The Mayflower Village — Restaurant in Southampton

Visited for a Xmas eve meal before a show. Family of 6, 3 adults 3 teens. Greeted on arrival and shown to our table, informed that orders taken at the bar, which was fine but proceeded to tell the children it’s like the old days and no apps allowed, possibly humorous but came across as quite condescending and our daughter questioned why he presumed she couldn’t use a standard menu.

Went to order and told one of our choices wasn’t in stock, so picked another. Not a big deal but wasn’t a polite and friendly apology, was just a blunt, we don’t have that. The bar tender wasn’t particularly friendly anyway barely made eye contact and very much felt like a chore taking our order, bar was quiet so he was not rushed and just made us feel really unwelcome. The chicken burger, chin dribbler and the quorn burger were all enjoyed although chip portions were quite small for the cost. Informed by our server my bacon and Brie pizza had been burned but another was on its way, when it arrived it looked a little undercooked and had very little bacon, it wasn’t particularly nice, was very dry and minimal sauce which was a shame as I’d heard pizza was really good here and at £14 I expected something special. Left 3/4 of it as it really wasn’t great. Server did ask to box it up and I said no thanks. Didn’t ask why though. My youngest daughter ordered chicken strips and chips and the chicken was pretty over cooked, to the point she struggled to get a knife through it, again a shame because it sounded nice on the menu but was burnt. At the end of the meal, our table was promptly cleared and we were browsing the deserts, we were informed there were none being served so don’t bother( exact words), they were short staffed, Christmas staffing has been a nightmare and they just can’t manage deserts as one of the team was about to go home too. While I appreciate the situation, I don’t really feel like staff issues should be the concern of guests, maybe even more so on a special evening. Would also like to have been informed before the start of the meal that there was no desert menu as we would have likely have gone somewhere else, maybe just let people know when they come in what’s not in stock and what’s not on the menu, would save any disappointment and give people the choice.

All in all, promised a lot but delivered very little and isn’t a place we would visit again in the future, a shame because it’s so close to...

6pm, a Tues.The place looked tired & grubby, in need of an upgrade. Never having been to the Mayflower Theatre next door, tbh I couldn't believe this restaurant bar carries the same name. A theatre crowd was queueing there but only 2 people were in this bar. Village? What village? A lot of noise floated up the stairs from a basement. No idea who or what was down there?! The 4 bar staff took 3 mins.to acknowledge me. I was in a rush so stayed. 😒 Should've listened to instinct! Vege burger, onion rings stuck on top, giant mushroom inside. Chips. Total grease fest. Awful. Worst ever.. I had asked if they were serving food; the bar staff trotted off to ask the (open-fronted) kitchen staff. They debated. Yes. The "meal" arrived too fast (How had they cooked fresh chips so quickly? They hadn't of course).) It was horrible; a big greasy wrinkled mushroom (looked old?), grey wrinkly greasy chips with fryer scraps (definitely old) and a bun so rubbery I had real trouble cutting it! I ate the tasteless burger, which crumbled, & a few lumps of salad trim. To her credit, the older female staff member did ask if everything was OK. I explained, "Sorry, no, I can't eat it" & invited her to inspect it. She did apologise. I suggested the oil might need changing. "Hmm..I'll sort it, don't worry. I'll refund you". And did. Refused payment for a soft drink. Thank you, but too late! Just time to grab a shop sandwich opposite & sit on a park bench to eat, grateful for 10 mins.fresh air. I felt kinda grubby in that place. Wish I'd asked...

We hired (part of?) the basement bar for a stag do (we made the booking months in advance). The space generally was great, the games and food were brilliant. The atmosphere was excellent, until 2 gentlemen outside of our party were seated at a table in the basement with us. For some reason, their TV was put on full volume, which really clashed with the music that was playing and ruined the vibe a little. I thought, when booking, that we had reserved the whole space it as a private function. It wasn't made clear that we would be sharing the space. And having both the music and TV playing loudly seemed really weird.

I asked a member of staff about this, she agreed it wasn't ideal and offered to fix it. Sadly at this point, another member of staff turned off the music completely! Kind of killed the vibe for a stag do. Instead we had to listen to some random sports on a TV extremely loudly until I went up and asked again for someone to fix. In the end I had to help another member of staff get the music playing in the basement bar again. They were not able to turn down the volume on the TV for some reason, so again we had both audio sources blasting for the last hour or so. Really weird.

I think it would have been nice to have some communication ahead of the event that we would not have the whole space to ourselves, just to set expectations. But as above, playin TVs and music at the same time is a bit of a conflict...