Nicholsons — Restaurant in Portsmouth

I have been here many times and it was my favourite restaurant. Recently the quality of service, drinks and food has really gone downhill. We often order the same dishes and drinks and of course sometimes things are a bit different because of menu changes/supplier changes etc, but yesterday's visit was so bad that we will not be returning again. We noticed a drop in service over the last several visits, but yesterday the cocktails were terrible and the quality of the food had dropped too. Overcooked tough steak kebabs, soggy paella and spinach salad that was completely swimming in oil with about 4 times more garlic and salt than usual. I asked to swap my cocktail as it was so bitter that there was definitely a missing ingredient, they did remake it but the replacement was so overpoweringly sweet. I always have the same cocktail, at Nicholsons and other places too. It's my favourite and has been for 10 years. I've never had a bad one anywhere, let alone two in a row, the second of which felt like a punishment for daring to complain about the first. I also recieved argumentative attitude when it was replaced. Honestly we just wanted to come in for a nice meal for valentines. I find it difficult to complain about anything and am not confrontational in any way so I just couldn't wait to get...

Food was amazing, Service not so good unfortunately, I got charged for extra beer i didn't have, but to be fair barman did sort it out and take it off final bill, so all good. I was told by the service person that 4 till 7pm happy hour included draught beers for 4.95 instead of the usual 5.95, so I ordered san miguel and it states this on the happy hour drinks menus saying any draught beer, but then was told it doesn't include san miguel, but again this was rectified by bar man, so fair enough, but why put advert on drinks menu saying any draught beer 4.95 4-7pm??? Also I was still eating when service person leant over me to take other empty plates whilst still eating my meal, which I found uncomfortable, I felt rushed to hurry up and finish my meal, but the place was half empty. Part of my order came out five minutes later than the rest of my food and my drink was not delivered at all until I had to ask why I hadn't recieved it, then got charged twice for it, but like I said this was corrected by the nice bar man. Im not complaining, just giving my honest experience of my visit here. Overall food was great but was let down by parts of the service. Nice friendly staff...

Over all a nice experience. Tapas dishes were nice and very nice Paella with large well cooked tiger prawns! Only two issues I will point out, the first thing we were told as we sat down was the fact our table had bee been double booked and that we had to vacate it 2 hours after we arrived. That shouldn't have been an issue but we suddenly felt a little bit pressured to hurry our meal, as it happened we had finished well in time anyway, but it added an unwelcome atmosphere. The second was the sharing platter we chose to start at £15.95 it's pretty small and not great value, a kin to an antipasto tray you can buy in a supermarket consisting of 4 slices of both chorizo and salami, a little bit of cured ham, 4 thin slices of cheese and some small green olives with bread. If I return I'll just choose 3 or 4 extra tapas dishes which are far better value and very nice on the whole. Would definitely recommend to friends with a few pointers to get the...