Sainsbury Cafe in Portsmouth

This used to be a decent place for an inexpensive, filling lunch. Not anymore. The only "meals" are toasties in bags or two choices of food in plastic tubs which the customer has to carry up to the till to be microwaved. They are doing this "because of covid" which is a pathetic excuse for their poor offering. I won't bother again, whoever took this decision is patently a moron.

We’ve been very disappointed with our local Waterlooville cafe since it was taken over by Fresh Kitchen but our meal here was excellent. The food was piping hot and freshly cooked with a good portion size. Staff were friendly, too. Better than Waterlooville now, sadly, as they seem to suffer from constant staffing problems, equipment failures and supply issues.

Staff are helpful, there is plenty of space and the food and drink are always delivered quickly and are of good quality.

Nice cafe and ideal to meet up with friends in here. Usually very busy but clean. Coffee is gorgeous and the food is nice. Good value snacks. Staff do seem a little stretched but the food always comes out quicker than the time stated. Only complaint is they have got my order wrong twice now but very quickly rectified! Will continue to use the restaurant.

Always love having a coffee and snack here, staff are fantastic, food is always nice its basic, quick cheap food but its what you expect and always very tasty

We popped in for breakfast and was very surprised at what you get for the reasonable price . Food was tasty and we didn’t have to wait too long considering it was fairly busy and only one member of staff at the till .

Average supermarket cafe, serve a decent range of food and is filled with the elderly. The cleanliness is okay. Convenient though

Went in here on new year's day, late morning to be told couldn't get hot food apart from toasties as there was a problem in the kitchen, fine, I put my order in and went to get cutlery and it was shocking,I counted 4 knives that had hardened food stuck to them, a teaspoon was thick with dried in sugar, I felt ill, went and sat at table that had beans all over it ?!!! Okay it's a holiday time but come on, the boy that served me was so so slow putting out my coffee , there wasn't even a queue, it was empty so why so dirty ?. Any sainsburys cafes I be been too are always spotless, I wont be back to this one

Due to food allergies I need to to swap the hash browns baked beans and toast in the breakfast and wanted to replace them with some halloumi sounds simple to me yet the lady on the till said it could not be done as she didn't know how to put it through the till after much persuading and a very long queue she went to get someone to help her but was quite happy for me to eat things that will make me ill or go without rather than doing so not great service but the food was lovely

Food was good, staff friendly and helpful. Unfortunately the lady serving was in her own and would take the order then have to make the drinks. She was great but why not have 2 servers or someone else to make drinks. When I mentioned this at Customer services it was suggested thst someone must have been on their break but I was there for 90 minutes (including 20 queueing) and the lady was in her own the whole time with at least 12 people queueing

Whenever I come in here they never have anything available that I want to order resulting in me having to buy disgusting dry chips, sort it out!! Make sure you have enough stock of the menu or simply don’t advertise it??

Quite a long queue but ordering was reasonably prompt and food served to table. Tried the Jacket potato with Prawn which was satisfactory. Good choice of different fillings for the jacket Potatoes.

.. We always eat here when visiting friends in town .. It's a short drive from M27, with a very large underground car park .. upstairs cafe (via lift) well run, with friendly staff and good food, always clean and well stocked ..

Ideal place if you want breakfast -which is good value -and if you want a snack and a drink - reasonable seating area and just handy for the purpose.with reasonable pricing.

Have used this cafe for many a years with both family and friends. Although still good value for money, in my opinion the quality of food and especially service has gone down hill. I also regularly visit Hedge End cafe which is of a better quality and service.

Hoy tuve un delicioso desayuno con huevos revueltos, tocino, champiñones y un panecillo sin gluten tostado + café hecho con leche de soja - delicioso

Mi compañero, mi nieto de 10 años y yo llamamos al supermercado y decidimos tomar una copa y un refrigerio antes de regresar a nuestro hotel.

