Meat and Barrel — Restaurant in Portsmouth

Hope you get them on a good day. We didn't. Summary: They were shortstaffed so everything was extremely delayed, but they did not communicate that at all, kept taking more tables they couldn't serve and were stressy and rushed instead of just being honest. No apology for delay, no customer service.

We went on the bank holiday, the place was half full at most. We waited a while to be noticed at all, then a clearly stressed lady referred us to a table. She wasn't in a good mood. A chap took our order and then we waited. And waited. It became VERY clear that they were short staffed, there were just the two of them on front of house for the whole restaurant. Having worked in service I kind of felt for them on this, as it was probably down to Covid shortages - however they kept taking tables they couldn't serve, and kept stressing themselves out. 45 minutes passed and we asked the lady where the food was and mentioned the delay "Yeah I know but we are really busy." Not a customer service response. No apology. We got the lukewarm food almost an hour later and it was only ok. Did not justify the frankly overpriced menu. Maybe we would have liked it if it hadn't taken an hour. We weren't checked up on, there was no apology for the wait at any point. We saw three other tables get up and leave, and more of them complaining. There were five staff in the entire building. I asked the guy at the end "is it just the two of you?" and he said they had staff down because of Covid. Guys thats fine but just tell your customers!!! We would have understood but instead it was a huge wait and a stressy waitress with no apology and tables rolling in. I would advise the owner to train staff to manage expectations and just be honest with your clientelle. If you are shortstaffed just come clean and inform that there will be a wait. Oh and try and be at...

First time going here, the food was good but not a lot of choice and they have hardshakes which were nice. Little bit pricey for the portion size.

However, experience was ruined by the rude staff, particularly the woman with short blonde hair who I’m guessing is the manager. She was unwelcoming and blunt, and made a snarky comment when I asked if I could make one adjustment to the burger I was ordering (just to substitute a sauce), “no you can’t build your own burger” and laughed at me. In the end I had to pay extra to have the sauce removed from my burger and put on the side, which she reluctantly agreed to do. I cannot help that I’m a fussy eater and have never had an issue with substituting something anywhere else. Also there were only three choices of beef burgers, none of which were fully suitable for me, I don’t at all see what the issue was with making such a small change, especially since the restaurant only had a couple of other people dining there.

My partner also couldn’t see the issue and more so thought the comment and attitude from the woman was just unnecessary, especially since we were polite the whole time and apologised for being fussy. Just not the customer service we expected, will not...

The Food has gone down hill so badly. A really sad downfall.

This place used to be great for burgers and the like but I've tried it again a couple of times in the last year hoping they were having an off day. For their price point you'd expect high quality home made food but it's just poor now.

I had the double bacon cheese burger and it was dry, honestly mcdonalds 99p burgers were better. Overcooked and cold chips (some how), my other half had the goats cheese salad (IIRC) and it came back with missing half the toppings, the place was dead at the time too. So it's just feckless from the chefs. Beer choice used to be great too but now if you just want a lager the options are poor.

I went for a party at xmas and let it slide that time due to it being insanely busy, but everyone said their food wasn't great. Then again last week and was really disappointed.

I'm not sure what's happened, if it's the change in kitchen staff or they're cutting corners, but it's fallen off ridiculously badly in quality. A real shame as there's a lack of good burger places in pompey.

Vegetarian options: Good amount of options but too expensive for what you get, also the quality is poor if you even get what is listed...