Review: Wild Lime Restaurant and Bar

One of today's reviews (I will post three in total)features a pretty restaurant situated in Portswood, called Wild Lime. Although the restaurant's aesthetics invite the diner in, the food and the food service disappoints. Each and every time I have been there I have gone in with high expectations. The clean, open inside of the restaurant is inviting and the shabby chic décor is charming. They always have quizzes and other events on which is good for people in the area to gather there and socialise. However, even though the front of the restaurant informs the customer that the establishment they are about to go in is a Bar as well as a Kitchen, it does not perform as the latter very well. First of all, the food takes very long to come, so if you are ever in a rush to grab your grub, this isn't the ideal place to go to. Second of all, the staff doesn't seem to be very informed about the Kitchen's working hours or availability of certain meals. It seems almost as if the Kitchen is a completely detached place that hasn't got much connection to the main Bar and seating area. Last time I went to The Wild Lime, my friend asked for a roasted vegetable and halloumi wrap. After waiting a while for the food, the waitress informed her that she has only brought the wrap with the vegetables and not the halloumi. The reason for this was because apparently some people have confused the salty cheese with chicken before, therefore the restaurant had decided they would ask customers whether they in fact wanted the cheese and knew precisely what the food was. Now, my friend was only informed about this upon the arrival of her food, not before, as they should have done. The waitress asked her if she wanted the halloumi (after informing her of the distinction between halloumi and chicken), after the wrap was served in front of her. My friend answered that indeed she wanted the cheese. After a long while after, after my friend had finished her meal (the food would have gone cold otherwise), a separate plate of halloumi arrived. In my opinion that is just absurd. The staff should have questioned my friend immediately after she placed the order for the meal, not after bringing the wrap. Furthermore, even if they had done that, and asked her after serving the wrap with the vegetables, they should have brought her halloumi very shortly after she said she wanted it. The fact that it took even a longer while for the star of the dish, the halloumi to grace her plate, than the rest did, is unacceptable. In addition to this instance, I have gone to the Wild Lime a handful of other times to eat, because of some event or another I went to with friends, such as Christmas dinner, etc. I have found that the food time and time again is very boring, overpriced and taking extremely long to come to the table. I would recommend that if you decide to go to the restaurant you do so for the Bar, not the Kitchen as it is likely to disappoint.