Red Dog Saloon Southampton — Restaurant in Southampton

Save yourself the time and money and avoid this place at all cost if you want an authentic BBQ experience. The two side dishes (beans and macaroni) that came with the BBQ platter was room temperature at best. The brisket pictured below was a replacement since the first serving looked like a veteran's pair of military boots, and even then the replacement serving was still unpalatable. The food took around an hour to arrive and it appeared as though the chef was trying to offload the dried un-sellable pieces of brisket to our table. Upon requesting the waitress to "correct" the dry piece of brisket she would take our platter away and return with another dry piece within minutes (the photo of the entire platter includes the original dry brisket. The individual close-up photo is of the replacement piece.) This begs the question, what took the kitchen so long the first time round? Every item was served lukewarm and dry the first time, yet it only took minutes to replace the inedible brisket with an awful piece, what was the kitchen doing for the first hour? Credit to the waiting staff, she did not hesitate to notice the kitchen's poor attempt at offloading cuts of meat destined for the bin and attempted to correct their "mistakes". Perhaps this is the business's attempt at running an environmentally friendly business, saving trash-potential meat and re-purposing it for their customers. Pay attention to the photos attached, how could a BBQ joint cut the brisket with the grain and expect their customers to pay extortionate amounts? This is literally BBQ 101. The coleslaw was far too salty and the vegetables used had not been drained/dehydrated beforehand, leaving a bitter aftertaste. The pork rib was chewy, full of gristle and fat which had not been broken or rendered down, a low and slow process was definitely not followed. The pickle was sloppy and lacked crunch, the taste was unsatisfactory. No sweetness or sour/acidic punch, just a lukewarm "fermentated" slop. The link sausage was left whole and uncut, without any colour or grill markings on the outside. Paying £25+ per person you would expect more than one artificial tasting sausage. The 4 sticks of mozzarella were served lukewarm and there was no "cheese-pull" of any sorts, you're better off chewing on a Babybel. The two red sauces served with the BBQ platter were entirely flavourless. Shockingly there was no in-house BBQ sauce on offer at the table or served with the platter. Utterly disgraceful pricing for poorly executed BBQ, you're better off buying oven food from the supermarket as they do a better attempt impersonating BBQ. The only positive food item we enjoyed were the brisket croquettes. Those were delicious. Hot and crispy, fried to perfection. Soft and fulfilling were the shredded brisket and white sauce it was served on. Had all the other items/dishes followed this standard then I would have given this restaurant a 5 star review, instead I'm here confused at what happened and questioning whether I should have walked away from the restaurant without paying. This is a case where the kindness of the waiting staff saved the kitchen from a barrage of criticism. If you don't find this review believable then give this place a try but keep in mind we paid over £90 for our deeply unsatisfactory meal. Perhaps if you wanted to indulge in oversized burgers where you'd struggle to cleanly take a bite, where with each mouthful toppings slip and slide out of the bun, where your hands and lap are covered in meat juices and melted cheese; this could be the ideal restaurant for you. We booked our table for 18:30 and every table around us appeared to be thoroughly enjoying their burgers and fries. Perhaps an error was made on my side and we ought to have avoided the BBQ platter like everybody else. Jokes and sarcasm aside I hope I've highlighted the underlying issues of this restaurant. You may not enjoy the delivery of this review but I did not...

As a party of 10 we recently went to Red Dog Saloon Southampton for a friends birthday after recommendations from others. I have to say I was very disappointed overall in our experience.

Drinks - We ordered our drinks and my wife was told there was no Coke other than diet, she settled on a Fanta instead but it’s not her favourite. About half a hour later the table behind us were served a can of normal Coke… where did this magically appear from? I may also add that £2.50 for a can of Fanta is frankly a rip off. On the plus side the Red Dog beer was really tasty and would have again.

Starters - We shared a mozzarella stick starter. You get 3 in a portion and they did not disappoint. Served on a tomato sauce they were possibly the best I’ve ever had.

