Feed Caffe, Portsmouth

Feed is a tiny cafe situated under the railway on a stretch of road between two entrances to Gunwharf Quays. I wouldn't have given it a second look had I not found out that it was owned by the same company as the Olivo restaurant in Ryde, Isle of Wight, that had impressed me so much. It had to be worth trying.

My first visit to Feed was at 1pm on a weekday during school holidays, and the place was encouragingly busy. I sat down at the only vacant small table, noticing that the wooden tables and chairs were reminiscent of those at Olivo. A waitress brought me a menu, simply printed on an A4 sheet of white paper, along with a separate sheet for the day's specials. Sausage casserole had, she told me, run out, which was a shame as the sausages at Feed come from Buckwells, Southsea's best butcher. I ordered an orange juice (£1.55) and started to look at the menu.

Feed offers a surprisingly good choice of food whether you want breakfast, a sandwich, a hearty cooked meal or afternoon tea. Breakfasts range from toast and toppers (£3.50) to full English (£5.95) or the Mighty Meaty Feed Breakfast (£7.50) for those with a huge desire for protein. There are three varieties of omelette with which you could have chips and salad or toast and beans (or even toast and chips). Extras can be ordered, for example black pudding (£1.50), baguette (£1.20) or mushrooms (80p).

If burgers are your thing, there are five different choices including a spicy Mexican bean burger (£5.95) and a lamb and mint burger in a toasted ciabatta (£6.95); all are served with chips, coleslaw and mayonnaise. Jacket spuds come with a small salad garnish, homemade coleslaw and butter. Most fillings are £4.75, but the prawn Marie Rose as well as the sausage and bean toppings cost a pound or so more.

Baguettes, sandwiches and wraps are served with coleslaw and diced potato. They range from bacon (£3.50) to prawn Marie Rose (£4.95). The only vegetarian choice is Cheddar cheese and onion (£3.95). If you don't think one of these will satisfy your appetite, you could go for the Feed club sandwich (£7.25), a toasted one with chicken, ham, cheese, lettuce, cucumber, tomato, red onion, mustard and mayonnaise, served with coleslaw and diced potato.

For children there is a Little Fillers Menu. The price of £3.95 includes a drink, and the choices of food are full English breakfast, classic burger, sausage with chips and beans, ham or cheese sandwich with diced potatoes, or two slices of toast with either bacon, eggs or beans.

I considered ordering from the special menu where I liked the sound of the chicken and mushroom tortelloni more than the spicy chicken fajita, but in the end I decided on a veggie breakfast (£5.95). With two veggie sausages, an egg, fried diced potatoes, mushrooms, griddled tomato and toast, this sounded very filling. I only had to wait a few minutes until this was served. It was well presented and looked appetising; my only reservations were that brown or wholemeal toast had not been offered, and no alternative was given to a fried egg. Given the choice, I would have had wholemeal toast and scrambled egg. Portions were generous except for the tomato. The diced potatoes were very small and beautifully crisp, and the button mushrooms had also been sliced into small pieces. The veggie sausages were cooked to perfection. Everything was hot and tasted very good. Had I not had a long walk that morning I might have struggled to finish the veggie breakfast.

Feed do a selection of homemade cakes that sit tantalisingly in the window, but there was no way I could have found room for a slice that day. It will be a good excuse to go back one afternoon and decided whether to be vaguely healthy and go for carrot cake or indulge in coffee and walnut. I also resisted the temptation to try Feed's coffee. As well as espressos, lattes and cappuccinos, they serve hot chocolate with cream and mallows, Earl Grey tea, and a variety of Twining's flavoured teas.

Feed is actually situated in one of a number of arches underneath the railway line. Because of this, it has a curved ceiling and walls, as though you were in a short tunnel. The walls are exposed brickwork, and I realise that some people may be put off that this is a very small and not very stylish eatery. Others, however, will appreciate the originality of the setting and prefer Feed to the chain restaurants and the crowds of Gunwharf Quays.

My bill came to £7.50 to which I added a tip. Several young waitresses were on hand at Feed, and they were welcoming, friendly and efficient, just as they had been at Olivo in Ryde. I was alone yet did not feel uncomfortable in any way.

There is just one unisex toilet at Feed with a rather strange folding door that closes with a hook. Other than black grouting between the tiles, it was clean; turning the tap on and off, however, was almost beyond me as there wasn't anything much to get hold of! I had to tell one of the waitresses that I hadn't been able to turn it off properly and she kindly said she would see to it.

This is obviously a much smaller and simpler place than Olivo Restaurant in Ryde, but it nevertheless had a similar feel to it. The food was very good, and the place does seem popular despite the competition from Gunwharf Quays. I believe Feed is open until about 7.30pm, and it is in an ideal location for anyone visiting Portsmouth Historic Dockyard or for those who want to get away from the crowds at the shops. It may not have the views of the eateries at the waterfront, but it offers good food and a welcoming atmosphere that is genuinely refreshing.

