Hampshire Restaurant Guide

Lawrence & Julia Murphy have operated their “small” and “utterly charming” dining room in a 17th-century fisherman’s cottage above the quay since 2000, building a “strong local following”. It’s “better than a neighbourhood restaurant but not posh” and its “superb cooking, local produce and attention to detail” “can’t be recommended too highly”.

With its “medieval exposed beams and stripped, creaky flooring”, this “cosy restaurant” in a 600-year-old merchant’s house is “one of the most romantic places, with lots of small, quirkily decorated rooms”. Staff are “chilled but attentive” and the food – although it may struggle to match the unique surroundings – is, on practically all accounts, “more than accomplished”.

“Fresh and flavoursome fish” combine with “stunning sea views over the Solent to the Isle of Wight” at this “friendly” operation with a “lovely terrace” for al fresco meals. Chef Karl Wiggins took over in early 2018 from Pierre Chevillard, who had run the kitchen for more than a decade, and by all accounts the place “has kept up its very high standards”. Eating here is a pleasure “that’s not diminished by repeated visits”.

Chef David Wykes has earned a glowing reputation for his “calm” dining room with open kitchen behind a fishmonger – “one of those restaurants you’re continually looking for an excuse or reason to return to” with “outstanding” preparation of fish.

The dining room of this plush country-house hotel – “a classic five-star” in an 18th-century mansion – serves an “imaginative menu of innovative food, much of it local produce”. Exec chef Andrew Birch, who took over the kitchen in June 2017, is “definitely one to watch”.

With “high ambition” and a “limited menu (but this is no disadvantage)”, this unassuming ‘global French’ hotspot, just off the seafront, is a bright spark in Portsmouth’s still-emerging food scene.