The Goat — Restaurant in Portsmouth

Worst experience we have ever had, have never felt so victimized and bullied by staff at an established. Husband and I stopped to have one drink, hoping to sit outside. There were 8 to 10 empty tables at the front of the restaurant. Many staff standing at door when we walked in, probably around 10-10:30PM. We went to the bar area and ordered two drinks and then went to look outside for a seat. We were told we could not sit outside as no tables were free. This was fine, we took a seat at a large table near the door and were told it was reserved and couldn't sit there. Asked about sitting at the smaller two tables behind this table and were told they were also reserved. I explained that I had no idea they took reservations so late and asked where we could sit. They explained that we could sit at the bar, which had no seats we could see available. One of the female staff then pointed and said two seats on corner and then proceeded to walk us over to one seat at the back side of the bar in a very crowded area. She said one of us could sit, while the other stood behind. I said we would rather just stand, not be crowded in. So we walked back over by the door. The 8-10 tables remained open. Asked about sitting at one until the people arrived, as we were just having the one drink and then leaving. Again told no and were told it was the managers rule that we could not. So we stood in the aisle between the bar and the door feeling very in the way. My husband moved to stand between a few empty tables, more out of the way. When I went to stand with him I was blocked by a female staff who would not move. I asked why she was clearly using her body to block me and was told we couldn't stand there. Expressed how ridiculous this was, they sold us drinks and now we have no place to drink them. We were then told that we needed to leave and we said we would once we finished our drinks. They then said they were calling the police, which was fine with us, as we had done nothing wrong. The solution was then to send the biggest male staff over to stand very close to me as I tried to finish my drink. Very uncomfortable, but tried to converse. Asked about the tables again and expressed how terrible this was of an experience. He blamed on the manager and then said tables are only for if you order food. Oh, okay... we were not told that, we were just told they were reserved. We would be fine ordering some fries with a drink. He then sarcastically said he told us that in the beginning, which he did not. Terrible experience, we were harassed and bullied by staff the entire visit, which sadly escalated due to this male staff refusing to get out of my personal space. Sad that he felt it was okay to use his bigger body to intimidate a smaller female customer to leave. Asked him several times to back away and call police if he needed to, so we could just finish our drinks and go. Hope this isn't how they usually treat customers,...

We stopped here for lunch one day with a couple friends was somewhat busy, but told us the wait was 45 minutes, about 1.5 hours later they sat us, because we had 2 kids with us we ordered right away, not sure what happened the stories were sketchy since they told us the printer was not working, but other people who came in after us got food (1 group of 10 people), which is interesting because as a waitress I know if the printer doesn’t work the orders don’t go into the kitchen, not 1 order but all the orders. The The waitress said she was sorry for the wait (never explained anything to us) and brought us French fries, that was at 2:35 at 3:30 we still did not have food (we sat at 1:45), the waitress got upset when we called her out and told her to find out where the food was. She sent the manager over who had the audacity to blame it on someone at the table that the waitress was crying ( btw you work at bar with drunk people and you are crying over someone telling you to find there food)! The manager never said she was sorry, was just super rude and thought she was right! By the way you are not the customer and the customer is always right, especially when your employees screwed up! The manager then proceeded to go over to all the waitstaff who was standing around holding up the wall, to tell them what happened and everyone was pointing at us ( very unprofessional). Here is a thought to the owners of the goat…..do not have 20 year olds that can’t own there mistakes work at a bar, and teach your managers how to talk to people who are your customers! The most disrespectful manager I have ever come across, and to talk about customers in front of them pointing, etc. bad management and business. Maybe you should send your staff to high school before putting them in charge of a bar! Also teach them to shut off people when they are drunk at the bar, 2 drunk people heckled woman at our table. Will not go back only because...

So I’ll preface this with I don’t write bad reviews about restaurants typically. I understand how hard it can be to work with the public and having a loved one in the food industry (who was there with me) I am sympathetic to food service workers. I’m also aware that we had 7 people in our party. That all being said this may have been the most awful dining experience my friends and I have ever had. We waited over an hour and ten minutes for our food to arrive. So long that one of the couples at our table had to leave before their food came out. We wanted to cancel our order and try somewhere else, but our waitress was no where to be found. When our waitress did come back she told us she would get the manager to help with the wait, but instead of getting the manager we magically had our food arrive at our table likely to shut us up. After it had arrived we were visibly dejected at how long it had taken and that there was nothing being done to make up for the experience. With the two people that had left we thought it would be reasonable to ask for their meals to be taken away and comped. The manager accused us of attempting to steal and told us our friends that had left are no longer ever welcome back at the goat (we were not eating the food that was for the couple who had now left AND we made it clear that we were going to eat ours and pay for that portion of the bill). He did give us a discount ($20 off a $154 bill) but after this interaction he decided to stand in front of the door blocking us from what he must have assumed was going to be a dine and dash. It was pathetic, rude and completely unprofessional. Also when the food did arrive it was burnt and our appetites had been lost from the honestly horrible interaction that had occurred. We obviously paid for our entire meal (that we ate none of). Seriously the worst experience ever with the...