Porters Steakhouse — Restaurant in Southampton

Birthdays are treated as a special event by us and even more so as i join my wife in a vegetarian lifestyle for all home meals, so when celebrating my option is always steak. We had visited two other steak houses in the vicinity on previous occasions but their veggie options were limited, so we were pleased to find online the menus offered by Porters included three options; fish &chips, gnocchi, and various salads. Our night was fraught with some frustration trying to pay for parking at college street car park, apps!! So it was great to have such a warm welcome from the maitre d (who also appeared to be bartender, & cashier also one of two waitresses, i suppose it was Tuesday although still seemed stretching it). We were given a menu only to have something it somewhat slimmer than online, when questioned it was supplier issues & new menu launch soon, so no fish & chips or salads!. Vegetarian options down to one; Gnocchi! We accepted this and ordered the one veggie, and my son ordered medium rare fillet with chips, and mine a medium no blood fillet with honey roast veg rather than chips which was no issue. They arrived but as we eat our steaks it was obvious that my son had the steak designated for me, and i had his, whilst not the end of the world i was expecting better attention to requirements, and the waitress had been so clear that i had the steak no blood as i had requested. My steak i have to say was certainly not the melt in the mouth meat i had experienced elsewhere, so was a disappointment, although i didn't want to draw more issue as it was a special evening. Mains over, we tried the sweet menu and my son was given a banoffee cheesecake happy birthday plate, which is always a nice touch. I did mention the steaks being opposite of requirements but heard no more. When presented with bill again the options to tip were various and the waitress was again exceptional at dealing with payment, with an impressive card payment HHT. Overall, service whilst slow was very good, the gnocchi was great (although very rich, just for info) the lack of veggie options poor and the steaks, well i expected better for the prices are the top end of...

We visited for a company Christmas dinner and overall the impression was outstanding. Everyone enjoyed the food, the parsnip soup starter was mind-blowing, would've been happy with 3 bowls of that. There were a few odd niggles - my starter got claimed by someone else in the group, but all issues were quickly resolved and the waiting staff were excellent, taking extra care to ensure I was getting what I expected after the initial hiccup. The 3 vegans in our group (me being one of them!) were very impressed with the food considering we were in a steakhouse, although would have appreciated an extra vegan offering on the Christmas set menu, as the set menu offers one vegan dish per course (no choice) whereas the main menu also offers a plant burger and a polenta, it would be good to offer vegans some choice on a set menu - 3 vegans in a group of 25 meat eaters shouldn't be a big kitchen issue when you're serving the same to other customers. The nutroast with trimmings was good though! Not a big dessert person but the pear tart was incredible. I have no doubt we'll be returning next year, as will many of our colleagues now and again. Our own experience aside, I see reviews raving about the food but not liking the decor and dropping 2* on that (priorities!), and food complaints with photos of empty plates (confused!), I'd recommend Porters to anyone. Thanks for a great night and kudos to the staff, they were all great and very attentive...

Came here with my girlfriend on a Saturday night,

I can understand the type of clientele they are aiming for here but i felt mugged off to be honest and wouldn't go back, we'd normally order deserts but cut this one short.

I'm happy to pay £65 for a good quality steak for two (which it was) but adding a service charge of 10% (without a disclaimer that it was optional) the old table water trick (without being honest about it being billable etc - really? In 2021?)

Serving one portion of chips with a T bone steak to share then charging us an extra £5 when we ask for more chips (I don't think 12 chips is enough for 2 people)

I don't expect to have to order side dishes of chips with a steak; £28 for a 16oz sirloin at Porters (which is fair) but no sauce or chips included (are we following the RyanAir model?)

The table next to us seemed to be waiting a long time for their food despite ordering before us.

To be fair the manager took the feedback on board and was very good - he knocked the chips and service charge off (we still left a tip as the waitress was v.good) it looks like this might be quite a new restaurant so maybe just finding it's way still; the steak was excellent, sauces were excellent, service was excellent but i don't think it's quite hit the right formula yet, Miller and Carter do it right in my book and strike a good balance but they are out of town...