Mettricks Guildhall — Restaurant in Southampton

Best brunch we never had...

Went with my two children to meet my Dad on Monday 25th September 2023 at the Guildhall Square branch in Southampton. Ordered 2 lattés and 2 lots of Eggs Royale at about 11:45. It wasn't busy at all. Maybe about four tables outside and one or two inside. Whilst there were 3 service staff working, only one guy actually seemed to be doing any work, the others were mostly chatting at the counter. Incidentally, they didn't stop their chat to take our order, the one guy working came over to take our order. So already, not the best.

It took about 20 minutes just for our coffees to come out. I mean, Mettricks coffees are awesome and thoroughly enjoyed them, but not too sure why they took so long. We figured, any minute now out food will be here, because how long can it take to make what is essentially over-priced egg on toast right?

Wrong.

The two guys at the table next to us had their order brought out about 10 minutes after we got our coffees, which I thought was odd as they ordered after us, but, obviously ours must be right behind them, right?

Wrong.

Another 10 minutes (we've now hit 40 minutes since we initially ordered) and the waiter (not the chatting ones, the working one) brings out two plates of food, but looks confused. He has some eggs and bacon and pancakes. Not our order. He then realises that the table next to us had been given our order (I mean, not sure how the customers didn't notice that pancakes are not the same as eggs and smoked salmon, but whatever 🤦🏻‍♀️). The waiter apologies, explains the mistake, offers us the other ider (no thank you), apologises again and assures us our orders will come out soon and they won't take as long this time.

Sigh, but ok, we don't have anywhere else to be and it's a nice day, and thankfully I brought my kids (nearly-2-year old twins) their own food which they've eaten so at least they're not starving. Surely our aforementioned over priced egg on toast really can't take too long right? I mean scrambling eggs takes like a few minutes, toasting bread a few more, I assume they're not actually smoking their own salmon out back somewhere? I mean, really, 10 minutes, tops right?

Wrong.

Waiter comes over empty handed after another 10 minutes (we're now at 50 minutes since ordering), offers us some more coffees, apologises again, assures us they won't be much longer. Free coffees? Great, thank you, because, really, it can't be much longer now right?

You can guess the answer can't you? Oh yes, a big, fat WRONG!

Another 10 minutes for our coffees! My children have been sitting in a high chair for an hour now! They're getting a bit restless. As am I. And hungry!

Another 10 minutes! It's nearly 1 o'clock. Waiter is bringing out other orders. The guys that are our food have gone. He apologises again. I tell him, thank you, but it's been over an hour, don't bother. My children can't sit down any longer, we need to go, please refund our money. At this point, a man on a table near us pipes up and tells the waiter he's been waiting 45 minutes for his order!

I feel for the waiter. He was on his own, carrying an inept "team." Not his fault.

Refund issued, no problems there. Guy on the table near us has his cooked breakfast finally brought out. As we left, we asked him if it was worth the wait. He said most of it was cold!

So, there you have it, best brunch we never had. Consequently I had Beyoncé's "Best Thing I Never Had" stuck in my head for the rest of the week. So, Mettricks, in the words of Queen Bae, "sucks to be...

Shame I can’t go minus on the stars, as it is well deserved.

Experience- Saturday 19th June 11:50am

Well where do I begin, I was encouraged to visit this place by a family member, who I won’t be listening to next time that’s for sure. We decided to sit inside, just by the counter at table number 14 in fact. We were asked by the member of staff that had greeted us to order via the QR code on the table, at that point she didn’t state that there were any delays on food or order processing.

So at 11:53am we ordered 2 Latte’s and 2 Eggs Benedict’s at a princely sum of £28.20, now I don’t mind paying for good food and service. However, what I do object to is not receiving any service or my order. At 12:25pm still no sign of anything on the horizon, bearing in mind we are sat opposite the counter and coffee machine, staff continued on walking past and ignoring the fact that we were still sat there with nothing in front of us, perhaps they thought we were treating the table tops with a coat of varnish etc. At 12:38pm, we received 2 poorly assembled Eggs Benedict’s, the Hollandaise sauce looked like it wanted to crawl off the plate and go outside for some expected rain, so it could become more moist, instead of being like a thick dated custard on the turn. The Eggs were clearly over done, I am sure I didn’t ask for hard eggs when I placed my order. I picked at this abortion of a meal, still no sign of drinks by the way, I tried to get some attention from the waiting staff to no avail, I then managed to flag one down and asked what was going on, as the food is awful and we still don’t have any drinks, surely the drinks would of been the first thing to come out. She just looked at me, so we stood up and I said enough’s enough, not only have we been waiting ages, you can’t even prepare and serve what we ordered to any standard, yet you are still accepting more customers, a young chap came from around the counter and said we have had problems with our online ordering system, I said now that’s a great excuse, was Chef Google cooking the Eggs too, and did it forget to make or plug in the coffee machine too, which we ordered at the same time. The young chap said “No it’s not excuses”, no apology from him, I said just give me a refund, we are not putting up with anymore, the female member of staff then piped up and asked if we would like a coffee to go, I said I don’t have enough time to wait for a coffee here, as we didn’t get the ones we ordered over 50 minutes ago, the young chap went around to the till, I presented my bank card for the refund, it appeared that he was struggling to find the order on his till, he asked me for the emailed order number, I then furnished this to him off my phone, a code comprising of #X7 which is quite a easy set of characters to remember, or perhaps even using the table number 14, however, it still took him a few minutes, in fact he had to take my phone to look at it closely, COVID-19 anyone…he then processed the refund and we left. I will never visit this place again, it’s run by amateur’s who are just trying to bluff and blag their way through each shift and Uni. Surely with the recent lockdowns and closures places like this would want to thrive again and increase their depleted incomes. It’s clearly not the case at this place. Oh one last thing this place is breaching GDPR regulations as they are leaving customer contact names and numbers for everyone to...

I've always loved the eccentricity of Mettricks. The coffee shop / Cocktail bar type / Café - mannerisms in the personality. Their cocktails are lovely but not knock your socks off type lovely. The Salted Caramel Martini is pretty lush and if you're not into something that sweet then they make a pretty good Bloody Mary as well, though. Perhaps they could spice it up a bit with some identity, and add their own twists on things. The food is a notch up from the cocktails and it's definitely somewhere where you can go for a bit of different. Fully loaded hash browns with Parmesan and truffle is particularly mouth watering and not as pricy as a lot of the options on the menu. Average price for a good lunch would set you back about £9 and there are a few more expensive options; the quality of the food reflects that, though. So not horrendous. Their coffee is something they pride themselves on and they make that abundantly apparent. I can see why, it is very good and was pleased to see a selection of replacement options for cow's milk. I'm not a vegetarian and far from vegan but I really enjoy their vegan options. It's very tasty and they put some good combinations together. The vegan breakfast wrap is a particular favourite. Not that I can really remember but I'm sure vegan food was not this good 10 years ago. Next time you can use that to offset some of your carbon footprint. Overall a really great little place and I've visited Woolston and Guildhall a few times. Their ethics, mission and vision is admirable and their values reflect in...