The Southsea Village — Restaurant in Portsmouth

The food portions here are huge and food was as delicious as always. However, we were a little disappointed with our trip today.

Booking was very easy on their website. We arrived an were greeted promptly. We were asked to use the hand sanitiser and asked to have our temperatures taken, we obliged. Our temperature readings were in the 32/33°c, we questioned this and (not her fault) the lady gave us an answer justifying why this was acceptable as it was a no contact (infrared) thermometer. This however, is worrying that it is so far off from an accurate reading- as working with thermometers daily, we knew that this wasn't right. This had also been used multiple times, by multiple people, during our visit and not once did we see this cleaned or wiped down after use.

But nevertheless, we were shown to our table. We were asked 3 times in very quick succession to order, once whilst literally sitting in our seats, but the long and complex menu was extremely hard to choose from. We were then left alone for around 20minutes. We then had to ask them to come and take our order.

Food came out very hot and very good food. But afterwards the service was slow and we had to ask for more drinks and pudding. Then I had to approach staff to ask for the bill. We were very happy to use the app to order and pay (I had pre downloaded it before arrival) but when we suggested this upon entering, we were told it was table service and not to use the app.

We were sat by the door and we heard another staff member greeting many customers, but he was asking them all to complete trace and trace, something we hadn't been advised about. We had to ask about this and find out how to complete.

There was token gestures of plastic cut outs between the tables, but when we arrived the one dividing us from the next table was so far back, it would have provided no protection. There were two separate families at this table during the time we were there. Both within 1m of me.

Overall, food was very good and the reason for the high score. Its just a shame their Covid prep isn't as good as it should be. We went at a pretty quiet time and there seemed to be ample staffing...

Solid 4.5 stars! (just a shame I cant give half stars)

It was such a nice restaurant to be in, first time being down in Southsea and stumbled across this place due to Covid and original place we wanted to eat was full in numbers - We had a temp check at the door then was seated in seconds.

The service was good, friendly and enjoyable for the kids, full menu was on the cards (August 2020) so was happy to gain the full experience. The dining area had a calm pub like atmosphere

Food - was nice and decent sizes even down the the kids meals as see attached. The starters that we had could have been shared between the 4 of us. The Kids Pizza's we didn't expect to be that big but it was perfect size for them both. The Mains I would have liked more chips however with the starter/sides we had I turned out to be okay would have liked more sauce for the size of the meals but hey everyone is different.

Toilets were clean. The overall time spent in this restaurant was just a great vibe

only improvement I would say is to have better deserts for someone who is allergic to chocolate its hard to find somewhere which doesnt sell a decent desert without chocolate, so improvement would be to switch...

Recently went to Southsea Village for a small Christmas get together and the food quality and service has dramatically worsened. One of the worst restaurant experiences in years.

1. Extremely long wait for food and drink. Staff were incredibly understaffed and overworked with very long delays with orders.
2. Served meat in a vegetarian starter to a vegan guest. The starter was remade, but found that the dough used wasn't cooked either (photo attached).
3. Extremely poor hygiene where tables were not clean, toilets were in an abhorrent state and no clear cutlery. In this visit, we had to ask staff multiple times for clear cutlery and didn't receive any until the very end of the meal.
4. Very noisy environment with no attempt by staff or security to address.
5. Food quality is extremely poor for the price. Previously, Southsea village was consistently good but now it's massively dropped in quality after a menu change.

These issues with raised with the venue and no attempt was made by management to address both during and after the meal. If you're planning a meal out, you've have a nicer time at Wetherspoons...