Brasserie@no.68, Fareham
Name changes and revamps can do wonders for a restaurant - if those changes have been thoroughly thought through.
Edwinns, part of a four-strong 'chain' that sits on Fareham's wide, handsome 18th century High Street, is now called Brasserie@ No.68.
The premises, once a very stylish seafaring captain's home, then Wykeham House School, have been transformed. There is a gentleman's club-style restaurant (The School Room) on the left of the exquisite curved staircase, while the right-hand restaurant is a more informal Class Room.
A wedding party was in the Class Room, so it was a left turn into the more formal School Room with its wood panelling, wine bottle-filled glass cases and eclectic food pictures.
You can either sit at one of the banquettes or a round table. Service is about as shipshape as it's possible to find in these mostly uncaring times. The waiter looked like a young John Sessions and had his intelligence and sense of humour.
The menu looks as if it could please all the people all of the time. There are small dishes (whitebait, a shared melted camembert, mushrooms and thyme butter on toast, devilled kidneys, soup, goat's cheese salad) and main dishes (Aberdeen Angus burger with handcut chips, battered fish and chips, pie of the day, skate wing with capers, whole sea bass, steak, butternut squash risotto, pork belly with apple, lamb shank). Prices are from 5 to around 17.
These are just some of the many dishes on offer, but the kitchen seems hard-pressed to cater for a wedding party and diners. The wait for food was considerable.
I suspect the kitchen relies heavily on frozen veg - and a surfeit of it. The roasted cod - a fine bit of careful cooking - hid a lovely mess of tiny broad beans and peas a la Francaise (lettuce braised leaves and onion), the small dish of other veg including carrots, mange tout, broccoli but oddly no potato.
The buttery sauce was scant but well-made, the fish's seasoning perfect.
My dessert, a pear and frangipane tart with raspberries, rhubarb, blueberries and redcurrants, was worth the wait.
The warm tart with - eureka! - a quality, tasty pastry base had a rich filling of tart rhubarb for contrast. Other puds at 4.95 included orange posset with a chocolate cigar.
A glass of Riesling from an extensive wine list failed to raise the pulse, the German Riesling usually far better than its southern hemisphere counterparts.
Would I return? Revamps can do wonders and, in the case of Brasserie@ no.68, new heights have been reached.
My bill (with a 25 per cent discount for January) came to 19.01, including a tip.
Brasserie@no.68, 68 High Street, Fareham PO16 7BB 01329 221338
Open: Noon-9.30pm each day
Food: ****
Service: *****
Atmosphere: ****
Disabled access: Steps up to restaurant, but plenty of space within for wheelchairs.
How to get there: Leave the M27 going west towards Fareham, following the city centre signs to the High Street, off West Street. Car parking at the rear.
Carol is a chef, former restaurateur and editor of Savour, the Guild of Food Writers magazine
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Friday 10 February 2012
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