7Bone Burger Co. Southampton — Restaurant in Southampton

I visited 27/7/23 at 12:45, table 35 I believe.

So my last review is from seven years ago and I last visited a 7Bone back in 2018, when you were still in Portswood. So I noticed that you had moved to Bedford Place just recently and I was curious to try you out again after a long while :)

One thing that I was pleased to see is that when I arrived 45 minutes after opening the restaurant seemed about 30% full already.

A positive thing to appreciate after five years is to see that all burgers can now come as a vegan option. However, this is where there is also an issue on the menu -- how I am I intuitively able to link a picture of an aubergine to knowing that a vegan option for that burger is available? I was initially very confused and it was only until a) I looked at the back of the menu on the bottom right and b) seeing the VG options on the online menu. Why not just 'VG option available' ? I would understand this in seconds.

The second issue came when ordering. Basically, it really feels like you're sitting on the fence when it comes to this online order system. I was in the middle of launching the website when a waiter came up and asked me what I would like. I think he saw me trying to use it and then told me that 'don't worry it's totally optional to use you can just order with me'. Leaned over the table with tablet open ready to order, I decided just to order my drink with him as I felt pressured to do so even if I was about to use the online system. I don't think it was his intention, and really I've got nothing on the fella, I think you need to clean up this process and decide how you want to take your ordering process forward. Especially as I decided to order my food via the app as it was quicker than waiting for him to come back to me (it was). So then that raised the question...how am I going to pay for my drink? In the end it was revealed to me that I can just pay for it at the end and I did so, but if that's going to be the case, what's the point of having an online order setup, couldn't I just pay for my meal in full at the end?

The central question is how are you going to compliment table service with this system. Was the 'Sunday' payment service ever considered? With this, you can keep table service, and then the table has an online tab where you can pay at the end via a QR code on the table (visit any Josie's to see what I mean).

Anyway, food arrived (Robert Johnston!), and the quality is as good as it always was. One thing though is that I was disappointed that the vegan patties are now Beyond Meat style ones and not the ones you had five years ago. I'll take a good meat-like vegan patty over a dry and overcooked lentil/chickpea-style patty, but your old lentil/chickpea vegan patty was the best of its class. Shame to see it is no more. Also all the vegan patties have no option online to have standard cheese, apart from a huge block of halloumi, or having no vegan cheese at all. I'm just vegetarian and I don't like vegan cheese.

Also, with the online ordering system, why am I being asked to tip before my food has even arrived? In which restaurant do people do this normally?

This seems like a massive complaint but to be honest the staff were friendly and the food is still good, but there are some issues to be resolved here, hence 4 stars and not five. I'll be...

Visit date: 25th September 2023 Time: Around 20:20 - 21:20 Venue: 7Bone Southampton

Upon our arrival, we requested a table for two. We were inquired about any dietary restrictions regarding allergens and were then directed to seat ourselves.

After placing our food order, approximately 10 minutes later, a male waiter approached us and regretfully informed us that they were unable to serve the caramel wings due to a technical issue. They explained that the system kept adding them back automatically. As a result, we were asked to choose an alternative flavor. Since the buffalo wings were too spicy for our preference, we inquired about the gochugang wings. Unfortunately, the male waiter couldn't describe the flavor or spiciness level, as it wasn't to his liking.

We eventually settled on the kim wang wings. However, we were later informed that we couldn't have them as part of the provisional order, and if we wanted those wings, we'd have to pay extra for the seven wings in that specific flavor. We inquired if it was possible to have just four wings, as originally ordered, but in the new flavor, yet we were told it wasn't feasible due to stock considerations. Therefore, we opted to pay for the extra wings.

Upon receiving the revised receipt with an additional charge of £3.20, the waiter explained the billing adjustment. The food arrived, and while the burgers were enjoyable, they were slightly pinker than expected. Normally, I order the smashed patties, which are cooked a bit more. Additionally, the chicken skins were cold and didn't appear to be freshly fried. I had requested extra bacon with my truffle mac, which was initially missing, and it had to be rectified. However, when they returned, my burger was taken away along with the mac and cheese. They eventually returned with a small amount of bacon toppings on the truffle mac. Lastly, after we finished our meal, our table was cleared by another waitress who passed by three times before attending to it.

I have been a loyal patron of 7bone since its inception in Southampton, and this visit marked my return since the reopening of the new venue following the fire in Portswood. It's disheartening to say that, given my extensive experience in the hospitality industry, the service we received was subpar, and it left us feeling undervalued. At the very least, a sincere apology and the removal of the provisional charge from the bill as a goodwill gesture would have been appropriate considering the issues we encountered. It's worth noting that when ordering through the app, we were prompted to provide a 10% tip. While we paid it upfront, had it been based on post-service experience, we would have...

We used to visit 7Bone fairly regularly when they had the restaurant in Portswood and always had a good experience with great food and was saddened to hear about the fire. When they opened the new site in Bedford place we were keen to go back. We visited them a couple of weeks after they opened and had a very disappointing meal, poor service (it took us nearly 30 minutes to get a drink and had to chase and then had only half of our food order come out) but chalked this up to teething problems. Yesterday we decided to give it another go and did click and collect. We ordered online with no issues and got a call from April on a mobile number to inform us they had no vegan buns, not a problem a normal bun was not an issue. I took this as an opportunity to ask if they still had frickles on the menu as they weren’t showing up on the app, which they did and she was happy to add them to the order and pay when we arrived; great! We collected our food and took it home. When opening the food we discovered that the vegan burger we ordered with tots came with fries; and the extra portion of tots we ordered was missing altogether. Mistakes happen, and usually easily rectified, but when we attempted to call the number on the confirmation email, ‘Any problems, please contact us’, the number is no longer in service, brilliant. I checked the website and did a google search and couldn’t find an alternative number. I tried to call April but got no answer, and sent her a text message to ask her to get in touch, nothing! In the end we tried to make the best of it and sent an email to the only email address on the confirmation email quiries@ but they have so far failed to respond as well. Then to top things off, the ‘bacon’ that came in the vegan burger, looked, tasted, smelt and had the same texture of real bacon. I’m no expert and the vegan bacon 7bone uses may be incredibly good and realistic, but it was so good we had to assume another mistake had been made and real bacon had been served in a vegan burger. With no way to contact the restaurant, sadly this had to go in the bin and went to waste. 7Bone used to be one of my favorite restaurants in Southampton, but sadly their standards appear to have massively slipped since the move. A big shame but I doubt we’ll be returning anytime...