Lemon Sole, Portsmouth, a restaurant offer be too good to be true?
Can some of these restaurant offerings be too good to be true?
Les Kobiernicki seems to thinks so as he reveals in his experience at The Lemon Sole in Portsmouth
Good food – but apparantly not such good value according to Les Kobiernicki
LEMON SOLE
123, High Street
Old Portsmouth
PO1 2HW
COMPLAINT
” EAT OUT FOR £10 ” ???
I and my partner were glad to see an ” Eat out for £10 ” offer on the
front page of the Portsmouth & Southsea Journal for Thursday 12th June
this year, at the Lemon Sole, 123 High Street, Old Portsmouth, Hampshire,
PO1 2HW.
Imagine our frustration when we saw that the portions were
absolutely tiny, and that extra was needed to make the plates up to a
meal-sized amount. Moreover, the meal lasted 2 hours, as we waited – and
waited – and waited …
At the end, the bill bore absolutely no relation to the offer. We had to
pay £43.
The ” £10 offer ” does NOT in any way relate to the reality of the
miserable experience of eating out in this place. Even the waitress
indicated subtly that she, too, thought the £10 offer was misleading, and
clearly was personally not in favour of it, tacitly appearing to agree
with us, that we had been cheated. I would like to warn anyone intending
to visit this eating house that the portions are less than child-sized.
Visitors actually have to order every single thing separately, which makes
this an < à la carte > eatery – and not at all menu-based. This is, of
course, quite contrary to how they represent themselves in the advert !
On leaving, I was so incensed that I spoke my mind about all this
nastiness to the poor waitress, whose startled demeanour well reflected
the distress and unpleasantness the owner(s) had created for us all –
herself included – with this fake ” offer “. It would be impossible to
eat at the Lemon Sole on the £10 ( per person ) stated. Even children
would go away part-hungry.
This is not to slight the quality of the food: it was very good. But
massively over-priced – and it came in portions to evoke hunger – and not
to assuage it. Professional lying – however it is disguised – should not
be encouraged.
Visit Date: 27/06/2008
Sincerely,
Les K
The cooking is without doubt very good. The prices charged by this restaurant are, however, much exagerrated making the meal not value for money. To charge £19.50 for a grilled plaice verges on the extortionate. Vegetables/salad are extra. A glass of wine costs over £6. The seating is well below par for a restaurant charging these prices and there are not even any table cloths. The ordering is self service and standing in a part of the establishment surrounded by tables at which people are eating – not a particularly enjoyable experience especially as the manager does not appear to tolerate too much hesitation in choosing from the blackboard menu
My boyfriend and I went to Lemon Sole for a romantic early valentines meal. It was nowhere near as expected and not in a good way. We took part in The Times Eat out for £5 promotion, thinking it looked like a good deal with 3 courses for £10 we were greatly mistaken. The restaurant had added on lots of supplements for having various starters, mains or desserts; if they had just put it as £15 for 3 course it would have made a lot more sense and not been misleading! The main meals came with no side dishes, just another £3+ added onto the bill! The food was average at best until the dessert came out. The creme brulee ordered resembled scrambled egg and was inedible! After sending it back it took 15 minutes to be offered an alternative dessert. When the bill came I made a point of raising the issues we had had and got an extremely rude response from the manager. I couldn’t believe the way he spoke to me, and was appalled at his behaviour to a customer who was willing to pay for the meal but wanted to raise concerns. I wouldn’t visit this restaurant again as it is not worth the money you can spend there when there are much nicer restaurants close by!
Poor-quality, overpriced food and perhaps the rudest manager I’ve ever come across.
We visited lemon sole over the weekend just past – had a 2 mains for the price of one offer.
When we arrived the lovely young lady confirmed that we could order a starter and a main to qualify for this offer. I ordered my starter – squid and an assortment of fish goujons – no squid included and it was served on a bathroom tile with a smidge of the sauce. My Partner ordered a Budweiser from the bottle – they had the ordasity to serve a 300ml multi pack bottle – that clearly states on it “not to be sold separatley” and to charge £3.50 for and £5.50 for a 250ml glass of white wine!!
Moving on to my main I had Sea Bream served with spinach – no spinach arrived – my partners fillet steak was supposed to arrive with chips – we had to remind the staff about the chips which appeared to be half a spud cut into big chunks when it did arrive after he had finished half his meal!
Finally having no room for dessert, we asked for our bill – it came in without the 2nd main meal being deducted!! We questioned it and the manager stated that we had to order 3 courses to qualify for 2 4 1 on this deal, even tho his staff confirmed this was not the case and the voucher stated 2 or 3 courses!! I also pointed out about the bud bottles – to which I had the reply oh we always buy them like this – ill have to look into it.
We have eaten in Lemon Sole many times over the years and it has clearly been taken over and tried to be turned into something it is not – although the food was not all bad the service and attitude of the manager Stunk!! I would not return!!
Lemon Sole closed down, hurrah, The lemon in the name referred to me, the mug customer and sole means the only visit I ever made. Too expensive and non friendly
So they have closed down! That would explain why I can no longer find this place on the TopTable website. I am glad to read these reviews as it sounds like we had a close shave. I took my husband there with the intention of taking him for a birthday meal on the weekend when Portsmouth was wiped out due to a power cut. We are not local so did not know about the power cut until we heard about it on the travel news 4 miles away from Portsmouth. This restaurant was closed, not the owners fault, but I thought it was disgusting that nobody had called to let me know. We ended up having the worst evening ever and probably would now not even return to Portsmouth. I’m not surprised this place has closed given how little they clearly care about their customers.