La Casa Flamenca Port Solent — Restaurant in Portsmouth

We were looking forward to our meal out which is a rare treat and chose this restaurant out of a few options as it looked very nice when we passed by before and the food looks great in the reviews but we were very disappointed with our experience at La Casa Flamenca. We found the customer service overall poor. The staff were very friendly and responsive to our complaints however didn’t seem to have an understanding of basic customer service and etiquette when serving customers in a restaurant. First of all when we were seated to our table at 9.10 we were told the kitchen closes at 9.30 and felt as though we were being pressured to order quickly (something that when I have worked in restaurants, was a thing you never do to customers when you have sat them in your restaurant. You stop seating new tables at a certain time and then the kitchen closes after the last customer orders). I was looking forward to some tapas but there is a big choice of dishes and because we felt pressured to order quickly we didn’t feel we had time to read through them all and make a decision on a selection of dishes, so we both chose to have the steak. We were really looking forward to it but when it arrived it looked nothing like a steak meal that cost £17.95. More like what I would expect in the whetherspoons and I have had better presentation and quality there. There were barely any fries, they were basic fries that looked like the last crispy small chips that are left at the bottom of the chip pan and and appeared to be just thrown onto the plate, a small bit of limp dry salad leaves which was not even dressed and a steak which was barely seasoned. This was not a meal worth £17.95!! On top of that we asked for some mayonnaise and was given a mayonnaise bottle with nothing left in it to squeeze out. We explained our concerns to the waiting staff who were very friendly, bought over some more fresh fries and gave us a 10% discount. However having only been in the restaurant for an hour and it now being about 10.15 we were on our last glass of wine from the bottle we ordered and my son was finishing his ice cream when the waiting staff started to clean the restaurant floor with a floor washing machine that scrubs the floor and is louder than a hoover. I was shocked as this is so rude and something you never do whilst you still have customers in your restaurant who are still trying to enjoy their food and drink that they have spent money on! We couldn’t even hear each other talking. I didn’t finish my wine as the staff made it very uncomfortable and unwelcoming by doing this and made us feel that we had to go. The floor was so wet and slippy in my small heels that I couldn’t walk on it and was slipping all over the place and had to hold on to my partner and we were let out a side door rather than the entrance. I feel like we chose to come and spend our money and eat at your restaurant out of so many restaurants we could have chose to eat at and this is how unwelcome and unvalued we were made to feel. The staff were lovely but the service we received and things they did whilst we were there goes against all restaurant customer service and etiquette. If you wish to close your restaurant by a certain time than stop seating tables earlier so that you are not rushing your customers and ruining there experience in your restaurant. We came out to enjoy our meal, relax and have a nice time and our experience at this restaurant was the complete opposite. Very disappointed, a waste of money and won’t be returning or...

Completely unauthentic! Was surprised by my boyfriend for a birthday dinner. As a native Spaniard myself, I'll admit I rarely frequent spanish restaurants simply because I can cook this type of cuisine myself. However, I was quite excited to give this ago. As soon as we walked in we were greeted and shown to our very tiny table, followed by a completely uninterested server taking our drinks order; 1 small coke no ice no lemon and a pint of lager. The drinks arrive, ice and lemon in the coke...I just removed them myself as I suppose it's an easy mistake to make or perhaps she didn't hear my request on ordering. A different server then approaches shortly after to take our food order, we ordered around 8 tapas dishes and admittedly the speed in which the food reached us was quite impressive. But, it only went down hill further from then on... to begin with there was not enough room on the tiny table for all 8 tiny dishes, the runner that brought the food out was playing some sort of tetris game trying to fit everything on the table, there was no mention of perhaps moving us to bigger table, despite there being plenty of free ones in the restaurant. The "pollo al ajillo" had no flavour what so ever, the chicken was rubbery it lacked salt and the consistency of the sauce was like jelly. The bread selection consisted of 6 slices of shop bought baguette, 3 wholemeal slices and 3 white. The "Alioli" dip it came with was the biggest embarrassment to spanish cuisine I have ever come across, most certainly not authentic. The "Ternera" was as tough as a shoe and like every dish we ordered lacked flavour. The "patatas con alioli" were soggy and smothered in said "alioli" which consisted of the blandest white dip with barely a hint of garlic. I couldn't help myself and in spanish i asked one of the waiters walking past if the dip was homemade? His response was that he had no idea, and he would find out. He returned shortly after to tell me what I already knew - No, it was not homemade alioli and explained that most things where bought in pre-made. Quite the statement, considering all members of staff wear a tshirt that states the "Authenticity" of the place. Anyway we were in and out in 45 mins, most dishes where left untouched, there was no check backs once the food was brought to our table and the next time a member of staff approached was simply to bring us the bill we had requested. There was no initiative to ask if we had enjoyed our food ( which was obvious we hadn't, specially since we barely ate any of it!) The total bill came to just under £90 for two people for what I can only describe as the worst spanish food I have ever tasted and the worst service i have ever experienced! Once again, as a spanish person myself all I can say is, if you do visit this place, please don't think this is what spanish food tastes like. What an embarrassment to our culture! P.S - Thank you for the worst birthday meal o...

((Paella Palooza on social media)).

First picture is my paella, second picture is from this restaurant.

I am very disappointed with this restaurant. I have been there quite a few times in the last months/years and the service was always very good and so the food.

I went there yesterday and my partner and I didn't fancy a Sunday roast, although it would be his preference being British (obviously) 😅.

We ordered tapas: paella, patatas bravas, albóndigas, croquetas, ternera al jerez (beef cooked with Jerez wine) and fabada asturiana (beans with chorizo). I was really looking forward for my partner to try this last one as is a super fab dish of the Spanish cuisine.

The croquetas were nice and soft, crispy in the outside although there was no filling inside, so a big lack of flavour.

The 'ternera al jerez' was good, the beef was tender and tasty, at least I was not disappointed with this one.

The bravas were also quite decent - the sauce was a little bit spicy which is how it should be.

The albóndigas were decent, a little bit too thick although they were small but tasty at least.

Now... Here comes the tricky part. The fabada asturiana was completely ruined by using too much haggis which is the equivalent to our morcilla - the whole dish only tasted as haggis, very disappointing.

And the paella, THEY USED THE INCORRECT TYPE OF RICE!!!! they have used a basmati rice to cook paella!!! This is just a crime!!! 😡😡😡

Please have a look at both pictures, mine and the one from the restaurant, the type of rice they should be using is Bomba rice which is shorter type of rice. If you use basmati (longer grains), the rice will be flavourless because that rice doesn't absorb the flavours when cooking (which was the case). 🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦

I give them zero stars for this unacceptable mess!! (Although there is no health and...