Wildwood Restaurants Port Solent — Restaurant in Portsmouth

I can’t work this place out, they make out like they are an upmarket place to go but as soon as you get sat down the waiter asks if you want olives... I asked if they were complimentary and he said no nothing is free... I mean they can’t even do what every other decent restaurant does and give a few olives and some bread away while you choose your over priced food from the menu, very tight of them! They serve the food worryingly fast but the drinks take a very long time! It took them the whole desert course to bring out 1 drink so when everyone else is finished they turn up with your drink! Food is ok I suppose, but they serve a boring undressed salad with the calzone, how much effort is it to dress a salad? It takes 15 seconds!!!! The risotto is small for the price, my dad finished it in 2 mins and everyone else was still eating 10mins later. Drinks are very expensive! Pretty much 6 pounds for a pint of beer which they have only one option. The front of house is a strange setup.. no one speaks English as a 1st language so you find your self explaining what you mean as they do not understand, then you have 2 waiters running about serving food leaving dirty tables for ages (the table next to us was not cleared for at least half an hour) and our was never completely cleared. But when you ask for the bill they come running with the card machine the second the bill is in your hand!! There was some creepy young guy sitting at the bar drinking beer and staring at us who was not dressed like the other staff, he had skinny jeans and a hoodie on, but he obviously worked there as he was taking drinks to tables?! Not impressed really.. it’s another rubbish chain of restaurants that are trying to be something they are not. There are so many good restaurants in Portsmouth It’s a shame these lot think they can get a share of the saturated market with this substandard staff, service and food -...

Poor on every level. Table of 7 after being seated for 45 mins we “hunted down” a member of staff to get some drinks. Our waitress literally couldn’t understand our orders I had to explain I wanted the steak three times even though there’s only one steak on the menu. After another 15 mins so an hour after being seated our drinks arrived, unfortunately my friends white wine soda spritzer was made with lemonade and seen as she’s not a 12 year old at a wedding she quite rightly asked for it to be changed, the chaps first response was you will of got what you asked for. Only when my friend further pushed the issue did they check what out non English speaking waitresses had written down and it was indeed white wine with lemonade, they agreed to replace it but took almost an hour to do so, my friend effectively got her first drink after the meal had finished. Food was underwhelming, I asked for a rare steak for the price they charge I would expect a decent steak but it was over cooked and chewy, to be honest it really gets my wick when a chef can’t cook a steak it’s surely the worlds most simple thing to cook, fries were so cold I wondered if they refrigerated them while they incinerated my steak. Bill rocks up, £14 service charge included, I queried this as we hadn’t had any service and was told for our party size it was voluntary, if it’s voluntary why is on the bill without asking us. First meal out in two years huge huge disappointment, I’m informed there is one in Whitley which is significantly better. If you have a brand manager wildwood I seriously suggest you go for a meal at your port Solent branch as something is going...

Set lunch menu is very good, pricing is adequate, and food itself is very tasty.

However when asking for our meal choices the waitress asked whether we wanted fries or salad WITHOUT mentioning it was an extra charge on top of the set menu. Both of these aren't mentioned within the set menu page, and therefore was misleading as to whether it was included or not because of the way it was mentioned.

Fries and salad are each ~£4.50

which is quite expensive for the portion size, at least for the fries (the salad however is admittedly pretty darn good).

Atmosphere: Large Hall like setting so even with a few customers your voice projects across and at busier periods it will be hard to hear across a table from noise, and speaker music is American rock throwbacks which is pretty fun and fits the wildwood theme; if a bit 'tin-ny' sounding, quality wise.

All in all the service was fairly polite, fast, and food was delicious so I wouldn't fault them for this. Just do be aware that when being asked about sides WITH the set menu they have additional EXTRA charges. I simply would have appreciated more transparency.

That being said the set menu is good and worthwhile so I would still...