The staff were very nice and friendly, very good breakfast. Just what we needed.. Not a bad comment, but noticed there's 2 different price boards on display. Very good all round! :-)

Smells like dirty chip fat. Never have the full menu on offer. Staff look unhappy- I don't blame them! The wait for food is too long. If I hadn't have already paid, I'd have walked out. Just awful.

Personalmente me pareció una espera de quince minutos en la cola con sólo 4 personas delante de mí era sólo para esperar mucho para dos panini y una baguette sin bebidas. No estoy seguro de lo que el cajero estaba haciendo, pero después de cada transacción hasta que me pasee hasta la cocina, pasear volver con las manos vacías y lentamente avanzar a la siguiente.

Excellent service, freshly cooked food, clean and well kept and wonderful friendly and professional staff - always willing to help. I would thoroughly recommend popping for breakfast.

Popped in to get some shopping but also needed to eat. Looked very clean and inviting. Good service from behind the counter and quick clearance of tables from other staff. Opted for a cheese and ham sandwich which was very fresh and a pot of tea . The tea is Sainsbury's own brand which is a great marketing plan as I have now switched from a leading brand. I would happily eat there again.

Had lunch at this venue and have to say that if you like value for money these are the places to eat. We had a lovely italian style meal with garlic bread and a cup of tea each total cost 9 pound. Try and beat that.

It's ok for a quick bite but I was really disappointed when we ate and discovered that the food we had was one of Sainsbury's microwave meals off of the shelf, was expecting it to at least be made by the cooks.

A regular shopper to Sainsbury I stopped for a panini and cup of tea with family. Only one person serving and the queue was getting lo getting longer I asked the young assistant could she get some help ? Only the manager available who was filling up cutlery so asked her to help which she reluctantly did unfortunately staffing is always a problem here resulting in poor service and often long waits for mediocre food

Went twice here on my trip home, first time they forgot to make our coffees so we had to ask again, second time heard the kitchen say it would be a 25 minute wait for food. Very slow service, not a patch on the actual supermarkt!

Went here with 2 colleagues for breakfast, perfectly cooked scrambles eggs n mushrooms although a little disappointed I paid the same as a colleague who had scrambled eggs, bacon, tomato and mushroom but being a vegetarian I asked for just the eggs n mushroom would have thought the price would have been reduced. But quick service and happy staff

I use this regularly the food is all cooked fresh to order however the till service is so slow it borders on infuriating.

Great opportunity to take a break during shopping and to have my car washed. Always avoid cheap cup of coffee and free newspapers.

We had the mega brunch which,was good value,service at the till left a little bit to be desired,one person taking your order and serving you drinks,made the process that little bit slower,however the food was good.

Only go there once a fortnight, but one in three visits we find that they are closed by six, even for a coffee and cake, the food is fine and the staff friendly enough, but a big store like sainsbury's you would think they would be more organised, we regularly use the sainsbury's in Ferndown and have never had a problem there in fact I would give them five stars without hesitation

Oh dear. I like to be fair and objective with my reviews, and I'm trying hard to live up to that here. I frequently use the cafe with my children after school, because it's a better alternative to the Golden Arches or the Colonel's Fried (suspect) Chicken, but be under no illusion, convenience is about the only thing that makes me reluctantly go back. On the whole, the food is of a good quality, and reasonably priced. Where the cafe falls flat on it's face is service, availability of menu choices and, dare I say it, cleanliness. Towards the later end of the afternoon, it's almost guaranteed that the staff will have to check on availability of your choice from the menu, and on several occasions, almost the entire menu has "sold out" labels placed on it. Given that the food is very clearly sourced from Sainsburys own product range, you would think that resupply would be easy, as there is a multi-thousand square foot supermarket attached to the cafe, but it seems that once they run out of an item, that's it until the next day. Now, I'm no stock control expert, but it seems to me that if you regularly sell out of items, then maybe you need to review your stock levels? It is also not unusual for there to be technical problems on the kitchen resulting in no tea or other hot drinks. Service is slow: not because the staff are bad at their job, but because they are woefully under staffed. The cashier is also the barista/waitress combined and so if you are in a queue behind someone ordering a large food order plus several hot drinks, be prepared for a long wait. The food is usually brought out fairly quickly, to be fair, and the staff are attentive enough, but because of the low staff levels, tables are often left uncleared and not wiped down. The cutlery is always water marked from the washer: it may have been washed but it gives the impression of being grubby. We have a game we play after ordering out food called "Hunt the Clean Spoon".....I must reiterate that this is not the fault of the staff: I think they are trying the best they can, and it's not unusual to hear them apologising for the lack of something or other. They are usually very good at suggesting an alternative option where possible, and are happy to substitute items to accommodate fussy eaters ( my daughter, take note!!).The cafe needs pulling up by it's bootstraps and having someone manage it rather than let it lurch along from one crisis to another. It's a shame because the convenience of the location is almost negated by the down at heel, lack lustre overall experience.

