Chiquito, Portsmouth

Took my wife here for dinner. We both had a great time, lovely atmosphere but the wait was a bit long for a week day night

Extremely Poor Service.

Staff and Manager is not concerned about service delivery.

Food to costly.

Meal Portions too less.

Donot recomment Chiquito to anyone.POOR SERVICE.

As a restaurant manager I felt this was Probably the worst dining experience I have ever had. From start to finish we were made to feel like we were an inconvenience. The service was appalling, even though they were fairly busy and seemed to be adequately staffed; waiters were just standing around. We waited close to an hour for our meal to arrive and when we received it my girlfriend's order was wrong. After trying to get a waitresses attention for about 10 minutes we gave up and made do with what we had. When it came to paying the bill we asked to see the manager who shrugged off the mistake and kept saying 'yeah... but, did you enjoy it?' in a fairly sarcastic tone. Eventually he agreed to a 10% discount off the bill but when we checked it he had only taken it off one main meal. This left a ridiculous amount to pay considering our terrible experience. I would never visit Chiquito's again and strongly suggest no-one else does!

Do not go to this place, avoid it like the plague. Me and three friends bought a burrito each, at £10.50 we thought we are going to get something big. The wrap was ridiculously small, we felt seriously ripped off, with drinks (diet coke) our bill came to £55! Unbelievable!

The food tasted ok, but there really was no decent amount of it - was still hungry afterwards. I do not understand how they can continue to operate. I seriously hope that they go bankrupt and put out of business for ripping people off like this.

The service was also pretty annoying, with the waitress coming to the table every two minutes interrupting us to find out if our food was ok. No it wasn't there was no decent amount of it!

Do not go there, otherwise you will regret it and feel extremely disappointed.

Food is extremely overpriced, and not that much of it. More importantly, my girlfriend bit a mouthful of food and discovered a LARGE CLUMP OF MATTED HAIR in her mouth!!!

That's right, a clump of hair similar to that you might find in the plug of a shower.

absolutely disgusting! they did compensate by taking the price of her main course off the bill- but considering she is now hesitant of biting food that she cannot clearly see what the ingredients are, its not really much compensation.

THAT'S RIGHT: EATING THERE HAS SCARRED MY GIRLFRIEND PSYCHOLOGICALLY!!!!

A three course meal from Chiquito will probably set you back on average £43-48 with a few drinks between. That was our bill on what was a meal we walked away from quite gutted we actually paid that much. Several defining points made this an unsavoury dining experience. I thought the waitering was atrocious and the desert of fried ice cream was quite frankly, offensive to the pocket for what it was. I've structured our experience below;

Atmosphere & Layout

I feel Chiquito is very hit and miss when it comes to its atmosphere and layout, atmosphere is something Chiquito has lost since it franchised itself and location and building size is dependant on how far the company decides to adorn its customers with the whole mexican experience. The layout in the particular restaurant in Gunwahrf Quays, Portsmouth is particularly restrictive although containing long family dining tables to deliver a family experience on the second floor, however this is where the problem arose. Trying to get to the toilets involved pushing my way through seated customers. Frankie and Benny's located directly opposite has the same structure, however they have situated their WC facilities in an adequate space away from the dining areas. This is something I felt Chiquito really didn't think about too well when this restaurant launched in Gunwharf just a few years back. All in all the design layout and atmosphere stands towards less atmosphere, more bums on seats and that's something we didn't particularly like.

Waitering & Hospitality

The staff at Chiquito, Portsmouth seemed strangely enough predominantly male, mid thirties which was a refreshing change. However the problem with the waitering this evening was the constant murmuring of is everything okay? several minutes between already being asked the same question. Extremely tedious. Secondly, our drinks were sat at the bar for at least 4 minutes as a member of staff seemingly forgot to serve them to ourselves, of which senior management apologised profusely and gave us two corona's on the house. The funny twist to this was that they nearly were not on the house as our initial bill at the end of meal stated they were chargeable. To be fair on the waiter he did realise his mistake before we raised it to him. Overall I thought the waitering & hospitality this evening was pretty shoddy, lack lustre and more annoying. I would have preferred more drinks served on time, food served promptly and be left to our devices rather than parroting back to staff answers to the same questions.

Food & Presentation

Starter - A Platter of Barbeque Chicken Wings with Yogurt Dip.

A typical platter presentation with Yogurt dip enough to satisfy every chicken wing on the plate. The sticky barbeque sauce on the chicken wings was full of flavour along with that rustic chargrilled flavour of the chicken was brought together extremely well with the Yogurt dip which complimented the starter extremely well. Chicken Wings were just right, enough meat on them, not too fatty and not anorexic either. Couldn't really ask for more other than perhaps a few other dips to compliment the taste buds.

Main - Chicken Enchiladas with Tomato Rice & Diced Salad Garnished with Lemon.

The main was the best part of the meal, the enchilada had a beautiful crispy and also light tortilla which complimented the spicy chicken and tomato filling. The meal consisted of three tortillas wrapped, served on a boat dish with a cheese topping. The tomato rice was not too overpowering and complemented the meal extremely well. The side salad was refreshing, zest of lemon & lime along with its diced texture and peppered was distinctly mexican by nature and enjoyable. If there was anything to fault it would be the presentation of the main, the rice was splashed across the main plate with the salad whilst the enchiladas cradled in the boat, there was no attention to detail in the garnish and if anything the tomato rice was a little dry.

Desert - Fried Ice Cream with Cinnamon and Flakes of Corn

At a pretty expensive £4.00 a go. This desert was shocking. One scoop of ice cream served in a bowl full of whipped cream, presentation was average but it was the flavour and size of the serving that made this a quite disastrous desert. The desert tasted like a bowl of crunchy nut cornflakes and given the price I could of bought a months worth of cereal for the amount we paid for the desert. I think the general cost of the deserts at Chiquito is quite expensive and given the portions are small and the flavours leaving you with a sour taste in your mouth over just how much you spent on a substandard desert is something to watch out for if you eat at Chiquito.

Conclusion & Rating

I feel Chiquito is nothing more than an average eatery that fails on the basic principles of dining. The lack of atmosphere doesn't capture mexico in any shape or form, the latin music is nothing more than a poor attempt to justify they are making an effort. The food is very hit and miss, Chiquito's strengths lay in the starters and main courses but completely fail when it comes down to a decent and fulfilling desert. We've had much better food at half the price, a real disappointment as if a few changes are made it could have been a half decent dining experience.

The Chiquito Mexican Restaurant provided the slowest, most inefficient service as far as I can remember. Being made to wait in the bar area (do staff get a cut from bar orders?) far longer than we were told, then be led to a table, wasting more time to have our order taken by a hurried, unfriendly waitress. Over an hour went by until our food finally arrived. I would have sacked every single member of staff who I interacted with on the spot! To be avoided by anyone lacking a masochistic streak...