Best Restaurant: Old House Hotel, Wickham
Located on one of the finest village squares in England in a handsome Grade II listed building.
The Old House Hotel restaurant has been awarded AA double rosette status.
Award-winning head chef James Parsons combines classic British cuisine with a contemporary influence. He has a passionate, hands-on approach and experience in several Michelin-starred restaurants, including The Canteen,Chelsea and the Auberge du lac in Provence.
The restaurant is committed to sourcing local, fresh and seasonal produce and supports Hampshire Fare, the organisation which represents and promotes local producers of food, drink and craft.
Those who have visited appreciate the large, atmospheric dining room and spacious conservatory.
Owner John Guess joined James Parsons to collect the award on Monday and says: 'We were absolutely delighted, thrilled, over the moon. The event was absolutely brilliant.'
Runner-up: Fat Olives, Emsworth. Having spent several years working in large corporate hotels, Lawrence Murphy and his wife Julia decided to 'go it alone' with their first restaurant, Fat Olives which opened in January 2000 in a quaint 17th century fisherman's cottage.
A combination of Lawrence's earlier career, spending time in kitchens in France and Switzerland, along with Julia's front office sales skills, gave rise to them becoming 'The News Restaurant of the Year' runner- up in their first year of opening and they are still winning awards eight years later.
The brasserie-style restaurant also features in the five main food guides for 2008 and is recommended in Egon Ronay's Top 200 Restaurants. Lawrence says: 'Obviously we're very pleased, especially because these awards were locally voted. An awful lot of our customers are repeat business from the local area. It's good news for our suppliers too, as they are all local.'
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Weather for Portsmouth
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
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