Relentless Steak and Lobster house Port Solent — Restaurant in Portsmouth

As we were seated at our table we were told the restaurant now operates a prepayment system; basically you order your initial drinks and your starters and mains, then they present you with a bill which evidently has to be paid before the food order gets sent to the kitchen. Any further drinks, desserts get added to a “mini tab” as it was referred, which is then paid at the end.

My wife and I deliberated over the extensive menu for quite some time before ordering. My wife eventually settled on the 1kg lobster and I opted for the 28oz Ribeye steak. The waitress came back shortly after taking our order to say they had run out of 1kg lobster (£48) but they have “jumbo” lobsters which are priced at £50 per kilo. A chef came out and offered a couple of lobster which were HUGE. The cheapest one worked out at £141! We declined that bearing in mind we only wanted a 1kg lobster at £48. I then suggested having 2 600g lobster which would work out at 1.2kg (£60). The waitress said that would be fine but it would cost 2 x £37 (the menu price for a 600g lobster, which incorporates the cost of 2 sides per lobster). So that’s £74 compared to £48 for 200g more lobster than the 1kg option. She also offered the 600g and half a lobster (menu price £15) making it £52 for an unknown weight of lobster. Basically no offer to meet in the middle, just give us 2 600g lobsters for the same price as the 1kg, or anything in between. The waitress went off to check with her “boss” and she came back to confirm the options discussed were the only options being offered. I asked to speak to him, the waitress came back and said he is not prepared to speak to me. This arrogant attitude completely got my back up and I very nearly walked out but all this commotion meant we were now approaching 9pm and we were hungry for some food (starters wouldn’t get sent to the kitchen until the initial bill was settled). So we ended up choosing 1 600g lobster. The bill then came, I was flashed with the total price and I paid. I asked for the itemised receipt because the waitress was rolling it up as if she was going to take it away. Upon review there was a 10% service charge automatically added. I hadn’t noticed that this was mentioned in the small print on their menu (when I checked later, it was but very small). I asked for that to be refunded due to the boss being so arrogant. I was given the refund in cash, and ended up giving it directly to the waitress at the end as she had to bear the brunt of my frustration which was not her fault!

Our starters were very nice and well received after arriving at 8pm and not getting them until nearly 9pm. Unfortunately my 28oz ribeye was not such an enjoyable experience. I have never seen a ribeye steak naturally break into two pieces but what arrived was two distinctly different pieces of meat. I cut into and had a mouthful of one piece of steak and immediately knew something wasn’t right; it had a VERY over mature taste to it, I can only describe it as being a slightly cheesy flavour. The other piece of steak didn’t taste like that, so I wouldve put money on it being two different steaks to make up the weight. Anyway, I sent it back to be re-cooked but was told if they re-cook it, it would taste the same because their steaks are dry aged. I’m sorry but I’ve had countless steaks, all of which are dry aged (even supermarket steak is dry aged!) and they don’t taste cheesy! I’m not sure anyone enjoys eating a steak that is on the turn!? I said I don’t want anything else and that I would eat the sides I had ordered separately (garlic bread and jalapeño poppers) and have a refund of the steak. Well, it seems this place is adamant that it will not lose / take a hit on revenue; they then offered me a fillet steak as that was not dry aged. To be fair, that steak was very nice indeed, no complaints at all!

Needless to say, we will never return again and will not be recommending...

Avoid avoid unless you want to be discriminated against or pay for non existent service! Decided to drop in for a late lunch, restaurant wasn’t particularly busy On arriving ordered pre meal drinks service was slow but we were ok with that as we were in no rush Ordered our starters and main course then got presented with a bill including service charge.We wanted a bottle of wine with our meal so had to request this so it could be added to our PRE MEAL bill. After a comment to the server we paid before we even received our meal as we didn’t want any unpleasantness There were no visible signs or anything about their alleged prepayment policy on their website or menu Cocktail was watered down so would advise against ordering a cocktail especially as they are pricey

