Salt Shack Cafe — Restaurant in Havant

As a local resident I have visited the cafe on numerous occasions in the past and have always been super impressed. Salt Shack is a small relaxing, waterside cafe right by the harbour with plenty of parking in a beautiful location overlooking the marina accessed through the marina using the shared drive adjacent to the Langstone Resort Hotel. The staff are nomally super friendly and it is the perfect spot for an informal breakfast or lunch but it does get very busy with the yachties from the marina so its worth phoning and checking whether there are tables available. Even better it is dog friendly too with bowls of water and biscuits available for your four legged friends.

On entering despite appearing empty we was sharply, told to wait by the blackboard menu sign outside at the entrance, then watched over the next ten minutes as three tables of guests coming up from the moorings walked straight in and got seated clearly obviously known to the staff. After feeling ignored for 15 minutes I then asked again if there was going to be a table free and was told very abruptly to pick a table in the sheltered ouside seating are except most of the tables already had reserved signs on. Having previously raved about the seafood dishes to my visiting guest we already had an idea of what we wanted but it turned out on this day almost all of the fresh seafood stuff on the menu was unavailable. In the end we ended up going for traditional brekfast dishes along with a couple of latte's whilst we caught up on years of gossip. The coffees arrived quickly without teaspoons and the sugar bowl on the table was empty but it was some fourty minutes before the food arrived which was puzzling since the three other tables that arrived after us had already had their orders and when ours did arrive it was totally the wrong order. When it finally arrived it was distinctly cool and the bacon had gone dry and hard as opposed to hot! Then on trying to order another extra couple of cups of coffee and being told by our server to queue at the counter to reorder whilst my food was getting even colder didn't seems very customer orientated. I am well aware that the food is cooked fresh to order and everyone is entitled to a bad day and I will return again for another chance as I love seeing small business flourish but I did feel very let down and disspointed especially for my guest as the choice of the visit was my guests choice based on me raving on for hours about the Salt Shack and her reading the online reviews of the seafood dishes. The most embaressing part was that my guest had decided she would like to pay the the bill and on checking it she noticed very unhappily that we had been automatically charged a service charge even though it was not mentioned anywhere on the blackboard or menu and despite the fact that we had to order ourselves at the counter on arrival and in her opinion service charge should be optional based on the quality of service not just an excuse to add money to the bill and that day it just wasnt up to its usual standards...

Winter afternoon tea on17th April Xmas gift thru Groupon consisted of tiny mug of Parsnip soup with NO alternative (can't eat parsnips) 3 chunky finger sandwiches with very little filling piece of prepacked ham bit of lettuce leaf(this was called ham&salad), a scone that was hard and cats pee tea, Staff not helpful at all if you don't like it go without attitude, Would NOT recommend Northney tearoom better on all points

Just read owners response Yes I was offered curry after finished sandwiches and scone, this was cold at time just being put on to heat up. I did ask about quiche or half jacket spud instead as that was all that was on menu board, I had ALREADY explained I can't eat parsnips they make me violently sick was asked if I eat carrot's I said yes then she turn her back to me. Eventually the lady taking meal outside ask if anything was ok my friend said yes (but she wasn't really). I said NO I'M NOT the waitress turn round said to woman doing cooking she's not happy, her reply was she wanted quiche instead of soup I told there is NO alternative to PARSNIP SOUP a few minutes later the waitress called out do you bowl of salad. She did not come to me and ask what the problem was we were the only people inside at the time. It may have been you didn't have enough staff on as outside was busy but still does not excuse rudeness to customers.

I was very disappointed as this was a Xmas gift from my brother and sister in law I was looking forward to it, they said it a lovely place and food was good with great menu. I had phoned twice before to book leaving a message and phone number on third call which was answered your response was curt telling me to book thru Groupon and put the phone down I have never booked thru...

Wow, what a beautiful lunch we've just had! My mum had the Spanish Quiche and I had the Tabbouleh! Both absolutely delicious. As the recent heatwave has gone and the clouds and windy weather was slowing out, mum really appreciated the warm blankets on offer, for all customers to use. We enjoyed the jazz music in the background, whilst sitting waiting for our order to come. Took just over 15 minutes for food to arrive today, but well worth the wait! Staff very friendly and the ambience for a Sunday was busy but a rare gem to find. Not too far to walk from the visitor's car park in the Cafe at the end of the Northney marina, but we were really happy to have found this Cafe and after a short wait to be seen to a table, they kindly seated us in an already reserved table which was 1.5 hours until the "Reserved customers" were due to arrive, so when the food came, we made sure we were gone so they could re-do the table ready, but will definitely be back and perhaps reserve our own table, as definitely would like to try more from their very tasty-looking menu! It seemed it could get quite windy outside under their shelter, but after first noticing the warm blankets, then their ceiling heaters and the plastic roll-down curtains will I'm sure, keep that outside seating area pretty cosy even on a colder day. However, we were both warm with no jumpers on and very comfortable. We could have stayed longer for more of their tasty coffee and perhaps had a dessert or 2! Hopefully next time, but we highly recommend Salt Shack Cafe, a great find!...