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Italian Bar and Grill, Southsea
The restaurant business is a constantly evolving one, with recession-hit businesses shutting up shop or being transferred to new owners.
Recent changes in Southsea include 8 Kings Road, Montparnasse (whose past joint owner is set to open a new venture called Number 27 shortly) and a restaurant-cum-bar on Great Southsea Street, now in its third change of ownership in as many years.
Steve Neilson's dream was to have an Italian grill, similar in style to New York ones. Now the proud possessor of the rather splendid former India Arms, he's added smart black and white tablecloths with red napkins on the tightly-packed tables. The fine courtyard garden has also received a makeover.
You can either sit in the large bar or in the restaurant. Steve has commissioned an artist to create some generic street murals instead of highlighting – understandably – the existing English bucolic Edwardian scenes, now covered over. New York or Milan they are not. Dusty, Petula and Satchmo belt out familiar tunes.
The menu is a very large one which chef Steve might regret and rein in a tad once he's realised he's bitten off more than the kitchen can chew.
It covers four pages. And that doesn't include desserts. Madness. New, excited restaurateurs can make that mistake of wanting to please everyone all of the time.
Here, you'll be offered no less than 50 dishes ranging from bbq ribs, mussels, garlic prawns and pizza potato skins to combo platters, ribeye, New York strip, chicken New Yorker (chicken with bacon, melted cheese, bbq sauce, corn on the cob, coleslaw and potato: 9.95) and ribs. There are classic burgers, pizzas including a Mexican Heat Wave (7.95), pasta dishes (lasagne, seafood spaghetti and five others with choice of pasta), breads and olives and salads.
Five diners were in early one evening, the kitchen not under pressure. My pesto chicken with spaghetti (7.95, a typical price for many dishes excluding the grills), was a fine bit of cooking. The chicken was tender, the pasta well – perhaps too well – covered with a good pesto sauce. More is less in this case, over-oiling a tad cloying.
An excellent glass of well-priced Chianti (3.60 for 175ml) came from a familiar list of wines including Gallo (US), Hardys (Oz), Oyster Bay (NZ), Spumante (Italy) and Campo Vieja (Spain).
Steve also makes his own desserts (an ungreedy 3.95) and gets a definite thumbs-up from this critic. Cheesecake with berries, pecan pie and brownies were all tried, the cheesecake base rather grainy, the pecan pie crammed full of nuts and caramelised sugar, the squidgy brownie the best of the bunch.
There's certainly room in Portsmouth and area for this type of personal rather than chain Italian New York restaurant. Steve, with all his enthusiasm, is making a real go of it. Just shrink the choices. My bill came to 15.50 not including a tip.
Italian Bar and Grill, 30 – 32 Great Southsea Street, Southsea, PO5 3BY 02392 753058.
Open: from 5pm-10.30pm each evening (10pm Sundays) also from 12pm Friday and Saturday.
Food: ****
Service: ****
Atmosphere: ***
Disabled access: ramp down to restaurant for wheelchair users.
How to get there: once on Kings Road (via Kings Terrace) turn right onto Castle Street then right onto Great Southsea Street, a one way street. On-street parking.
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Wednesday 23 May 2012
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