Harbour Lights Beefeater — Restaurant in Portsmouth

Dreadful experience. Go for a meal at least once a fortnight sometimes more for over 15months. Never had such bad treatment before. Went at lunchtime on Tuesday 26th February. Arrived at 12.20 & was seated straight away. The restaurant was very unusually quiet, only 3 cars in car park. Our drinks order was taken immediately, these arrived at 12.50. Then ordered our meals. There was one other table with customers in our area & 3 other tables in the rest of the restaurant at that time. Our meals turned up at 13.35. Unfortunately, my chips were cold & the steak luke warm. When asked by the waitress "Julie" if everything was alright, I expressed to her that my chips were cold, her reply was " Well I like cold chips". I wasn't offered any replacemnt. The other two tables filled up in our area. Whilst we were deliberating what to order for desert, one of the other tables complained that their fish was stone cold & returned the meal to the kitchen. Then the other table complained his chips were cold & his beans were still frozen. So thank goodness it wasn't just me. On receiving the desert I asked "Julie" if I could have a teaspoon instead of a dessert spoon. She then replied " I thought your mouth was big enough". All 3 of us tables were discussing the dreadful service & meals. Before we could order any coffee's, the Bill was placed on the table & was informed my meal had been deducted, which I very much appreciated. The other two tables also had deductions made. Not a very good day for Profits. On leaving, the waitress "Julie" suggested to me to go in on a Wednesday or Thursday in future. When asked why she said " They are my days off". Perhaps the Management should seriously consider giving her permanent time off. The young lady in charge of the Restaurant was very...

Disappointing. Turned up at 1830hrs on a Sunday evening. Place wasn’t busy at all. Maybe 5 or 6 tables with seated customers at the most.

Told after already ordering and being served our drinks that they have: • No rump steak • No sirloin steak • No mushrooms • No tomatoes • No salads • No coleslaw • No key lime pie …. So as a result they would not (or could not) sell anybody: • Any mixed grills (refused to substitute / swap any items) • Steak samplers • No salads • And cannot sell any listed menu items, containing any ingredients listed above There was no offer to swap / substitute items without us paying substantially more.

Whilst I understand availability issues can affect any business, and appreciate portion / cost control is an element of kitchen management. A steak restaurant to literally run out of so many items so early in a weekend evening is poor stock control.

The steaks we both ordered (from the now drastically reduced menu due to availability) were T-Bone. They were only lukewarm at best, and disappointing with no obvious seasoning. We were not asked how our meals were at any point or if we enjoyed them. Neither did we get an apology or explanation for lack of availability.

My partner’s chips were served cold - but to be fair they did replace them with the minimum of fuss when asked to do so. So kudos for doing that to try and fix the issue.

Waited what felt like an age for a second drink too.

We won’t be returning here unfortunately. Try elsewhere if you’re visiting on a weekend evening due to...

Close to the hotel so happened in without checking the reviews 😞. It had been a very long and difficult day, whilst always reviews prior to entering an establishment going forward. Entry was established with an approximate 5 minute wait for seating. Apparently reservations are required when the restaurant is half empty, but a lucky 🍀 part of the day, a seat was obtained!!! Drink order came quickly, believe me you need to be intoxicated to eat here! Grapefruit syrup drink was promptly tasted, OMG just put a straw in the prosecco, terrible drink. Nachos where a mix of cheese whiz, salsa hot peppers and scallions, they where edible as long as you didn’t dig into the sopping base of chips, read that as only a half dozen chips were edible. Fried mushrooms, tasted like they had been dropped in the parking lot and the BBQ SAUCE I think was recycled from someone’s ribs. Alas the main course arrives! A rib eye steak, 🥩 it took me back a few years when Waffle House servers steak and eggs using the absolute thinest cut of steak available, it was ok, just wish I would have eggs and hash browns for the entire Waffle House experience….oh yea this is Beefeater. The salad had less than one leaf of lettuce 🥬 in it and many diced vegetables, it was the best part of the meal! Don’t order the prawns with your steak, and finally the peas, zero flavor. Save time and money, eat somewhere else!!! The service was pretty decent but doesn’t make up for the...