If you're looking for those chains that clutter up most other main streets in large towns, you just won't find them here. Not one. Quirky is the name of the game along this long street, independent traders giving full rein to their creative side – and not only restaurateurs or café owners. Where else would you find a hemp shop? Military antiques? 1950s furniture anyone?
Nicholsons is an idiosyncratic restaurant. The name is about as British as you can get, but the menu is Spanish and the fine staff are plucked from the Far East.
The outfit behind this small restaurant runs a catering and a franchise side and will help you set up your own restaurant. It's no wonder they only open at 5.30pm from Tuesday to Saturday to fit all this into their busy schedule.
The chef must have taken to la vida Espanola when visiting Spain as the menu is geared towards the Iberian peninsula.
Nicholsons does a good deal in tapas for those early birds keen on taking up a table in the simply-designed restaurant, its salmon pink walls decorated with very adventurous artwork.
Music, fast and ferocious guitar from Spain and Cuba, adds greatly to the atmosphere. Come here before 7pm for four tapas for under £8. The later you come the more pricey it gets, but all pricing is very reasonable. The menu is divided into four – Patatas with rice and breads, Tapas, Carne (meat) and Main Courses.
You'll find paella with chicken, prawns and chorizo; garlic flatbread; fritas with cream; mushrooms in olive oil; white anchovies with tomato, red onion and garlic; crispy whitebait with lemon; Spanish lamb meatballs in a tomato sauce; king prawns in garlic and olive oil and brocheta de pollo y chorizo (skewers of chicken and spicy Spanish sausage with balsamic syrup dressing). Yup, balsamic, from Italy.
Main courses include a Mediterranean pasta dish with roasted vegetables; salmon with tarragon butter; butterfly pork with a white wine and cream sauce (lomo de cerdo) and steak with a garlic butter sauce, fries and mushrooms (bistec de buey a la parilla), the latter priced at just under the £12 mark, Nicholsons' most expensive dish.
Service is a delight. My Far Eastern waitress was genuinely charming, radiant and efficient. I soon had a half-decent glass of white wine and my four tapas, cooked to order, soon made their way to my table. It really is a case of East meets West meets Spanish meets Italian meets Southsea here.
Where else would you get chicken and chorizo on a skewer on a bed of red onion, oak leaf and balsamic dressing? Certainly not in Spain, the inventiveness of the kitchen also turning out a deep-fried pastry triangle of goat's cheese with cranberry dressing, that 1980s stalwart still found alive and kicking in Southsea.
I left the dressings – why add them? – but enjoyed both dishes, the fried whitebait getting my Best-in-Show vote. The paella, lacking in flavour, also lacked chorizo but not peas, prawns and tumeric-coloured rice.
Desserts veer off-track with nary a Spanish one in their small midst. Chocolate fudge cake, banoffee roulade and lemon tart are all bought-in, my dislike of E numbers and other additives found in mass-produced food forcing me to come to a halt.
But, despite this abrupt end to my time at the rather eccentric Nicholsons, I would happily venture back for more of the whitebait, the cheese, the music and the extremely gracious service.
My bill came to just over £15 not including a well-deserved tip.

Nicholsons, 245 Albert Road, Southsea. (023) 9281 5222.
Open: 5.30pm-late Tue to Sat.
Food: ****
Service: *****
Atmosphere: ****
Disabled access: Yes.
How to get there: Nicholsons is opposite the turning to Festing Road. Parking on-street.
Bus: 16, 17, 18 and others

Diners' View
Tania Hill and Darren Voss from Portsmouth: 'We've been here a few times and really enjoy the good-price tapas which are filling enough for us as a main course,' Tania said. 'I have to have the squid with mayonnaise and the meatballs,' she added. 'I like their pricing, the really calm service and the guitar music,' Darren added.