New Southsea cafe offers a taste of Scotland

The T & Thistle cafe in Highland Road opened in February and has already become popular with locals.

The new cafe offers a range of Scottish teas and a coffee from Winchester called Moonroast, which co-owner Jennifer Wilkie says has already received many compliments.

The coffee lounge also offers snack and cakes and will soon be offering a larger lunchtime menu with platters and ploughman-type options.

They have also introduced a breakfast menu which includes the most popular dish so far, eggs benedict.

Jennifer said: ‘We thought it was a really interesting, quirky little place that we could make our own and put our stamp on and build a bit of a future for our children.

‘It’s a nice surrounding for a bit of indulgence and a nice bit of home baking with fresh coffees and loose leaf teas.’

The cafe is dog-friendly and offers free wi-fi.

Dan Prendergast, co-owner, said: ‘When opening a new business it can be hard to take on any criticism when you’ve worked so hard on something, but so far it’s all been positive and we’ve had great support from the community, everyone has been so friendly and supportive.’

Eleanor Bradbury, 21, a waitress at the cafe, said: ‘Everyone enjoys working here, we try our best to keep it at a high quality. It’s all very positive and the owners are really lovely.

‘One of the owners is from Scotland and so we produce a lot of Scottish coffees and teas which have actually won awards. The cafe is always lively and busy, especially at weekends. We also have quite a few locals who come in regularly.’

T & Thistle is open Monday to Sunday from 9am until 5pm.

For more, go to tandthistle.com/