Privilege — Restaurant in Portsmouth

Whew! Not worth it! Came from Richmond to celebrate my cousin for her birthday. We were an early reservation around 6pm on a Thursday. The host greeted us, asked if we had a reservation, clicked through the tablet for some moments and took us to our table. Her mood wasn’t very inviting nor did she seem happy to be there. For early evening it was very dark which was weird considering there wasn’t a lounge vibe at this point.

Our server was Tee J who was personable, friendly and kind. Unfortunately, they did not set her up for success with us. Honestly, the service is extremely slow here because the kitchen and bar does not have a sense of urgency for sending your items out nor were they adequately prepared. Our server came back multiple times to tell us about items that weren’t available causing us to have to constantly change our order. It would have been considerate for her to know at the beginning of her shift for us to have been notified upon greeting (that way we could decide to proceed or not). The food arrived to the table in multiple parts causing some to eat before others, partial parts of meals to be present (mains no sides/vice versus) and ultimately our food turning cold. We did not get to eat at the same time which was very off putting since we were here to dine together. We drove 90+ miles to dine… together.

Now let’s get into this food. I had high expectations from the descriptions, menu prices and reviews on social media. The food is not worth the price you pay. Honestly, it’s mid! They could really give it a little more pride and TLC in what they do from a culinary perspective. The plate presentation was sloppy. Everyone cannot make Mac and cheese nor salmon nor Brussels sprouts nor egg rolls. Basically everything I ate was just okay. Nothing I’d brag about or come back to eat again.

Oh! A major pet peeve… They served us plastic utensils. Your entrees are $30+ and plastic is appropriate? No. Elevated prices should yield an elevated experience for your guests at all times. We should not be eating on plastic cutlery, chipped plates and in the dark. I work in the hospitality industry and I just expect a certain level of care/pride in what is given when dining out. This was my first and last time coming here. Would not recommend to anyone.

P.S. Loved our server though she deserves so much better in a work environment. I honestly felt sorry for her. Thank you for helping us with our pictures so we had memories to keep with family. Keep your...

I try to be supportive of Black Own businesses, but I will never go back there again. Food was great but service suck. I went with a group of 15 people for a birthday party dinner. The bartender was our server as well. She seemed frustrated and attitude was poor. Not a great start. I was the third person in the group to order my medium well lamb chops. It took 45 minutes for me to receive my food. The bartender/server brought the wrong order out to my table three times with the wrong sides. She then proceeded to tell me that I did order this food. I said lady " I know what I ordered could you please get it right. By this time the whole group had their food and I was the third person to order. The whole group saw that I was a little upset by this situation. I mean I will never tell a person what they order with an attitude or try to force them into accepting the wrong order. At this time I said it's nothing we can do about my food being late so "let's get the drinks flowing". Mind you that I came with a "large group". This bartender was charging auto gratitudy per drink order not on the final bill. Crazy that I paid 8 to 9 dollars extra everytime I ordered drinks for my wife and her friend. I know that gratitudy is included on large parties but this seems like a rip off. You charge gratitudy to the final bill not per drink order. I even went to the bar to order my next round and the bartender told me she was adding my order to the large group party. I said no, enough is enough...I want to order my drink from the bar and cash me out now. This bartender went to my party group and told everyone I was starting confusion because I didn't want to deal with her after realizing how she was ripping us off with tip money. The audacity of this women. I was trying to be discreet about the situation but she blew that at this point. We sent at least $1,000.00 in the establishment in about 2hrs. The problem I have is the management team would allow this to happen. No one came to the table to rectify the situation and I even apologized to the bartender if she felt as though I was being aggressive. No apologies from Privileged staff or management team. Not another dollar. I work too hard for my coins to be treated this way....

I've visited several times before and had a good experience, unfortunately this restaurant is going nowhere fast if their service continues to be abysmal. We arrived at 6 and were seated in the back, directly across from the flower wall backdrop. Only one other party of 4 was there when we arrived. I went to use the restroom and when I returned we gave our drink orders to a nice-nasty nonchalant waitress. If that's your attitude, you don't need to be serving. It took TWENTY MINUTES to get two drinks!! Why you ask? Because ALL of the wait staff is doing a bunch of nothing. I watched staff at the main bar on their cell phones heavily laughing and talking to each other. Beside the flower wall is an area in which the staff congregate by the kitchen.During the evening we watched at least 6 staff members at any given time eating, taking selfies, talking on their phone and smoking hookah all while ignoring tables that requested service (my table and the table beside me) We requested a coal change for the hookah from our waitress which after 40 minutes never came and we were told our reservation was up and we needed to leave. I mentioned that we never got our coal change and there was not even an acknowledgement or apology. These restaurants that charge automatic gratuity are typically known to have poor service since they have a built in tip they don't even attempt to give good service. It doesn't matter how good your food is, if your service is trash, it's a trash experience. We...