Bar + Block Steakhouse Portsmouth — Restaurant in Portsmouth

We had a reservation but when we arrived we were told there was a wait of at least 20 minutes to even be seated. We decided to eat in the bar area, so that we could sit and eat sooner. This meant however, that we had no server. We had to go up and order our food and drink and even go back up to the bar to collect our drinks. It was almost a shock when the food was bought out for us as we thought we might have to go up to the gantry area ourselves. Our starters arrived, the scallops and prawns were 3 in a portion, which wasn't worth the price and the squid was warm at best. I stacked the plates as to make removing them easy, however it took until our main arrived for anyone to bother checking back in or taking away our cleared plates. We felt completely ignored and maybe that's our fault for not waiting to sit in the main area of the restaurant but I think there should've been better customer service no matter where we sat. The mains portions seemed quite small as well. My partners burger was overdone and dry so I felt bad and reluctantly shared my steak. We are sat letting our food go down as I'm writing this and our dirty plates are taking up room on the table as there has been no interaction with staff since our mains arrived. We came out to celebrate the purchasing of property and we're leaving with commiserations after feeling robbed of our money and a nice evening. Won't be returning anytime...

I'll start by saying that although there were times when I did have to wait a bit for a staff member to come to me, all the staff i encountered were really nice and helpful everytime I went in there.

My mum and I stayed at the premier in over Christmas and as soon as we arrived we went into the bar and block as we hadn't eaten yet. We ordered the Christmas dinner with starters. There was a mix up so my starter came with the main which didn't bother me too much and the lady serving made sure to sort out the mix up. My mum's was starter came with a horrible gravy and a dollop of a mayo like sauce which wasn't listed on the menu. My starter was prawns and scallop and it was over done and dry.

Then came the Christmas dinner. The sauce tasted like a watered down version of the horrible one my mum had with her starter, the turkey was tasteless and think like a credit card (my mum's words), the stuffing was very questionable and burnt on all corners, the potatoes left an unpleasant after taste and the vegetables weren't good.

We decided not to go back there as it left us unsure of whether we would have this issue again. It was a shame as it's location is so convenient. I won't say we will never go there again as it might be worth giving them another chance and trying their normal menu but I will say we will not be having their Christmas...

Beautiful restaurant inside, clean and relaxed atmosphere.

Told the waitress I had allergies. She said what allergies, I told her (she did not write them down), I was not offered an allergy menu. I asked her to double check there was definitely no wheat in my starter, and she returned, saying there was cornflour. I went ahead and ate it, luckily I shared this with my partner so didn't have much but BIG mistake, it had wheat!!!! I left feeling unwell, spacey, nauseous, strange throat feeling, stomach cramps etc only to puke my food up 10 minutes after leaving and later gaining a full body rash complimentary of bar and block. Anyway, despite that, the steak was slightly over cooked, the outside was slightly over charred which left an unpleasantly biter taste, we all ordered medium rare, however mine was medium, tasty but medium and not medium rare. My daughters looked nice inside but was a bit gristley and again too chared, my partner ordered the 3 different cuts of steak and 2 were over cooked, 1 was perfect. The salad was perfect, the chefs took the time to make me one from scratch due to my inability to eat tomatoes which I am grateful for. Thank you.

Puddings were absolutely delicious.

I contacted the restaurant in regards to their allergy mistake via telephone and email and have heard nothing...