Southampton
Kachina

Kachina

376 Shirley Road, Shirley, Southampton, United Kingdom

Meat • Chinese • Chicken • Vegetarian


"Picked the restaurant as we'd been shopping nearby and looked like a local place to try. After looking at the menu we opted for the buffet menu. We walked into the empty restaurant and were sat next to the bar. From where i was sat...there was at least ikea candles that had seen better days dumped on the bar and bottles of cleaner within easy reach which wasn't something should be on show inches away from a customer or potential child. After ordering a few starters and a round of drinks which were clearly from the soda bottle, the starters arrived on a small platter plate. The smoked chicken was very sweet and quite dry I was concerned that I'd break a tooth! The satay prawn was ok but the chicken tasted slimy so I immediately spat it out. The seaweed tasted greasy. My biggest bugbear was the #waiter took our orders still in his coat!! Mongolia lamb was dried out and the occupying sauce was salty and overbearing taste of star anise... this was swapped and I was asked if I wanted a different sauce so suggested plum and was told that they didn't do it? So I used the sweet sour sauce instead.. I then wanted to cut our losses and go but my husband wanted to give them the benefit of doubt and even then they don't give you a fresh plate for mains whereas I was worried that the meal would repeat on me so I just ordered jasmine tea. During the wait I went to the toilet up the very narrow and sloping staircase and got to the landing dimly lit by what I can only describe as some kind of lurid uv light which possibly wouldn't have looked out of place in a brothel!! The toilet cubicle you definitely couldn't swing a rat in, let alone a cat in. I finished washing my hands and went towards the hand drier to be met by a dodgy string curtain and at least bottles of toilet cleaner just strewn on the floor with a plunger and other undesirable objects on the floor."

Wagamama

Wagamama

8-10 Portland Terrace, Southampton, United Kingdom, SO15 1HA

Meat • Steak • Ramen • Curry


"The service that my girlfriend and I received (or llack thereof) really let down our experience. We are usually big fans of wagamama even though it is very basic Japanese food that you could make yourself for super cheap but I understand most people don't have the confidence to cook Asian dishes as they often look difficult but believe me they are not. Wagamama's pricing could really do with an update. Usually when you spend extra money like you would with a company like wagamama you could consider that you will be served upon in a better way than most fast food places but our experience told us otherwise. It took about 25 minutes just to bring us the bill from when we asked for even though we were sat at the table for at least 15 minutes beforehand with empty plates. I asked the member of staff that took my payment if they have any way of leaving feedback and she just looked at me with a face that seemed perplexed as to why I would want to leave any feedback at all. I would usually rather voice my displeasure to a member of management instead of resorting to leaving a review on the internet as I do believe everyone deserves a chance to give a reason as to why the service wasn't up to scratch before I publicly write a review on the internet. The issues that we faced seemed to be stemming from problems that were occurring in the kitchen so it would not be fair for me to blame everything upon the servers if they were required to work with errors coming out of the kitchen as I noticed the table next to me had to ask for a refund due to two of their dishes being stone cold and another dish containing viewable hairs. I did think that I would attempt to try and speak to a member of management or at least someone more senior than the servers at the front of house but felt like I really didn't want to bother the person who had dealt with the refund of the table next to as as in my opinion the way they dealt with the tables issues was completely unprofessional and that made me feel like I would just be told that all the issues were a problem coming from the kitchen and it was something that they couldn't fix. The last thing I feel like I should recommend is potentially finding a way to block the view between customers waiting in line and customers who are sat down and eating as when it seems to get even a bit busy a line forms and you feel like you are being watched make an animal at the zoo getting your feed. Overall for a restaurant that is one of the cornerstones of the West Quay Dining Floor a lot of improvements that could be made even in the basics. Food 5/10 Service 3/10"