Portsmouth's Compass Rose Chinese Restaurant and Bar opens at the site of old pub in Anchorage Park

Kay Wei and her husband Simon Li have opened the Compass Rose Chinese Restaurant and Bar at the location of the old Compass Rose pub in Anchorage Road. The couple have experience of bringing modern fusion restaurants to the south coast, with 1805 in Bournemouth and Shanghai 1814 in Southampton. They will be utilising Simon’s talents in the kitchen having worked in the Michelin star restaurant Hakkasan in Mayfair, London for a number of years.

Kay is looking forward to introducing something new to the Portsmouth market: "All the current Chinese restaurants are the old traditional types, including their decoration and food menu. What we are trying to do here is transfer over from traditional style Chinese restaurant to a modern one. We will serve fusion food with influences from other countries, such as Italy, to make it more interesting. It is very rare to find this type of fusion in traditional local Chinese restaurants.”

She added: "It is very exciting for both of us. We picked Portsmouth because we think it needed something different. Based on our previous projects in other cities we think it will be exciting to have something new in Portsmouth.”

The old pub has been revamped to look more in keeping with a modern Chinese eatery. Here are 16 pictures of the transformation.