Feed Caffe

Arch No. 7

The Hard

Portsmouth

PO1 4DT

Churchill's @ 25, Southsea

There are four small cafe-restaurants on Marmion Road, Southsea, just off Palmerston Road shopping precinct. I had only ever been to one of them, the Vegetarian Greenhouse Kitchen, and thought it was about time to try out one of the others. Late one Saturday morning we looked at the menus in the window of Churchills @ 25; my son had been before and said I should be the one to decide. It looked very busy inside, but a table for two all on its own by the entrance was just being vacated so I suggested we take it.

Main dishes on the menu included quiche, lasagne, chicken and ham pie, eggs benedict, mushroom fricasee and fish cake with a poached egg (which seemed a bit of a strange combination). Soup of the day could be ordered along with a sandwich chosen from a varied list of fillings. Jacket potatoes were mostly around the £3 mark. A board with the day's specials had been placed outside, and I had to go and take another look as I couldn't see them listed inside. There was cauliflower cheese with either chips or salad, vegetarian lasagne, and a tempting Thai chicken salad amongst a few other choices. However, we noticed that it was possible to order a full English breakfast for £5.25 including tea, coffee or fruit juice (orange, apple or cranberry). We both decided to order the vegetarian version which offered two sausages, an egg (poached, fried or scrambled) on half a muffin, cherry tomatoes, and slices of button mushrooms. Both of us chose scrambled egg, my son ordered tea and I asked for orange juice.

The drinks were brought after a couple of minutes. There was a pot of tea (enough for two cups) with a jug of milk, and the orange juice was served with ice. We had to wait about fifteen to twenty minutes before our food arrived, but we were not in a hurry so we didn't mind. Each of us had just the one sausage whereas the menu had promised two, but we didn't complain as neither of us thought we could have managed a second one. The scrambled egg was a little overdone, but other than that we enjoyed our breakfasts. Everything was freshly cooked and arranged on the plate with care, the tomatoes and mushrooms surrounding the scrambled egg on the muffin.

Just above our table was a board listing desserts at reasonable prices, mostly around £2.45. These included treacle tart, lemon cheesecake, rum and raisin cheesecake, and a three-flavoured jelly; bread and butter pudding was a little more expensive. We weren't interested in any of them on that occasion, but it's obvious that you could have a two or three course meal without breaking the bank.

A notice in the window states that if you order lunch, you can have a glass of wine for £1.75. That's worth remembering. Another notice advertises coffee and cake for £2.75 in the afternoon.

Churchill's @ 25 has not long been open and is very clean and tastefully decorated. Tables and upright chairs are of wood, without tablecloths. Most of the tables do seem to be rather close together, and I felt that we had been lucky to come at the right time to sit at the table for two that is on its own by the entrance. On the far wall are four prints of Winston Churchill, each one based on a different colour in the mode of Andy Warhol. Other abstract artworks were very uninspiring to me; as well as these there is a series of maxims printed on the walls, words of wisdom to digest along with your lasagne or cheesecake.

We were satisfied with the service from both the waiter and waitress on that Saturday, as they were polite and efficient, making a point of asking us on two occasions if everything was all right. My son, however, had not been so impressed with another waiter on a previous visit and probably wouldn't have chosen Churchill's if I hadn't been interested in trying it out.

There appears to be just one toilet with disabled access and baby changing facilities, but I cannot comment on its cleanliness as I did not use it.

I would recommend Churchill's @ 25 as a venue for a drink, breakfast or lunch to anyone shopping in Palmerston Road and wanting a break. It makes a change from Costa Coffee and offers much more in the way of food. I would personally prefer the Greenhouse Kitchen, but that is a vegetarian restaurant and obviously won't suit everyone. For anyone walking up from the sea front or Southsea common, there are so many restaurants to choose from before reaching Marmion Road that Churchill's is unlikely to be a candidate. I would, however, be happy to go back there if that Thai chicken salad is on offer again one day.

Churchill's @ 25

25 Marmion Road

Southsea

PO5 2AT

Tel 023 9273 8525

Portsmouth's corner of Paris

quite often go for lunch in Southsea on a Saturday, but on this occasion I needed to visit Blackwell's bookshop near Portsmouth University, so it was a good opportunity to have lunch at the nearby Cafe Parisien for a change. As the Cafe is popular with university students and staff, I thought perhaps Saturday would be a relatively quiet day there, but it was pouring with rain and blowing a gale so the outside tables could not be used, and even at 1.30pm the place was packed with people inside. We nevertheless managed to find a table for three and then went to queue up and place our order.