Mains - We shared the SS New York platter. A little pricey at £69 as it’s a minimum of 2 person but it was very nice. We did have to ask for clean plates as they came out dirty but the replacements were fine. The burgers were juicy, brisket was cooked so it just fell apart and the chips & onion rings (£5.50 and £7.50 a piece extra) were also spot on! The meal was very pricy for what we got however it was very nice.

Deserts - We did not partake in ordering deserts or even look at the menu therefore I can’t comment on this.

Positives - The food WE had was very nice. Red Dog beer is worth a go. Decor in the restaurant suits the venue nicely. Easy to park at West Quay multi story and walk across. The staff brought out a birthday cake and candles we provided and sang happy birthday so they earned their 10% service charge there.

Negatives - The service wasn’t great at all. Everything was very slow, the staff seemed to be aimlessly wandering around and not really focussing on the customers. At one point there were at least 4 of them floating around the place looking for a fiver that one of them had misplaced. This was around the time we waited nearly 30 minutes for the bill which I had previously asked for… 1 of the party ordered the Beef Rib which he had seen on the chains Tik Tok account. The video showed it falling off he bone. Unfortunately his needed a chisel to remove it and was pretty much inedible. Waste of £25. The toilets were disgusting and clearly hadn’t been cleaned or checked on for hours. The cubicle my wife tried to use had a broken toilet seat, toilet paper not in the holders and was just sat on the side as well as a general smell of an unclean toilet environment. Major red flag for the below as if this is how they keep their toilets clean… It has since come to light that the 3 of the party that had the fried oysters (2 servings between 3) have now got food poisoning. They were the only 3 to have this dish and all 3 are quite ill. They have collectively spoken to the restaurant and will be looking to take this further to protect any future customers of this site.

I would love to say that I could recommend the Red Dog Saloon however with our experience I would suggest you take your business elsewhere to protect both your health and...

Quite possibly the worst birthday meal I've ever had.

We were seated fast as we had a reservation and our drinks order was taken after about 15 minutes. We then had our food order taken and that is where it all went down hill.

We ordered a USS Kentucky platter which supposedly served two adults... You get a choice of burger each, but have to pay an extra £2.50 for some burgers and a whopping £3.50 extra for one of the other burgers. Then a selection of meaty sides. St Louis cut pork ribs, Chopped Pork, Buffalo Wings and Barbacue Empanadas.

After 10 minutes of ordering the waiter came and told us that they had no more pork ribs and to pick another side. I asked for it to be swapped for the brisket and was told no and he tried to persuade us to get more chickens wings which is not a justifiable swap for ribs at all. In the end we chose pork belly burnt ends.

The food arrived and I was immediately shocked by how little the platter was for 2 adults. £70 got us...

2 Burgers 2 Small Epanadas 5 - 6 Buffalo Wings 1 Portion Chopped Pork 5 - 6 Pork Belly Burnt ends

The end of the tray was filled with small chopped beetroot, a handful of chopped pickles and a tablespoon of coleslaw. All of this is including no fries. We had to spend an extra £5.50 on fries which were also small and came out in a round metal basket which looked something like the ones you would get at slug and lettuce.

Moving on to how the food tasted.

Burgers - Tasted okay but were very greasy

Pork Belly Burnt Ends - Were actually very nice but you get 5 to share amongst two people.

Buffalo Wings - Terrible, we had one each and left the rest. They were incredible sour and didn't look cooked through properly, the coating on them too was a horrible gritty texture instead of a crispy crunchy texture. I've never eaten sand before but I can imagine it would be similar to the coating.

Barbacue Empanadas - These tasted good but you get two and they are the size of half a chicken wing.

Chopped Pork - Was extremely sweet and we both had about two forks worth before it was gone.

Overall the food was extremely disappointing, not only in quality but also in portion size for the price that you have to pay. We both left hungry and if it wasn't for the fact that we had birthday cake at home, we probably would have hit a maccy's drive through on the way home to fill the massive gap in our stomachs.

Returning to this establishment is unlikely and I can't say that I recommend anyone to eat...