La Regata — Restaurant in Southampton

Its with a sad heart that I leave this review, it really is. La Regata used to be one of me and my wife's favourite restaurants. Not one we went to often strangely but we have good memories there and go maybe once a year. Last time we went it was excellent and I must admit that I was surprised when Google asked me to leave a review as I thought that I had in years gone by.

Now regarding this visit, me and my wife went last Tuesday. I prebooked our table and put a note on the reservation asking for a corner table or somewhere a little further removed as I have hearing trouble. I completely understand when I go to a restaurant if this is not possible but we were seated in the middle of the ground floor, surrounded, with empty tables nearby and not even an apology from the lady who seated us. I believe that they simply had not read my reservation notes, which is a red flag but not necessarily an irredeemable issue.

Across the night we interacted with the barman, one waiter and the waitress who seated us. The lady was moody the entire time which again is not great but I appreciate that we all have bad days. Still it was another red flag.

The came the paella. If you've seen their website it claims to be award winning and once upon a time it must have been good. We've always had the Tapas before but came to La Regata to specify try the paella and it was awful. The idea of it being fresh is a joke, all of the shellfish were overcooked and had a terrible texture. The veg in the paella was soft and overcooked and it was just a bad experience.

I don't know if it's changed hands, if the kitchen staff have changed or if we just caught them on a particular bad night and everything went wrong for us. Let me tell you a story that one waiter told us though, he mentioned that he did not understand why people would come in, pay for a two person paella, barely touch it and then leave. The real travesty here was that he wasn't colluding with us, he genuinely didn't know why people were reacting that way but I completely understand.

I'm not the type to send things back or make a scene, so we ate our meal, left a modest tip and left. I can say for sure though that we won't be going back and that neither should any of you. I will miss the restaurant that La Regata used to be and stick to other places when we go for dinner.

If you plan to go then stick to the Tapas, from the reviews I've read they are probably still as good as I remember. Either just avoid the Paella or play it safe and avoid the restaurant all together.

Edit: Regarding the response received, my apologies the booking was on Wednesday the 29th not Tuesday. My booking reference was BDXQL and I have emailed you evidence as requested. Regarding my feedback, I believe I have been more than fair based on our experience and we should not need to send food back if your chefs are quality testing. It is not down to the customer to make a scene to get a matter resolved, it is up to the restaurant to maintain high standards consistently. Further as your menus state, it takes 40 minutes to cook the paella. The idea that it could be overcooked and then need me to send it back and then wait a further 40 minutes is...

We visited the Regatta restaurant with 3 other adults and 3 children all under 8 (They were exceptionally well-behaved). We were given round table plenty large enough for all 7 of us. That's a plus! The ambience, decor and outward appearance are all authentically Spanish (the external view just happens to look as thought it 'might' be in a Spanish city. So, the set-up as you enter has already transported you to Spain. A negative out of the way ... the pricing does not reflect Spanish pricing (it's in the UK!) adjust your expectations. It's fair value for money. On the night we visited, the Owner, or at least the Manager, told us that they were one member of front-of-house staff down and they would do their best for us but asked us to expect things to (perhaps) be a little slow. His up-front honesty was refreshing, & welcome. As it turned out the service was not slow, but clearing our table to allow additional plates to be brought out was the issue in our case. We didn't really notice and it didn't spoil our evening. The youngest child knocked a glass of the table, before the last shard of glass came to rest on the floor, it was swept away, no one made a fuss and our apologies were both accepted and responded to that 'they are not necessary'. The wine advice was first class, we were directed to a medium priced bottle of Rioja ... gorgeous ... so we had 2! The food wasn't the best tapas in the world, they don't claim it is. But it IS varied, freshly cooked, tasty, presented well and worth visiting Regatta for if you miss Spain, love tapas and want to feel as if you are eating it in Madrid, Barcelona, Granada or your favorite Spanish town/city. Summary: Authentic, laid back and yet classic, not fine dining but certainly not casual dining either. Dress up, or comfortably, you will be equally welcome. £££ and fair value....

The food was good, however the meal was let down by the service we received. Four items were missed off our order and it took over 30 minutes to receive these; when we asked a member of staff they said we had been put to the back of the queue. By the time we got the items that were missed some of the party had lost their appetite and didn't want to eat. I mentioned these issues to one of the staff and they said they wouldn't take off the items as we'd eaten them; I understand this if the complaint was to do with the quality of the food however it was not, it was about the wait (and of course we'd still want to eat the food we'd ordered). We were offered drinks or desserts but we didn't want any so asked that they remove the drinks that we'd already had and the lady said that she would, we were then brought more of the drinks that we'd had but said we didn't want them just the ones we had taken off and she assured they would be. When it came to the bill the drinks that were supposed to be taken off were still on as well as a drink we hadn't even ordered, we asked again for them to be taken off. When they brought it back again my drink was still on there and the waitress didn't seem to believe that I'd only had the one drink and that she'd already taken one off but eventually said she take it off after much explantation. This all wouldn't have been as much of an issue had it been sorted in a more prompt and professional manner; a very...