Restaurant review - The Red Lion, Cosham: I went to a refurbished pub to see if it lived up to the hype

After a busy morning of running errands, I decided that a pub brunch was in order, so made my way over to the Red Lion in London Road, Cosham. The venue was recently the subject of a major refurbishment project – which included not only an interior makeover, but a revamp of the menu.

It’s certainly much lighter inside than I remember, with the sun beaming through the eastern windows. It was really pleasant inside and the interior decorators have done a brilliant job. I was too early for the main food menu, so sat down to explore the breakfast menu instead.

I decided to go for the whole nine yards, ordering the Irish mega breakfast (£8.75), which comes with three Irish pork sausages, three rashers of bacon, three fried eggs, white pudding and three hash browns – plus baked beans, grilled tomato, two whole mushrooms and four slices of toast. That is nothing short of a mountain of food, especially at such a low price. Many other places would charge at least £12 to £13 for that sort of dish.

After buttering the toast I cut open the fried eggs, eagerly anticipating the yolks to flow out. Sadly, I was left disappointed, as the eggs weren’t even slightly runny, although the egg white had been cooked perfectly. My immediate reaction was that this was a shame, but since there’s so much food on the plate there was plenty left to look forward to.

The tomatoes were sweet, not overly juicy but still packed with flavour, and the two mushrooms were superb as well. I do prefer having two whole mushrooms to a bunch of sliced ones, so that was a welcome addition to my brunch.

According to the menu, the baked beans were Heinz – but to my palate they lacked flavour, tasting bland compared to other things on the plate.

The highlights of the breakfast were easily the sausages and white pudding. I normally prefer black pudding, but these were packed full of flavour and were a genuine delight. The sausages were pork and leek – a combination I confess to never having tried before, but certainly will again. The leek added an extra dimension to the meaty flavour of the sausages, without overpowering it like apple or caramelised onion does. They were hefty sausages too, so bonus points to the Red Lion for that.

Finally, I had saved what I had hoped would be the best until last – the bacon.

It’s a fickle meat and obviously a lot is down to personal preference; some prefer crispy bacon, others like it slightly undercooked. This bacon sat somewhere in the middle and certainly looked appetising.

However, the rashers themselves were incredibly fatty, and for some reason tasted way too salty – it felt like the grease coated my tongue for hours afterwards.

Overall, there were signs of greatness from my brunch at the Red Lion, but I left feeling a tad underwhelmed. That being said, I’m sure the rest of the menu looked enticing too, so perhaps I’ll have to return to try some of that too.

The Red Lion, London Road, Cosham, Portsmouth, PO6 3EE

(023) 9238 2041

Food: 3

Ambience: 4

Value: 4

Child-friendly: 3