The Chambers is a nice, up-market looking pub, which, by its name, seems to be targetting the professional set. That would be fine, but it needs to pull its socks up if it is going to have any professionals as its clientele, especially at lunch time.
I have been here twice in the one week. The first time, it was an impromptu get-together and I went merely for a sociable drink with friends at lunch. That was fine, although I did note that my friends' pizzas came a bit late. Nevertheless I got back to work on time.
I met different friends for lunch later in the week. There were five of us in total, but only four were eating. We all ordered our pizzas at the same time. By 13:45, we got agitated enough to enquire about our pizzas and were told that they would be coming shortly. At 13:55, two pizzas arrived. Neither were mine. I hesitated about whether to wait for my pizza or whether to cancel the order and rush back to work, without lunch.
The pizza oven is a large domed thing, dominating half the room. It is very impressive, but it appears to only fit two pizzas at a time, which seems strange. It looms behind a bar, where we can watch the chefs making up the pizzas and putting them into the oven. I went up to the men working near the pizzas and asked what pizzas were in the oven, as that would help me make my decision. I was informed that the pizzas were crispy duck and margharita. Given that I had ordered the Italiano pizza, I was surprised that my pizza was not immediately in the oven after my companions'. I went back to our table and asked my other companion, who also had not received her pizza, what she had ordered. She, too, had ordered the Italiano pizza.
Deciding that we needed to head back to work, I went back to the counter and spoke with the waitress (not the chef whom I had earlier spoken to). I said something along the lines of, "Our pizzas have taken too long, and we need to get back to work, so could we please have a refund. The chef has not started making our pizzas." The waitress said, rather shortly, "You want a refund?" My companion started in with, "Yes, we ordered our pizzas at 1.15 and it's now -," but before she could continue, the waitress said, rather stroppily, "Don't get shirty with me. I just take the orders." The cheek! Both my companion and I started speaking at the same time, equally riled by her manner on top of the lack of food, but she said, "Talk to my manager," and walked off without telling us who the manager was.
The manager was, at that time, quite nearby. So he came over and we explained the situation to him, both a little more angry than we had been because of the waitress' manner. I asked for a refund but the manager offered to deliver the pizzas to our place of work. I wavered and looked at my companion, inclined just to ask for a refund and deal with the hunger pangs until home time. She, however, agreed. We high-tailed it back to work.
Our pizzas were delivered, together with four vouchers for free pizzas plus contrite apologies and an offer of free drinks if we went there for lunch the next day. I snorted at the suggestion (but not to the face of the delivery person). On the basis of the manager's much better service, and attempt to rectify the disastrous situation, I decided that if the pizza was good, The Chambers would not end up on my black list of places to eat in Southampton.
The Italiano is described as having Italian sausage, tomato, mozzarella and basil. The pizzas are a lovely thin base - my favourite - and the tomato sauce and mozzarella were reasonable. However, I barely had half a sausage on the entirety of my 12-inch pizza. Each slice had one slice of sausage on it, and there had been one slice of sausage placed directly in the centre of the pizza that had been sliced through. So, each pizza slice had an additional one-eighth of a slice of sausage. And absolutely no basil. When I was done, my fingers were laden with oil.
That decided it. Perhaps, the whole episode had left me with a bad taste in my mouth, not least because the pizza was rather average, but, on writing this post and investigating the website, I found that, too, to be aggravating. There's a Flash Player introduction and choosing the menu for Southampton oddly takes you to the Cambridge menu. Maybe it's teething problems, but you only get so many chances, and The Chambers gets no more from me.
Not recommended at all.
*****
The Chambers
74-76 London Road
Southampton
Hampshire
SO15 2A
Phone: 023 8033 1140
http://www.barroombar.com/whatsonoffer/index.php?view=bar&display=southampton
I have been here twice in the one week. The first time, it was an impromptu get-together and I went merely for a sociable drink with friends at lunch. That was fine, although I did note that my friends' pizzas came a bit late. Nevertheless I got back to work on time.
I met different friends for lunch later in the week. There were five of us in total, but only four were eating. We all ordered our pizzas at the same time. By 13:45, we got agitated enough to enquire about our pizzas and were told that they would be coming shortly. At 13:55, two pizzas arrived. Neither were mine. I hesitated about whether to wait for my pizza or whether to cancel the order and rush back to work, without lunch.
The pizza oven is a large domed thing, dominating half the room. It is very impressive, but it appears to only fit two pizzas at a time, which seems strange. It looms behind a bar, where we can watch the chefs making up the pizzas and putting them into the oven. I went up to the men working near the pizzas and asked what pizzas were in the oven, as that would help me make my decision. I was informed that the pizzas were crispy duck and margharita. Given that I had ordered the Italiano pizza, I was surprised that my pizza was not immediately in the oven after my companions'. I went back to our table and asked my other companion, who also had not received her pizza, what she had ordered. She, too, had ordered the Italiano pizza.
Deciding that we needed to head back to work, I went back to the counter and spoke with the waitress (not the chef whom I had earlier spoken to). I said something along the lines of, "Our pizzas have taken too long, and we need to get back to work, so could we please have a refund. The chef has not started making our pizzas." The waitress said, rather shortly, "You want a refund?" My companion started in with, "Yes, we ordered our pizzas at 1.15 and it's now -," but before she could continue, the waitress said, rather stroppily, "Don't get shirty with me. I just take the orders." The cheek! Both my companion and I started speaking at the same time, equally riled by her manner on top of the lack of food, but she said, "Talk to my manager," and walked off without telling us who the manager was.
The manager was, at that time, quite nearby. So he came over and we explained the situation to him, both a little more angry than we had been because of the waitress' manner. I asked for a refund but the manager offered to deliver the pizzas to our place of work. I wavered and looked at my companion, inclined just to ask for a refund and deal with the hunger pangs until home time. She, however, agreed. We high-tailed it back to work.
Our pizzas were delivered, together with four vouchers for free pizzas plus contrite apologies and an offer of free drinks if we went there for lunch the next day. I snorted at the suggestion (but not to the face of the delivery person). On the basis of the manager's much better service, and attempt to rectify the disastrous situation, I decided that if the pizza was good, The Chambers would not end up on my black list of places to eat in Southampton.
The Italiano is described as having Italian sausage, tomato, mozzarella and basil. The pizzas are a lovely thin base - my favourite - and the tomato sauce and mozzarella were reasonable. However, I barely had half a sausage on the entirety of my 12-inch pizza. Each slice had one slice of sausage on it, and there had been one slice of sausage placed directly in the centre of the pizza that had been sliced through. So, each pizza slice had an additional one-eighth of a slice of sausage. And absolutely no basil. When I was done, my fingers were laden with oil.
That decided it. Perhaps, the whole episode had left me with a bad taste in my mouth, not least because the pizza was rather average, but, on writing this post and investigating the website, I found that, too, to be aggravating. There's a Flash Player introduction and choosing the menu for Southampton oddly takes you to the Cambridge menu. Maybe it's teething problems, but you only get so many chances, and The Chambers gets no more from me.
Not recommended at all.
*****
The Chambers
74-76 London Road
Southampton
Hampshire
SO15 2A
Phone: 023 8033 1140
http://www.barroombar.com/whatsonoffer/index.php?view=bar&display=southampton
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