King Street Tavern — Restaurant in Portsmouth

I booked the 'Chef's Table' for 13 people for my father's 92nd birthday. I booked online about a week before and rang on the day of booking. I spoke to a man who told me it was a private dining area, he asked about mobility because it was upstairs. It sounded perfect. Unfortunately when we arrived we were told the private dining area wasn't in use, and our table was in the middle of the pub. Understandably we weren't very happy, but the 2 female bar staff were very nice and apologised and offered us a round of drinks, which we accepted. When the drinks arrived we were told that the owner Sean (who the staff had contacted about our issue) had said only my father's drink would be complementary. Given this was the establishment's mistake, quite frankly we felt this was insulting. We did not feel Sean deserved to have any more of our money, so decided to leave.

Shame on you Sean, for putting us in that position and your poor staff; someone should have called and told me that we could not have the room we had booked before we arrived. Half of our party were over the age of 80. In the end though Sean, you missed out, as we went to a lovely Italian restaurant just down the road, where we spent hundreds of pounds, which would have been yours had you had the courtesy to offer appropriate compensation for your mistake. Maybe a couple of bottles of wine would have been a nice gesture, if you couldn't stretch to a round of drinks. Appalling...

This evening, I caught up with my mum. She is currently accompanying my Nan for a trip down memory lane in Portsmouth, where my Nan grew up, even though she now lives in Devon.

My Nan is just over 90 years old. Up until she was 2, she lived with her parents and her sister, above a pub which her father (aka my Great-Grandad) ran. That pub was called “The Diamond” (as far as my Nan remembers), but is now known as the King Street Tavern.

The reason for my review is that my Nan dropped in for dinner tonight (22nd June 2023) for old times sake. My mum was keen to point out that the person behind the bar - Despite being very busy - was more than accommodating of my Nan’s desire to relive times gone by and took a keen interest in her story. She was made to feel more than welcome and “At home”

My Nan is a formidable woman with a heart of gold. She may appear frail now because of her age, but she has been a pillar of strength to our family over many years. So to hear of such a kind hearted gesture by a member of staff there was very heart warming.

Maybe one day I’ll be able to visit in person. But for now, a big thank you to the team for helping someone who had given so much to society, a bit of a throw back to her mischievous childhood, which was nearly...

DO NOT GO HERE ON A SUNDAY!! We were told this was the best Sunday roast in town, so I booked us in while family was visiting from America. We came at our reservation time, 4:15, and there was no table ready. They had us wait outside, a half hour later we went in to check on the table and they didn’t seem to even remember they told us to wait. Other people had walked in and been given a table our size while we waited. They sat us on the patio, and took our orders. Then we waited, and waited, with two hungry children. We went to check on the food multiple times and nothing was coming. Finally an hour and a half after taking our order, 2 hours after our reservation, we walked out because the kids (and frankly the adults too) were too hungry and upset, and they had sat us in what was basically a small smoking patio. A manager never spoke to us or apologised, even though we asked to speak to one. It was a horrible experience attempting to show some Americans the “best Sunday roast in town.” Don’t waste your time. Even if the food is good, the people running this place have no respect or appreciation for their customers and don’t...