Food was of a good standard but had to wait for staff to clear table eventually had to move our plate to a vacant table nearby- not what you expect when you have paid in advance for a service charge

Here comes the punch line - which ruined our circa £130 lunch!- whilst waiting for the table to be cleared my other half mentions that the table over there have just finished their meal and are perusing their bill after their meal but before paying !!! What do you mean I ask? But we paid in advance you must be mistaken. To settle an argument we went to talk to the couple and asked when they were you asked to pay? Looking perplexed they said at the end of the meal of course …… At which point we wonder whether the restaurant has some kind of profiling policy on who has to pay before or after. Is it because I’m Asian that we were asked to pay before our meal but others weren’t expected to. Dining experience was ruined at this point so asked the server what was going on, she went off to speak to the manager, on return she confirmed that it was their policy to expect a prepaid order service and there had been an error in following their policy. I did ask whether they have a racial or disabled profiling policy. No she assured me she has a best friend who is Asian!!

No sign of the manager or suggestion of a refund on the service charge or a complimentary scoop of ice cream to smooth ruffled feathers… Good news is as we had pre paid, no need to hang around I got into my wheelchair never to return with a message to all don’t visit either.

Ps I had a poorly worded and misspelled response to my review from management Stating they employ ‘ethnic’ workers!! The management really need to work on their Equality and Diversity position as they seem to have no clue!! The reply stated that the day in question 18.5.2024 was the hottest day of the year and they were short staffed, hence the error - am sure for those inclined you can check how factual this statement is ! Sadly they accused me of shouting at the server which is simply not true, I did however confirm that I would post my experience in social media posts because I was indeed irate! So now management have inferred I am a lier too, their customer service gets better and better 😢 They have offered for me to call to get my service charge refund which presumably they can do without my calling, that would have gone much further in resolving this situation then accusing me of behaviour that simply didn’t occur. Although this should have been offered on the day, the manager should have come out to apologise and explain the error himself, they could have offered a complimentary drink/desert or discount on a future visit to show their intent to make things right, but no instead I’ve got the message loud and clear that the customer is always wrong at this establishment. My view remains...

Had a few prior positive experiences and was looking forward to our Christmas Day booking, unfortunately a group of scumbags oblivious to their children running riot, invading everyone’s space, breaking and destroying decorations, terrorising staff, running riot pushing each other on chairs, screaming and shouting, touching all the fourth course carvery food before their table was called up and the list can go on. The poor elderly people sat around us couldn’t believe it and one woman turned feint from what she was experiencing. The underneath of their table after they left was worse than anything I ever saw working at KFC for 2 years. Can’t complain about seafood fresh and delicious however we all paid to have a premium experience and I would’ve got more peace at play zone… I understand it’s a tough situation however they completely ruined everyone’s atmosphere and experience and the spineless owner should’ve warned them, as enough people notified and complained to the serving staff, rather than keeping the peace whilst they trash his restaurant and put off all guests from being recurring customers whom also paid a massive premium for this booking. Extremely disappointing. Don’t mistake success for sustainability.

Replying: Yes and our table paid over £1400, the poor server lady, who was working on Christmas, looked like she was about to break down in tears, constantly having to stop the children from damaging property or causing havoc. The girls kept grabbing the server notepads, tried unplugging and fiddling with lobster tank electrics and the list is endless for a 4 hour dining length. We had food and Yorkshire puddings thrown at us and at my 82 year old grandad for £1400. Every other experience has been fantastic and I would always have considered Relentless my favourite restaurant on the south coast however you aren’t just paying for the food it’s the “experience” and it was so horrendous. You have to understand I was looking forward to this for months and for £130+pp. The restaurant looked fantastic and it seemed a lot of preparation and effort was put in, however the failure to remove the severe nuisance table and back up your distressed foh and kitchen team, that were already working very hard on Christmas Day. These children kept intentionally getting in the way and blocking the pathway of the chefs bringing out hot food and deliberately antagonising the staff. Please empathise,...