Josie's — Restaurant in Test Valley

When we arrived at the restaurant, we waited outside in the cold for 15 minutes before anyone even acknowledged us. I had to go inside and ask for a server myself, and even then, it took another 8 minutes for someone to come to our table. When he finally did, he was extremely rude and completely lacking in basic customer service or empathy.

We asked for a high chair for my two-year-old brother, and instead of offering to help, they told us to just “put it at the table you want.” My mum was holding a toddler, and they actually expected her to carry a high chair across the outdoor area by herself. Not one member of staff offered to help. It was honestly disgusting behavior.

Once we got to the table, it was absolutely filthy. Every table had these metal tins used to label the tables, and they were all dirty. The one at our table had mouldy ketchup inside of it—actual mould. The table itself hadn’t been wiped down, and no one bothered to clean it before we sat.

When we placed our order, the server didn’t ask about allergies—not at the beginning, not during, not once. My mum and I had to bring it up ourselves, and even then, I had to keep reminding him that my mum has a mushroom allergy and my little brother has a severe egg allergy (he can’t have things like poached or scrambled eggs). It felt like he didn’t care at all, and that’s incredibly dangerous.

Then we waited over 20 minutes for our food, and when it finally arrived, the server didn’t bring any cutlery or drinks. I had to go inside again and ask for them, and they said they’d bring them out—but it took another five minutes. By the time we finally got our cutlery and drinks, the food had already gone cold.

To top it all off, when we asked for the cheque, they took over half an hour to bring it to us. And let me be clear—the restaurant wasn’t even busy. There was no excuse. The staff were unbelievably rude the entire time, completely dismissive, and just didn’t care at all.

This place is disgusting—rude staff, filthy tables, awful service, and a total lack of basic hygiene and safety when it comes to allergies. Never again. Never,...

Came here for lunch with a friend. Was busy, weather was nice, so we decided to sit outside in the sun.

Waitress arrived, took our drinks orders, followed by food orders at the same time. I ordered a club sandwich, and friend ordered a vegan breakfast burrito. The drinks arrived after about 5-10 mins. Then as we hadn’t caught up for a while, didn’t really pay attention to the time.

It dawned on me that what was a very busy outside area full of customers, had become far quieter. I looked at my watch and realised we’d been sitting there nearly 50mins, and no sign of our lunch! The waitress passed by and I enquired if the food was on its way. She returned, apologised, and said the order slip had been lost in the kitchen, and that the club sandwich was ready but the burrito would be another 2-3 mins. About 10mins later as we were about to give up, the food arrived.

Disappointingly the vegan burrito was not as advertised in the menu. It was more akin to the vegetarian burrito. The waitress didn’t follow up to check how the food was so my friend never got the opportunity to tell her. Ultimately he didn’t end up eating the burrito.

We went in to pay, and the staff took the coffee and tea off the menu. However taking into account the considerable wait for the food, and subsequently the wrong item was served, despite neither of us requesting this to be removed, I was surprised and disappointed the burrito also wasn’t removed from the bill - considering it hadn’t been eaten, and it was the...

*Mask required *Track and Trace check-in *Santiser available *Seating 1 metre apart *Outside seating available *Walk-ins only

This was our first visit to any of the Josie's cafés and it certainly won't be our last. In fact, I'm sure we'll be back within the month! First off, a well organised table only service with a standard menu and a special Christmas menu available. The standard menu offered plenty of options for any hungry brunch fanatic and the Christmas menu was no exception. I had the salted caramel hot chocolate with whipped cream and honeycomb (£4) and it was exactly as described and tasted wonderful; my wife ordered a decaf iced coffee (£2.70) as the aroma was too inviting. For food we both ordered the eggs benedict with a cranberry hollandaise and pigs in blankets (£7.75) This was delicious and so so filling without being overly rich - we'd certainly recommend.

We ordered a caramel shortbread to go and look forward to tucking in to later.

5/5...