The Jetty — Restaurant in Southampton

I sympathize with other reviews made in the last month to say what a disappointing dinner experience they’d had at The Jetty. A special dinner was booked 4 months ago and they knew this was a Big Birthday celebration. We dined at The Jetty on its opening day 7 years ago and have celebrated birthdays many times since as well popping in for dinner too as was a favorite. Standards, service and atmosphere have dropped significantly. There was no gesture towards recognizing it was a very special birthday on arrival and they knew it was. No good evening and Happy Birthday. Just took us to our table and sat us down. The whole meal was rushed. My main course was a 2 inch square piece of cod with julienne aubergine around it. You have taken my favorite cod with crab crust off the menu. This was a chunky piece of cod with crab, mash potatoes and peas. This alternate cod dish was not anywhere near the quality of the previous cod/crab. To add insult to injury you now have to pay £7.95 for fries to accompany this measly 2inch squared piece of cod which on its own is £30. When I queried the portion size of this ‘main meal’ I was told quite sternly by our waitress ‘that is the normal size for the cod’ after a bit of me saying ‘this is not a main course portion… and her saying this is what we always serve… and me saying this is no where near the chunky cod/crab I’ve had for years she said ‘well I’ll get you more if you like! Which made me feel like I was asking for more than one would expect for a main meal so I declined just to get her away from me for making me feel awful on my special birthday. Our mains were cleared and immediately dessert menus placed down. I asked for a 10-15 minute break before we looked at the menus. About 5 mins later we were asked to give our dessert choices. We felt completely rushed. Nothing felt relaxed. There was large groups in the bar area about to sit down and it just felt like they wanted to get rid of us. We declined dessert and asked for the bill as just wanted to get out. Then a plate was brought to me with what I can only describe as a small dry beige round sponge on it… with. Happy birthday written in chocolate. I guess I should have been grateful that after the awful portion size and awful service I had this. It was, I think a very dry solid piece of banana cake. No cream no garnish. But thanks I guess. Made up for me walking out hungry for a £500 bill. My husband called over the tall lady in a black suit and asked could he speak to her. All she did was flag down another server to come to our table. What exactly is this ladies job title as she looked like a manager/supervisor walking around surveying the restaurant but not doing a lot else. The waitress was disinterested with our comments. So we just left. Wish we’d gone to a local pub now to celebrate which is now much better than the service from The Jetty. Shame on this...

It was nothing special.

I booked a meal for my partner in one of their pods overlooking the water. I received a call lunchtime saying the pods are closed due to weather, no apology or offer of another date, just that the staff don't want to be in and out in the rain, which is fair enough but the way it was done was not ok. This left a sour taste in my mouth.

We arrived for food. Bear in mind this was for a birthday, there was no happy birthday from any of the staff, no acknowledgement.

Bear in mind, people book for special occasions, this is completely diluted by the time the day actually comes, the staff don't really care. You need to be more aware of why people book and what they are celebrating and acknowledge that with people.

The starters were lovely, nice and tasty and good portions, but literally 5 minutes after finishing starters the mains arrived. I wanted to sit there for a bit first and digest the starter and enjoy my wine.

Speaking of wine, the server came over and kept wanting to top up my wine, I said no.

Then another waitress came over to take our plates away, and she poured the rest of the bottle in our glasses. My glass is now 3/4 full . NO! I don't want a full glass of wine, I want to nurse it and pour it over a period of time and enjoy my meal. Tbh it felt like they wanted us out! They clearly wanted to close and get the food and drink completed asap.

No one asked how the meal was or if we had a nice time. The cod was very dry and had zero crab on it. Disappointing.

We won't be back. Although yes a lovely restaurant, the service let it down.

Just can't believe she poured a half bottle of wine into 2 glasses.

Food is reasonably priced and overall experience I would say is "ok" , again,...

The staff here are fantastic (this is something the hotel excels at). They seemed to know a lot of customers personally. I was very well looked after. The fresh bread was nice and I was offered some more and even more after that, I had to decline the third offer as I was full but it was so much appreciated. I had an amuse-bouchée followed by Sri-Lankan Style Curried Seafood and Prawns - Aromatic, coconut based curried seafood and prawns. Served with egg fried rice. I found the curry a little salty but I never add salt to my food except fish and chips so my palate probably over detects salt. The sauce was flavoursome, a nice amount of prawn and fish included. The egg fried rice was nice, I’m not sure how it was made so moist and cooked just right. All food was hot. I followed with ‘Oops I dropped my ice cream’ - Think cornetto, dropped in sand, thankfully it’s edible sand. This is the restaurants signature dessert. Having had the dessert it’s something you order for the experience of seeing what the idea is, experience how it’s been put together and to take a photo, rather than something truly scrumptious. I ended up picking out the seaweed from the dessert (that’s not something you hear everyday!) as that was too salty/seaweedy for me too. I found the restaurant a little noisy but that was due to the customers enjoying themselves and no fault of the restaurant. I’d suggest booking if you’d like to dine here as no tables stayed empty for long. Nice marina views out...