorizo that could go on paella. I was told that they couldn't get it on the island with Covid. Lies. You have it, just put it in paella. Or couldn't you be bothered to make a paella? Looks like the latter which is weird for a Spanish restaurant. We bought the £50 steak for two which was all bone and fat so I would advise not to order that if you go. Good luck with the paella because it's not even on the menu in the restaurant, but is on the website menu. No Maitre D or obvious owner in sight to complain to. Whoever they are are playing a risky game employing what are clearly incredibly young (20 or under) girls that literally, don't have a clue how to run a restaurant. When challenged they just blame, blame, blame. Its the government's fault apparently for creating the 'eat out to help out' scheme, that keeps these morons in jobs. They were busier than normal on a Tuesday night which is why they couldn't cope. Ridiculous. You pay peanuts and, well, you know the rest. They all need sacking and the owner needs to get a grip on the business and be visible. Their invisibility shows how much they care about the place and the patrons. I will NEVER return and I'd be very, very careful if you read this and think about going. There are many better restaurants in the area with very good staff that deserve your custom more. Restaurants like this need to die out. You can't say you haven't been warned. UPDATE : Love the way the owner only replies to positive comments and totally ignores negative ones. What professionalism!!...

Tough place to review... Less Basque and more generically Spanish, but there were some good dishes. Pimiento de padron were fine. Pulpo gallego was excellent. Both would have been at home on the peninsula.

They also served gambas al ajillo. This came in the expected earthenware dish, but was oddly lukewarm or cold when it should have been sizzling. It was okay. There was a lamb belly dish that was average and forgettable. Baked camembert was nice, but that isn't a Spanish dish.

However, the overall vibe was barely managed chaos. Just booking the table was hard, and despite phoning ahead and confirming the table, the staff couldn't find our booking on their system when we arrived (may have been a book with scribbled notes).

We got what we wanted, but tables around us where complaining about missing items and long waits. Plus the cold gambas, plus the plates really were tiny, and expensive (and I say that as someone who has often gone to tapas restaurants in London)

In summary, I can't recommend this place. It is overpriced and poorly staffed, even if they do have...

Was looking forward to dining here and overall it was an ok experience. We had a table of four and whilst we reserved earlier that afternoon in person and were promised an indoor table, when we arrived we were seated outside in the rear which would have been ok on a pleasant evening. In hindsight we should have had the chef's selection of tapas dishes however two members of staff didn't explain fully and we therefore ended up paying nearly £40 over what we should have. Plates were taken when we hadn't finished. The food was good but we felt our visit was an inconvenience. We are Cowes residents and have lots of friends and family visit. Hoping that should we visit Basque Kitchen again we have an improved experience especially as this had been recommended to us, and our friends who had dined their previously felt it didn't match...