Southsea, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

This “pleasant” and “airy” bistro on the seafront has shaken up its offering thanks to new head chef Adam Maker, who has introduced small plates and ambitious locally sourced cuisine alongside ongoing fixtures such as the “excellent fish ’n’ chips” and pizzas. Oenophiles are also well served as “in partnership with Camber Wines, there’s plenty of choice for all tastes and budgets” when it comes to the tipples.

In 2019, locally born chef Gary Pearce and his wife Martyna took over this well-established restaurant-with-rooms right on Emsworth harbour from Ramon & Karen Farthing, who had developed it into one of the South Coast’s better-known dining options over two decades. Gary’s “complex and innovative cooking” – honed in top kitchens including Le Champignon Sauvage in Cheltenham and Belgium’s De Wulf – scored consistently well this year, if on somewhat limited feedback.

“Satisfyingly simple and unpretentious” – the verdict on Lawrence & Julia Murphy’s long-running (est. 2000) and “rustic” venture in a cute, seventeenth-century fisherman’s cottage, on the road down to the quay; the “varied menu” features “plenty of fresh fish, beautifully prepared and served” and coming “at a reasonable price” to boot.

2022 Review: Sailor-turned-entrepreneur Ed Collison set up his popular venue at Emsworth yacht basin at the age of 21 in 2016, serving everything from £4.50 bacon breakfast rolls to a splash-out seafood platter for two at £120 a pop. During lockdown he launched a fleet of silver catering vans, and in November 2021 announced a new branch of the Deck, replacing the Boat House Café, at Gosport marina.

2022 Review: “Have a lovely walk to work up an appetite” before visiting this laidback brick-walled boozer on the River Meon, handy for the South Downs Way, and with a “very nice little garden down by the brook”. To make sure of enjoying its “great” pubby staples “you need to book – even midweek – as it’s very popular”.

2023 Review: The view (towards Goodwood) from the window is said to have inspired William Blake’s anthem, Jerusalem, in 1803, but the current future is uncertain at this eighteenth-century coaching inn, which shut its doors in early October 2022. We await news of the new incarnation of this vantagepoint over ‘England’s green and pleasant land’.

This 200-year-old local pub at the foot of the South Downs is “well run and popular”, with a “well-executed and great-value menu” of superior gastropub fare.

2022 Review: Current owners The Epicurean Collection – behind a string of boutique pubs and inns – have a hit on their hands with this award-winning venture: a “worthy addition to an area generously supplied with high-quality country pubs”. The rolling South Downs beyond the windows inform much of the “imaginative menu”, with a particular accent on introducing non-shooting folk to game (the latter courtesy of the local Goodwood Estate).

Four miles from Chichester, and bordering the South Downs National Park, this 200-year-old pub-with-rooms is part proper boozer (upfront) and part tastefully arty restaurant offering ambitious gastrofare. Reporters this year praised the “warm ambience” and a “treat” of a menu that features some “standout courses” such as scallops and venison.