Last Friday we went to Sainsbury Farlington for a change and thought we would have lunch in their cafe. Big Mistake. They had hardly any sandwiches on show so we thought as there was a queue we would go for the easy option of roll and soup we could not believe it when they told us it would take half an hour, most places have it front of house and then they were telling the queue everything would be at least half an hour to an hour. Well we walked out and will never go back plus they need more staff to cope with the busy times there was only two serving. We feel they should look at the other Supermarket cafe layouts and try harder to please the customer.

Their 'full English' is excellent. As good as any British hotel I've stayed in - and better than many!

Well if you are hungry & not in a hurry & just want refreshments/snack this is fine, if you want a little else don't bother. Foolishly I think it's ok for cooked breakfasts, wise to the fact that it might be value for money but there are too many other fine places to get a hearty meal

At the counter we were advised of a 20minute delay on food orders which turned out to be about right. Not sure why because it wasn.t particularly busy but we were informed so that was okay. Cooked breakfasts were mostly okay but eggs were hard rather than runny which was a shame. Service was okay. Décor seemed a bit oppressive and needing a refresh, put something light in, there's a large window make the most of it.

Popped in here for breakfast whilst my car was being serviced at a nearby garage. The staff were friendly and helpful, the fry up was average but the coffee was not drinkable, it was veey bitter. It was the same in another Sainsburys cafe that I've been to recently so I don't think that it was down to the way that it was made, it mist just be the type of coffee that they use.

You've got to try the Cheesy Chips here. Dropped for a coffee and decided to try the chips. Let's just say I'll be in again to have them again, next time I'm passing. Thank you.

My husband and I will visit this supermarket on occasion, although it is not the nearest to us, because they have a very good car cleaning service in the car park! While there we have often used the large cafe attached. Food here is very pleasant and reasonably priced, but the fresh coffee making slows the service down, and confusingly they often have basic items unavailable from the menu, which is very disappointing. To be fair, we have had similar problems in our local Sainsbury's cafe. Not sure how these businesses operate, but as a hungry customer, we do wonder why they can't pop into the supermarket attached to refill their stocks!

We popped in for a well needed fry up this morning, The price is reasonable and the quality above average for this type of establishment, Overall a very good breakfast

Service is so slow and the staff always try to up sell your drinks to a large one.The cutlery never looks that clean and the floor looks like it needs a good clean

My family and I regularly come here for breakfast on Sunday and it's delicious! Staff are always friendly and the food is hot and cooked really well.

We have visited this Sainsburys cafe quite a few times. To be honest, I don't know why we keep going back! Convenient place maybe?Anyway, there is usually a large queue, because they can never cope with making all the posh coffees - frustrating when you only want a tea!You always have to sift through the cutlery to find clean ones.Last time we visited we had a breakfast (wasn't busy) - we waited 40 minutes for it. We were told they were waiting for the beans! Once you get the food and find some clean cutlery, the food is usually quite nice.