The Quays, littered as it is by chain restaurants with nary a privately- owned eaterie – until recently – is not known for good food actually cooked on the premises from well-sourced ingredients.
Almost the exception is the Waterfront Brasserie. With no less than 28 restaurants and 14 cafés operating in the Quays, the misconstrued F word dominates: 'Food? Gosh, we thought it came in a packet to be reheated!'
But a few months ago, That Great Place, a deli cum bistro and café, opened its doors on the opposite side of the waterway. Ex-Asda director Stephen Agar-Hutty had ideas other than the norm in the Quays: to provide good nosh prepared from well-sourced ingredients and cooked simply in a small kitchen for his 48-cover business.
Despite no training – he worked abroad as an engineer for decades – he has taken on the big boys at their game. But does he succeed? Quays management takes rent and a cut of profits, a tall order for a small one-off outfit. It's a Deli David meets The Gargantuan Goliaths scenario, which could end in bitter lemon tears and bistro bankruptcy. Our Stephen doesn't do anything by halves. Oh, no. Nothing is left to chance. He went on a Michelin-starred restaurant course to find out how a kitchen ticks, a barista course to find out how to make a damned fine espresso and engaged no less than two chefs to take on the rigours of cooking with him.
An impressive breakfast menu includes home-made muesli, American homemade pancakes with bacon and maple syrup and a creamy Welsh rarebit with grilled tomatoes with, naturally, coffee to write home about but also a menu to show off the deli's produce and the trio's cooking skills – naturally from scratch.
Spinach soup; grilled goat's cheese with a beetroot and walnut salad; antipasti; deli meat platter with olives, salad and focaccia made in-house might precede home-made chilli con carne; fishcakes 'with fish from local docks'; the deli steak, a ribeye with salad and potato wedges; chicken breast with Parma ham and pesto; sea bass with fennel, garlic and vegetables and tagliatelle with prawns, tomatoes, garlic and herbs. Prices range from the muesli with banana and berries or soup with crusty bread, both at £4.75, to lasagna and fishcakes at just under a tenner to that deli steak at £16.95.
In case this isn't enough to get your head around, Stephen designed the deli sandwiches and chose what to pile into his generously-laden deli counters.
Sit in stylish comfort in the bistro cum café or outside overlooking the water. And don't expect food in a jiffy. If it's good food, it's worth waiting for.
But is it? Yes. A fine bowl of perfectly cooked tagliatelle, culled from the Italian specialist dried pasta range also for sale on the shelf, was amply buoyed by a robust sauce of tomato, oregano and onion with fat, luscious tiger prawns.
Stephen offers either grated or sliced 18-month-old Parmesan to add a further layer. A rather stunning glass of Spanish wine was perhaps too strong for the dish but if I had listened to his master's voice, aka Stephen, he would have recommended a more suitable one.
My meal was cut short as an entire apple and ginger crumble hit the kitchen floor and was the only homemade pud on offer.
A sliver or two of rather impressive cheese – a Rachel amongst them – delivered a fine end to the meal and one of the best espressos to pass my lips outside Italy made up for this lack.
Service is efficient and charming, That Great Place? Well – simply great. Stephen has thrown down the privately-owned restaurant gauntlet and real food wins hands down.

That Great Place, Gunwharf Quays, Portsmouth, (023) 9229 6597.
Open: Seven days a week from 8am to 10.30pm.
Food: ****
Service: ****
Atmosphere: *****
Disabled access: Yes.
How to get there: Follow the signs for Gunwharf Quays, park in the large underground car park and, once on the main level, turn left, crossing over the bridge to the mainly residential area which also houses Loch Fyne and the Apex Gallery. That Great Place is the business closest to the water on this side.

Maria Brower and Felicity Lewisson, from Portsmouth: 'This place just feels different, as if someone really cares,' Maria said. 'The deli counter staff are really on the ball. I had one of their deli sandwiches, a New York pastrami one with American pickles which tasted genuine, not made in a factory.' 'I'm very happy to wait for the food as it is all cooked to order, my spinach soup and fishcakes extremely good,' Felicity added.