Spice Island — Restaurant in Portsmouth

We went for an organised work event a group of 18-20.

Orders were placed a week prior off the main menu and throughout the week calls were made as items were not available and substitutions chosen from starters. Two in person visits were made by our staff earlier that week to ensure Friday would be ok aswell.

On the evening we arrived at 6-6:30 for a sit-down of 7:30 to eat. Checks were made with the staff that all the food was ok as we arrived and no problems were raised to us at that time.

Come 7:30pm when people were looking forward to their booked and in many cases changed starters the staff informed us NO ONE would be getting their starters and that they would now go and cook our mains.... Had they just brought out our mains at this point it would have been an "ok not great but hungry people are getting fed"

An hour later at 8:30pm with many people very hungry and two people having gone home the mains arrived. It was really disappointing and nothing as I have come to expect on a previous visit earlier in the summer with friends.

The chicken burgers were super dry and took 20-30seconds of chewing for each bite. The steaks had obviously been done "as and when" then placed under heat lamps so mediums came out well-done outside but blue and cold in the middle if not worse. The Two plates of nachos were borderline Ash and had black edges to all uncovered chips. The Hunters chicken were tiny that many on the tables were joking that half of the food had been "hunted" on the way over. Fish and chips were really lack lustre with many complaints from staff when asked Mon Monday morning about what they thought of the event.

The buffalo burgers and Onion rings were the only things that were really good!

Overall I and many others on the team felt really let down by the staff, and by the organisation who did not keep us informed.

We are planning more staff events but after the shocking service, dishonesty and complete lack of any communication Friday I won't be coming back and will be seriously advising others to avoid aswell. Shame as the view and building are...

Superb fast and friendly service, excellent food, in an authentic British Pub. We are a Canadian couple in our 60s on a bucket list trip to the UK. We only had two days in Portsmouuth before boarding our cruise ship. Our objective was to taste authentic British Pub food we'd seen on the internet; namely, beef and ale pie. We walked out of several pubs at Gunwharf Quay on the Friday because they were too crowded, or too hot, or too loud or just too overwhelming. For some reason we were invisible to the staff at these other places and no one let us ask a question on what we needed to do to get a table. On Saturday morning, just before noon, we stepped into The Spice Island Inn and Verité, the hostess, explained how British Pubs functioned (You normally get your own table then go to the bar to order your food and drink.) She suggested I reserve a table for 6 that night to ensure we'd be comfortably sat inside. She and a colleague confirmed steak and ale pie was definitely British and that to get the most authentic experience, it should be accompanied by mash [potatoes], We were quickly acknowledged when we got there at 6 that night, and every one that served us took the time to welcome us and make sure we were happy. A shout out to Katie, who went out of her way to make our experience the best. We ordered our food as recommended and it was a large portion and tasted delicious! We also got a Guinness, an Amstel and shared a sticky toffee pudding. If you are tired of being invisible because you have grey hair and want friendly staff, great atmosphere and good British Pub food, I highly recommend The...

Never been to the spice island before, certainly wasn't disappointed. 8 of us went for a family birthday, 7 roast dinners and a Korean chicken burger. Right from arriving the staff team were friendly, accommodating and helpful. Sam took our orders at the bar. We ordered food and drinks and expected to wait a while as it was Sunday afternoon service, but the food arrived quickly and efficiently. Everything was just as we ordered and was beautifully cooked and very tasty. I had 28 day aged roast beef with cabbage, cauliflower cheese, roast potatoes, carrots, (extra) Yorkshires and gravy. Beef was absolutely superb, soft tasty and melted in your mouth. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed their meals and the service was great. We were quite demanding as we had a birthday cake, balloons and all the associated bits to go with them, but our servers Kerry and Collette couldn't do enough for us and made the meal a pleasure. Many thanks to Sam, Kerry, Collette and the other two young gents (sorry i didnt get your names!) who helped us out, brilliant. Only thing i could fault is that at the time we visited the coffee machine was broken! There's great views over the harbour and lots of seating outside too, a great walk along the hot walls or on round to Gunwharf; definitely recommend a...