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The Seahorse pub and restaurant, Gosport
Finding good pubs or restaurants in Lee-on-the-Solent and Gosport that specialise in local ingredients is like hunting for that proverbial needle in the haystack.
Combining good local food with good cooking is another hurdle to overcome in these parts. If you know of such places, I'd like to hear from you.
Once upon a time The Seahorse was the saving grace in the area. But the chef and co-owner, Simon Leonard, having brought standards up, decided to move on and open a fishmonger-deli shop in Lee.
Following his departure, in came a huge menu and two-for-one deals. All very different.
Well, Simon came back last month to take up the reins again, reinstating a small menu based on local ingredients. So I thought it was time to pay a return visit.
On the spring menu you will find twice-baked Lyburn cheese souffl; potted pork with spring herbs; south coast scallops with a Parma ham and pea terrine; rack of new season lamb with fennel; line caught fish and chips; sea trout with broad beans, spinach and crushed peas with hollandaise and sirloin steak with roasted onion rosemary butter and thick chips.
Prices range from under a fiver for soup to just over 15 for the lamb.
There's a two-course 5.50 lunch too alongside the new menu, the latter available both at lunch and dinner.
Good new staff members negotiate the medium-sized restaurant next to the pub bar. Dcor is modern, with red walls and high-back black chairs. A seahorse stands guard on a window ledge.
On the specials board I spied salmon wrapped in wild garlic for 8.75. This came with saffron baked potatoes and a salad. Wild garlic is uber-fashionable, Simon's local suppliers only finding rather tough leaves when younger, thinner leaves were needed.
But they left their magic on the salmon, farmed rather than organic. The gorgeously bright yellow potatoes, although rather too floury, adding a further buzz to the dish.
The mixed salad, positively pulsating with freshness and vigour, was delicately dressed.
Spring desserts – Pimms jelly with mint sorbet, rhubarb crme brulee, strawberry and elderflower cheesecake – had yet to surface, as the old menu was still in operation. So my choice was a fine, oozy chocolate fondant with snazzy melted chocolate zigzag, strawberries and well-sourced Isle of Wight Minghella vanilla ice cream.
Simon is right back where he belongs: heading up a small, tight kitchen brigade and cooking good, local, seasonal food.
My bill came to 17 including a glass of New Zealand Gewurtztraminer.
Carol is a chef, former restaurateur and editor of Savour, the Guild of Food Writers magazine.
The Seahorse pub and restaurant, Broadsands Drive, Gosport PO12 2TJ
(023) 9251 2910
Open: Noon-2.30 pm and 6pm–9.45pm (last orders) all week.
Food: ****
Service: ****
Atmosphere: ****
Disabled access: Fine
How to get there: M27 to Fareham, follow Gosport signs. Take Newgate Lane, Broom Way, Manor Way, Marine Parade which becomes Portsmouth Road and Privett Road. Right into Browndown Road. Left into Gomer Lane, left again into Broadsands Drive.
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Wednesday 23 May 2012
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