White Star Tavern & Dining Rooms, Southampton

We were all looking forward to a good night at the White Star after reading good reviews etc.

Our group had gone down from a ten to a six after a family emergency, when we informed the waiter of this we were told off like a group of school boys. We thought he was joking at first so nothing was said, we later realised he wasn't.

Next we had our simple drinks order, 3 drinks were wrong after a 15 min wait and two that were correct were flat! This may not have been helped by the fact the drinks were sat on the bar for an age!

Now the food! Very good. I can't really complain, good food well executed. However, I recommend you eat before you go as after three bites I had finished.

Finally when the bill arrived our table of 6 was shocked to see a service charge added. Normally when tables of this size are eating, a mandatory service charge is not an issue but to have the audacity to add this despite our complaints and treatment is a joke!

Overall very disappointing, very pretentious and the chef is being let down by his front of house staff.

The service was shocking, the food not even that good and overpriced, the loud thumping music was a bit of a mood killer as I could not hear my wife talk who was sitting opposite me even when shouting. The tables were thoughtlessly positioned and it seemed that preferential service was given to some friends of the people who were working who hung around their table all night serving wine while our table was ignored. Specials board was not pointed out and wasn't easy to find. All-in-all very poor and I would definitely not go back there again....ever.

The White Star Tavern & Dining Rooms offers award winning food, relaxed, informal atmosphere. Great for candle light dinner as well as light lunch or simply a drink. Brilliant atmosphere with friendly service and a great selection behind the bar. Al fresco dining outside is beautiful.

I really like the decor! It's sophisticated but very warm, not like many minimalistic, ice cool venues today, where the atmosphere gets lost in over-styling the place, and you feel like you're in a museum and not allowed to touch anything.