L'Osteria Southampton — Restaurant in Southampton

My family and I have been coming here for many years and always had good service and food. Tonight the food was lovely and the lady who served us was phenomenal as always, however.... tonight... myself and my daughter went to use the toilet before leaving, but once we got to the staircase, we got loudly hollered at across part of the restaurant by a large, loud and very rude man in a shirt who had been checking people in at the door (i guess he must be the manager but I'm not sure). He wanted to know (VERY loudly in front of other eaters) where we were going and what we were doing?!! I explained in disbelief, that we were going to use the toilet! He then shouted 'so do you want a table then?' I explained (in more disbelief and embarrassment) that we had just finished eating on the far side of the restaurant!! The people eating were watching in disbelief and appeared to feel quite sorry for us and this obnoxious man looked at us as though he did not believe us as he watched us walk up the stairs?!! He was incredibly rude and quite frankly ruined every part of the lovely evening that we had just had! It was humiliating and embarrassing and we did not deserve to be treated this way at all. My daughter was shocked! When I came back to get our bags from our table, I took the receipt to this rude man and showed him the £70 we had just spent in his restaurant. I explained that he was incredibly rude to my daughter and I, and that he should apologise for shouting at us in that way across the restaurant, but he continued to look right into my eyes claiming he did not understand. He then said he thought we needed a table?! He did not apologise. I am absolutely appalled by the treatment we have received this evening and will not be back. Please accept this as an...

Ok so this place is well rated and drove my decision to have dinner here with the family. So I'm going to be completely honest on my opinion and observations.

The pizzas are large, actually too large at least for the plates they are served up on, half of it hanging over the edge doesn't make it particularly easy to get on with. Yes they taste good, but topping is pretty minimalist and in the centre of the pizza leaving a generic cheese pizza making up the bulk. They are reasonably priced, but I guess you get what you pay for.

Not sure what the issue is in the place with staff, maybe they where having bad day, but smiles don't exist, they all looked stressed and aggy, and noticed several eye rolling at colleagues along with some tension with the chefs preparing the food, maybe too much pressure going on but it didn't strike me as a place I'd want to work....ever.

Also I had concern about hygiene, we where sat quite close to where the food is picked up for table service. We watched a young lady with long hair and nails adding garnish to the pizzas, the chefs all wore gloves but at this service point it all just seems to be forgotten. The fact that this person was serving food, drinks moving around touching stuff and is then merrily sprinkling on garnish for the next pizza I wouldn't be surprised of dirt, contamination and likely hair at some point is on the food. This last point is why I would never go back, given we where still taking measures for covid and this is how they prepare food, I was extremely disappointed and doubt this is a one...

It was my dad's birthday (I'm visiting from Berlin as I work there now) and his review will probably be above or below this one. Our waitress was really sweet but less than one hour after sitting down the floor manager told us we need to finish in the next 15 minutes. Our lovely waitress then came to the table and said she wanted to play happy birthday over the speakers but the floor manager soon came back and said "YOU NEED TO LEAVE NOW". Awful woman. Does she have any communications skills? No. Does she have any tact. No. Should the restaurant review her and speak to our lovely waitress who seemed super shocked by the whole thing? Yes. Will never go back there. I would rather have bad food and good service than some human with awful manners and no idea about how to provide customer service. Listen gurl if I was your boss you wouldn't be representing my establishment with that swamp troll attitude and if it is that you really have a high turnover don't overbook (we had booked just to be clear).

Thanks for ruining my dad's birthday. See you never again.

Outrageous and this is literally the first time in the 37 years of my life I have been annoyed enough to leave a bad review. So congrats floor manager woman whoever you are. Looks like you reached the peek of your career way too early. Get back to washing dishes and L'Osteria don't let this woman loose on the public ever again. People with this type of attitude don't ever only...