Uni Kebab Turkish Restaurant — Restaurant in Southampton

UPDATE: Unfortunately, the previous reply of the owner accused us of online bullying and blackmailing without any proof, and contained a very unprofessional and also false narration of what happened there. I HAVE MENTIONED SOME MADE-UP PARTS OF THE NARRATION AT THE END OF MY REVIEW. I'd like other people to know what the problems were. They can decide what to do. Hope this review makes Unikebab improve its service, instead of unfairly accusing people.

It was not worth going to Unikebab. Total waste of money for several reasons including food quality, Overcharging, staff behaviour and Inconsistencies in student discount.

1. food quality: several of us had to ask to change their foods because they were too salty. No matter if we had rice or fries as base for our main meals, they were too salty as well.

2)Overcharging: Not only didn't I get the student discount they had announced on their website, but I also paid for one order I never received:onion rings. We had to ask them to change the bill the first time, because some other main meals, we didn't need to pay for, were also included in the bill. But at the end we missed 'onion rings' in the list and paid for that.

3)staff behaviour: most of the staff behaved very friendly except for one (probably the sone of the manager) whose behaviour I found utterly rude and embarrassing. I wish we had recorded his behaviour.

4)Inconsistencies in student discount: we first visited Unikebab on 18th October for lunch. I hadn't known anything about the discount. When paying the bill, I was told that I can show my student ID to get 50% discount. I did and got 50% discount for both of us, although one of us was student. So, next time (Thursday, 28th Oct), I invited my friends for dinner to this place. There were 13 of us, 4 of us were students. On their website, regarding the discount, it was stated they don’t separate the bills and it must be paid by the student. And the first time we got the discount, nobody told us all people getting served must be student. Last night, when I invited 12 more people, when making the payment, we were told that 'you came to our restaurant assuming that if one person on the table has a student ID that everyone on the table gets their food half price which is not the case and is clearly stated on the website'. I didn't find anywhere on their website mentioning this explicitly. But the staff still insisted it has been mentioned in terms and conditions. And then he started insisting this is a family business, and if they give us this discount, it wouldn't be fair for them. I felt quite deceived

*Some of made-up stories in the owner's reply: 1)'You blackmailed him at the time of payment that if ..." Never ever we did this. A totally made-up story to impress people. 2)'your abuse which you delete': completely made up. 3) 'Fake reviews attacking an individual': Whatever I have written was an honest review trying to clear things up for other people. If "an individual" refers to the cashier/young manager there, from other reviews you can see we are not the only one making complaint about his behaviour. 4)'spam loads of bad reviews as you said you would': totally made up to impress people. Never said such a thing. But of course, people have the right to write reviews when vising a place, especially if they feel deceived. 5)'you arrived with 5 more guests': As far as I know, we had booked a table for 12 people. 6)'without touching any of it': not true. People there clearly mentioned that their foods were too salty, and some said too oily and maybe one said the food was not cooked enough. No one wanted to change their food only because they wanted to change their food to sth else. 7)'Onion rings were changed for Kofte':another lie. I myself ordered onion rings and never changed it for Kofte. You overcharged me for what I didn't get. 8)'you were intentionally ...': Why would we do that intentionally? 9)regarding discount: no one wanted to pay for two meals. We asked you to split the bill, you refused. Because of character limit, I can't...

I have eaten in Uni Kebab since 2018 when they were at a small restaurant. There has been a noticeable sharp decline in service.

Today, 28 February 2023, I asked to move to a bigger table. This was at 3pm. The place was not even half-full. The table they gave was too small for 2 people. There was a bigger table behind us and it was not occupied or reserved.

The lady boss refused to give me a bigger table.

So I told the staff if they don’t give me a bigger table, I will walk off.

This happened at 3pm when the restaurant is not even half full. I am not asking for any unreasonable request. I just want a bigger table to eat comfortably.

This restaurant will have lots of “awards” but service is 1/10.

All of the restaurant staff know I wanted a table and that if I don’t get a bigger table, I will walk off.

So don’t bother replying to this comment unless you are genuine and sincere in your apology.

Edit : I saw the reply. It’s 3pm on a Tuesday. It’s not at all peak time. Please do not twist the truth. Even in your Google map ‘popular times’ section, you can clearly see it’s not at all peak time.

You mentioned about ‘reserved tables’. There were plenty of tables that did not have the ‘reserved’ signs. Half of the restaurant was empty. So your point about “peak time”, “occupied tables”, “reserved tables” doesn’t make sense.

The reason I walked off is because :

I am not going to sit on a small table and struggle to eat. It’s not about “getting my way”. If I am going to pay the price of your food, I want to make sure I have an appropriate-sized table to enjoy my food. It’s just basic common sense.

How is a small table going to fit 2xchicken shish, 2x drinks, appetiser, soup? These were the food I was about to order.

Based on my previous experience, there will be 1 bowl of salad 1 plate of sauce 2 plates of chicken shish 1 bowl of soup 1 basket of bread 2x drinks

There is no way at all these can fit into a single table.

I have been here not once or twice I have been here at least 10x since 2018. Every time I been here with just 2 people eating, i have always eaten at a a bigger table. I have pictures to show evidence as I do share uni kebab in my insta stories. It’s a big shame really because the business used to be much friendlier. Very...

This place has declined so much in recent year. We visited this place about a year or so ago and it was absolutely delightful. However this is no longer the case sadly. I wont visit it again.

My wife and I took my parents out for a nice turkish dinner as this was their 40th anniversary. We booked in advance and made sure it is quiet place as we had a toddler with us. The lady on front gave us a place right in the front with sun shinning on our faces so we asked to change the seating to inside which she did but she wasn’t happy about it and made faces.

We ordered with some help from her as some of the language on new menus is a bit ambiguous and probably deliberately and she failed to explain it in the language you would understand- at least have a basic understanding of what you are serving, anyway we chose a cold and a warm mezze separately but even the cold mezze (suksuka) was hot - she had a terrible explanation. It lacked taste. This hasn’t been the case before. The whole starters were bland and the portions were much smaller than expected. If you are looking at 5 people at least make sure to come and refill the bread basket again but no completely forgot this.

The mains - again we don’t mind the portions sizes being smaller (which have significantly reduced; plates used to be huge before and now not even half the size) but as long as they taste good we are happy but the same specials we had tried before are no longer the same. One of the casseroles we hadn’t before tried was completely missold to us - the lady who took our order explained it as a chicken dish when it turned out to be just potatoes and aubergines and 1 small chicken cube in it. Spoke to several people, absolutely unhelpful until they called the owner who apologised (which we are grateful for) and offered us turkish tea but we still paid for the dish. The same lady accused us of asking to be sat separately when we had reserved in advance, seriously she had an attitude.

Absolutely disappointed in front of our family and guests. I wouldn’t want to come back to this place unless they work on their service. Nor would I recommend it to a person who want to visit it as a family restaurant.

Also, you can’t find parking which is...