The menu is written on blackboards above the counter and looks a little confusing at first, but it is quite easy to find the appropriate section, depending on whether you want soup, a plat principal/cooked meal, a salad (choice of twelve), a croque monsieur or some other kind of sandwich. Main meals include salmon, cod, sirloin steak, and chicken, as well as one or two vegetarian options. I remembered that just over a year before I had had 'Number 12', consisting of open ciabatta, scrambled egg, smoked salmon and cream cheese for £6.95, and my son and I both decided we still liked the sound of it. I quite often choose salmon when I have a meal out, and I never buy eggs for myself so scrambled egg makes a change. I was tempted by cappuccino but then decided that fruit juice would be healthier and thought that carrot and apple juice with ginger sounded unusual. My son's partner ordered a three-egg omelette with chips, and we decided to share an extra plate of chips between us. Several varieties were available, including French, curly or thin, but we chose Belgian fries which are the chunky kind, served with red onion, ketchup and mayonnaise.

Having paid, we seated ourselves at our table with our drinks. It was big enough for three but would be a squeeze for four, unless for drinks only. There is just enough room to make your way between tables. The chairs are of a similar kind to those of Cafe Rouge, comfortable enough but with a rounded back which annoys women such as myself who have shoulder bags that slip off and end up on the floor.

Whilst waiting for the food, I tried my carrot and apple juice with ginger and was delighted by the combination of sweet and spicy flavours. The only problem was that the fruit and vegetable solids sink to the bottom of the glass and the juice at the top is rather watery, reminding me of a fruit juice I'd once had at Wagamama. These drinks are probably very healthy, but it's difficult to drink them through a straw – or directly from the glass, for that matter.

We had been given an empty wine bottle in which stood a numbered wooden spoon to identify our order, and it wasn't long before a waitress brought our food over. The main dishes were served on oval plates, with the Belgian fries on a round plate. There was just enough room on the table. I enjoyed having the Number 12 as much as I had on the previous occasion; the scrambled egg was just the right consistency and the smoked salmon provided a good contrast to the egg and cheese. It is for me, however, with the four pieces of ciabatta, a very rich and filling meal. It was all I could do to sample a few of the fries, and I thought that a side salad would perhaps have been a more sensible choice. I do always tend to say, though, that I have a smaller than average appetite.

I certainly would not have been able to manage a dessert that day, but I have had very good cookies there in the past, and I saw someone at a nearby table with a mouth-watering slice of chocolate cake. I might try that one day, but I shall have to have a salad as my main meal! The fruit tarts also look very tempting and would be slightly healthier than cake, of course. Coffees at Le Cafe Parisien are the Lavazza variety and are excellent. I haven't tried the smoothies myself but have it on good authority that they are delicious. If tea is your preference, there is a wide variety of Twinings on the menu.

A few weeks later I met my son at Le Cafe Parisien for a late breakfast, this time at about 11.30am on a Saturday. It was much less crowded; again the weather was utterly dismal, so the outside tables were not being used. I was wondering about trying an omelette this time, but eventually we both decided that the full vegetarian breakfast (£6.95) would be more varied. There was a choice of brown or white bread or toast, and we both chose brown toast. As it was a chilly day, I ordered a regular cappucino at £2.10 and my son went for an indulgent hot chocolate sprinkled with mini marshmallows and chocolate powder. (His excuse is that he has IBS and coffee upsets him!).

We sat ourselves at a small round table by the window – not that the view is anything to speak of. The drinks were up to our expectations, even though I'm hard to please where coffee is concerned. After a while our breakfasts arrived along with two slices each of toast and butter on separate plates, of course. We each had two fried eggs, a large half tomato, two veggie sausages, two hash browns and a generous serving of sliced button mushrooms. It was delicious, perhaps the mushrooms having the best flavour of all, although there was nothing I could fault. It was as much as I could do to have one slice of my toast, but my son had polished everything off by the time I was only halfway through my lunchtime breakfast. As neither of us was in a hurry, we lingered and had a glass of Appletiser each. By half past twelve there were still a few vacant tables.

One thing I particularly like about Le Cafe Parisien and that sets it apart from other restaurants is that it gives local artists the opportunity to exhibit and sell their work on its premises. My brother, who paints as a hobby, had an exhibition there in the summer of 2007. He was selling his canvases in aid of a local fisherman's charity and most of the work was bought on the evening of the private view. I hope that others who are trying to make a living as an artist have had as much success with their exhibitions at the Cafe.

If you are visiting the New Theatre Royal on Guildhall Walk or the Guildhall itself, Le Cafe Parisien would be the ideal place for a pre-show dinner as it is only a couple of minutes' walk away. It is also very close to the Ibis Hotel, Commercial Road shopping centre and Portsmouth and Southsea station. Worth mentioning is the special offer on Tuesday evenings of two steaks for £12.95. On weekdays during the day it is a popular place for university folk, although it does have to compete with the Via Lattea and the Students' Union.

Le Cafe Parisien has its own website that gives plenty of information on menus, exhibitions and other special events. I recommend a visit if you are in the area.

Le Cafe Parisien

1 Lord Montgomery Way

Portsmouth

PO1 2AH

Tel. 023 9283 1234

lecafeparisien.com