Porterhouse Wine Bar + Kitchen — Restaurant in Epping Forest

Went here for dinner a few nights ago. Thought we'd try a new place and support a local business - went as a party of four. I'll start from entering the restaurant - not the most welcoming nor pleasant experience, totally not what I was expecting. When we entered, no-one greeted us for a few minutes, so we was standing around rather awkwardly awaiting someone to tend to us. Once we were greeted we were taken to our table, which we later found was far too small for four people, with the quantity of food we had ordered, which was about the normal for four people, causing each of us to feel cramped and with a lack of room to enjoy the meal. In addition, our table was right put up against the glass window seeing into the "outdoor area." This really eliminated any sense of privacy, with two tables essentially being next to each other with a transparent glass window dividing them.... not to mention the cobwebs in the corner of our table which was pressed against a wall - not what you'd expect out of any restaurant let alone somewhere this pricey.

Onto the meal - allow me to begin with starters - put simply, a load of overpriced rubbish. Steer clear of what we ordered, at least. We ordered the squid and ribs. The squid was chewy, not fresh (frozen) and came with a "lemon mayo" that had no lemon tang to it whatsoever. The ribs were drenched in sauce, which took away any taste of the meat, and was far too sweet yet spicy.

The mains were quite tasty, but in terms of value for money, by far the worst option to eat at. £30 for a mixed grill sounds brilliant, until you find it comes with nothing other than meat and some boring salad, about enough for a mouthful. I asked for my steak medium, not medium rare, and I'd say it came closer to rare, with a load of fat on, not the nice kind, and the lamb chops were mediocre, though the chicken was actually very nice. As you can imagine, you'll need to order sides. We ordered a lot of them, which are again ridiculously priced. The meat comes with no sauces at all, they're charged at either £2 or £3. The "homemade chilli sauce" tastes more like tomato sauce, with hardly any chilli in, and is definitely not worth the price. The rustic potatoes were excellent - if you want a place to come for just potatoes, this is your place lol. As for the vegetables, they were okay, but again priced way too high for what they were - £6 for about 6 pieces of asparagus... Thought we'd get a salad too. Firstly, thats going to set you back a fiver, as well as it being horrible. Tastes purely of English mustard, with it being 90% lettuce too.

I'd steer well clear of here, for the money you'd pay you could go a bit further to find Smith's in Ongar, which would be around the same price if not cheaper, and 100X better...

Hi, So this place I found on Google and just wanted somewhere different to try for steak.

I looked at their website, menu, and reviews, so I decided to take my wife on a date night.

The owner and the waiter were very friendly.

So, I ordered the porterhouse medium rare.

The wife ordered fillet mignon also medium rare.

Starters and sides were really tasty, so 5 stars for that side of the food.

My issue was simply the main reason why you would go to a restaurant that sells steak to have steak 😋.

However, unfortunately, the steaks were very disappointing, bland, under cooked inside and over cooked outside, so they were very dry. No flavour whatsoever!

I am not one for waisting food, so we did finish all the food that was on our table.

However, when we relayed our feedback to the waiter, who then went back to management and nothing was done as far as anything about food quality or the way it was cooked!

The waiter did apologise, but that's it!

It was a very disappointing experience overall, and sadly, we will not be returning to this place!

The price's on their website are all wrong, so make sure you check prices with them if you decide to check this place out...

What a fantastic evening tonight. From the first phone call to book the restaurant to leaving 3.5 hrs after arriving….. this is a great place to go. Staff are great, food amazing and the cocktails were on point. Thank you very much for helping my brother in law & I give our twin wife’s an amazing evening. Also need to note how fun the happy birthdays are, not like any other restaurant I have been to. Also, thank you Tina at Krazy Kids Cafe who took my request to have balloons on the table upon our arrival. Very easy to deal with and even took them to the restaurant on my behalf. Again a BIG thank you. Beautiful ballon’s with a personal touch.

I look forward to returning to the Porter House early next year.(hopefully the ladies will be paying next...