The Sir John Baker - JD Wetherspoon — Restaurant in Portsmouth

The service there is absolutely diabolical. We ordered our breakfast. My mate went off looking for brown sauce. Came back saying he, couldn't find any. No staff around to ask! Then when the over weight waitress brought us our orders, he asked her for brown sauce. She directed him to the servery stand, saying 'brown sauce is over there'. None was there but instead of our waitress doing the right thing by going to find it, she walked away. We watched her clearing tables yet she never wiped them over. Our table had piles of mugs stains on it, and it was littered with crumbs and other food debris from previous eaters. Not sure how this waitress lives at home. She surely wipes her own dinning table after using it so why would she not do the same at work? She couldn't have been trained to be 'dirty' surely not? Then I went to order a coffee. I joined the queue behind someone already being served with a long order. To my right was a young man, massive love bite on his neck who I assumed was there to serve!! Why was he allowed to work with that on his neck? Anyway, this individual was more interested in having this chat with his friends, on my side of the bar. Totally ignoring me but into chatting about his love bite? Then when I asked him, 'can I have a coffee' - he replied, "I'm not working my hand are so grabby and filthy ". He was shinning up one of the beer spill trays. I then thought and said, "if you're working with food why aren't you wearing gloves, which you could then take off to serve me?" He then had no answer other than to tell me, "if I have to serve you it would mean I have to go off and wash his hands" . I said, "well why don't you do that instead having your chat and letting me wait? " He got even more surly and with that I told him he was. I then said, " where's your manager, you're making excuses so as not to work". He replied, " I'll go and get him for you if you want" . How very cocky of him. So off he went when I said I did. I waited and eventually the girl doing all the work managed to finally serve me. I asked for a Lavaza and was given a clean mug and told, you just help your self from an urn on the bar!!! This is all the young man had to do was to hand me a mug, nothing else!! He could have used his initiative and uses a serviette to hold one and then handed it to me if he was that concerned about food hygiene. You wouldn't believe him on hygiene by seeing his massive dirty love bite? The manager was also not of any great help, not even an apology just a general attitude on trying to find a way for defending his surly staff member. He didn't like me saying, his staff was 'lazy'. Claimed it was unfair but that what he was. This is really a dump of a place managed and crewed by staff who do their best to...

Cust - 'Sorry you want me to leave after just arriving due to taking a picture of your empty bar and refusing to delete or show you said picture ?' Shift Manager - 'Yes that's right, I have taken your drinks away which you have just purchased in good faith and now I want you to leave and not come back!' Cust - speechless

So my crime guilty as charged m'Lord, is taking a picture and refusing to show and/or delete it when confronted by the so called shift manager just as my wife came back with two drinks. The drinks were whisked away by the jumped up twerp who was aggressive from the start of our conversation and told me I was being very suspicious. I didn't know whether to laugh or get angry. This is 5 o'clock on a Saturday afternoon. Go figure.

So we leave and head to The Lord Palmerston in Southsea, had a lovely meal, a few pints and told the barman what happened in North End and he just couldn't believe it. I am now waiting for a proper and full response from Wetherspoons Head office on whether this sort of aggressive and offensive conduct from their young management team is the norm. Also why no notices to say photographs are prohibited.

AVOID At all Costs !

Offending...

Wherever I go I hunt out the nearest Spoons and take a good fill of food and ale. I tend to go for either the 3 for £10 plates of wings, nachos and chicken strips or the buttermilk chicken option with the second piece of chicken for an extra cost of £1.25. Very filling and enjoyable. Quality is consistent be it The Paddle Steamer in Largs, Counting House in Glasgow, Crosse Keys in the City etc. The ale is what I love most sourced from across the UK and incredible value for money. Good selection available here. Staff, as usual, were friendly, engaging and polite. One of the pleasures of going there. We were getting the ferry to France so the pub was no more than a ten minute walk from the terminal. Only downside is that the property is a little dated and should be spruced up. Thanks again Tim, John...