Where to go in Southsea

Last August, Rob and I moved to a little flat in Southsea (have a sneak peek at our flat here).  Since then we've spent all of our weekends exploring Portsmouth and finding the best places to spend our spare time.  It's a brilliant little place and we've fallen in love with it, if you've visiting this little part of England, here are our recommendations (and a few places we haven't tried yet!).

Snacking

Portsmouth seems to be the place to snack.  If you're fancying some good old fashioned cheesy seaside fun then Southsea pier is the place for you.  Although there are the usual options of donuts/candyfloss/hotdogs, when I'm there I can't resist the little fresh fruit stand for a punnet of cherries or strawberries to pick at.  For something a bit more calorific, Heidi's bakery in Southsea Shopping Centre does the most delicious iced donuts I've ever eaten.  If your a cake person, the Tenth Hole does cake like nobody's business - you have to try it to believe it (full post here). 

Although I haven't tried it, Southsea Coffee Co. always put photos of delicious-looking healthy snacks on their instagram, I can't wait to try it!

Eating Out

We love a good date night, and most weekends we go to a restaurant for a meal out so we've found a couple of real beauties.  For Italian food, it has to be I Italian Bar and Grill for their laid back atmosphere are authentic delicious food.  But if it's explicitly pizza you're after, the pizza oven at Mozzarella Joes makes the most mouth-wateringly good pizzas (here), and there's a beautiful view of the sea if you sit out the back - perfect when the sun is shining!

If it's something French you fancy, Restaurant 69 is so delicious and really reasonably priced, I adore their moules mariniere, but Rob is more of a lamb shank kind of guy.  If you want to splash the cash, Loch Fyne is perfect (the lobster is to die for).  

If your fancying good American food, I'd go for either Coast to Coast (I recommend their BBQ chicken wings) or Meat and Barrel; both really laid back, enjoyable places to be.  

If chinese is more up your street, you can eat in or take away at Tang's, and the food is all delicious.

If you're more of an 'out for breakfast' kinda person, Jags is the one for pancakes (here), waffles, cooked breakfasts or a mixture of all three! 

If we're gonna grab some food to take home and cook it's a no brainer - Buckwells Butchers has a huge selection of basically everything.  We adore their sirloin steaks, burgers and caramelised onion chutneys, but we've never had anything less than delicious from there.

We still have a load of places on our 'to try' list too - 6oz Burger, Circolo, Sopranos, Huis, Belle Isle and Johnny Russells are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

Drinking
This is where Portsmouth and Southsea come into their own.  For good old pubs we love Meat and Barrel for their huge array of pump ales, Still and West for their beautiful view of the sea, Queens Hotel for their huuuge beer garden, Coast to Coast for their range of cocktails, Belle Isle for how completely cool you feel sitting in there and The Vaults for the laid back grungy atmosphere.  We've got our eye on the new Gin and Olive next!

Things to do
We never run out of things to do around here, especially when the sun is shining.  Every weekend the Love Southsea market is on Palmerston Road and there are usually some real treasures tucked away in the stalls.  Sometimes there's a mobile pizza oven (I cant for the life of my remember the company name) and their BBQ pulled pork pizza is heavenly.
Throughout the summer, literally hundreds of people flock to the seafront for Live Music at the Bandstand which is especially enjoyable when the sun is shining. If you're in that area, Southsea Castle is worth a wander around as well (and the cafe is adorable!).  If it's raining, head to Gunwharf Quays for shopping (hello CCO!), bowling and pool at the Bowlplex, a cinema and a whole host of restaurants and bars with a sea view.
If we're going for a walk we always head down to the sea front.  Southsea leisure park, Southsea common, Nelsons walk and Spicer Island are our usual haunts.

Admittedly, it's much more enjoyable when the sun is shining because in the colder months there is some pretty extreme wind which is seriously chilly (trust me, you do need your gloves).  Since the summer arrived I am always itching to get out of the flat and enjoy the weather.  I have loved every second of living here, and am looking forward to finding more places to explore.

If you've got any recommendations of places to visit and Southsea, leave them in the comments, we always want to try somewhere new!