Village Inn, Swanwick

Large and modern feeling open space (yet with shielded spots and odd corners) pub owned by Mitchells & Butler, and run under their Ember Inns brand. The emphasis is on food, though there is a decent choice of cask beers, and customers are free to just have a drink. Large pay car park which is free for customers who record their registration number.  

The pub has the potential to be very good, but the service is slow. We waited a disproportionate amount of time for our desert, which had to be chased up twice. Getting served at the bar can be difficult. The pub needs an appropriate amount of staff to cope with customer flow. It's a very popular location, so can be busy with limited options for seating. We like sitting outside, but that is popular with smokers, and we couldn't find anywhere to sit where we were not breathing in someone's cigarette smoke. Shame, as the garden is one of the pub's best assets. Inside it feels a little corporate. There's little sense of cosy country pub.

Date: Sept 2019    Score: 5 

Ember Inns (Mitchell & Butler) 

67 Botley Road
Park Gate
SO31 1AZ

11am to 11pm+ 

Food 12 - 10 (10 - 10 weekends) 

Child friendly 

* Daily Echo 

* WhatPub 

* TripAdvisor 

Trago Lounge, Portswood

 

Lads Who Lunch came in March 2020. Great buzz as soon as we enter. Place is a good mix of men and women of all ages, including children. There are games for children and adults. 

Selection of keg beers

Beer is keg, but there's a reasonable selection. 

Ambiance

We had some pleasant food. Quite crowded, but we found a table. It was a decent place that I'd be happy to visit again. 


 

The Lads having lunch
in the Lounge

Date: March 2020    Score: 7 

Portswood

Maritimo Lounge, Ocean Village

Modern cafe/bar in Ocean Village built in 2015 for half a million. No cask beer, but sells "craft" beer from the keg, such as Punk IPA, Goose, and Shipyard - pale lagerish beers with modern citric hops (a bit like the old fashioned "lager and lime").

A selection of drinks at the bar

I love this place. Has a great vibe. Children are welcomed - there are games to play. And every time I come there is a good mix of people, including lots of women. This is not a laddish or loutish place or a CAMRA recommended grumpy old man's pub - this is a modern bar, pointing the way to the future. My one complaint is that cask beers are not available.

It's on three floors, each decorated with framed paintings, and furnished with bohemian mixed wooden tables and chairs, some painted, some not. Some of the lighting comes from the SS France ocean liner.  Music is present, and is a good mix, played gently in the background. The main sound is the pleasant buzz of conversation. No loud voices. No raucous laughter. No swearing. Calm, refined, relaxed, cool.

The views are of the Ocean Village harbour with all the yachts. The walls are all glass, so the views are all around and ever present - unless you happen to face the one wall with no windows. Food is imaginative, exciting, well cooked, healthy, and very veggie aware. The downsides are the lack of cask beer, and that this is more cafe than either bar or pub. It is possible to come here just for a drink, and to look over the water and enjoy the vibe, but the emphasis is clearly on eat and go.

Food porn

I have been here three times - first on my own in late 2019, then with Chrissie and Phocea, also later 2019, and then with Myles as part of our regular Lads Who Lunch meetups.

Date: March 2020  Score: 9


Lounges - being taken over by the owners of Punch Taverns. 

1 Moresby Tower,

Admiral's Quay,

Ocean Way, 

S014 3LG
Mon to Sun: 9am to 11pm   Food: 9am to 10pm

* WhatPub
* Maritimo Lounge
* TripAdvisor

Balmoral (Beefeater), Nursling

The Balmoral is a beefeater pub, a family friendly meat focused pub-restaurant chain owned by Whitbread. More upmarket than their Brewers Fayre chain. It's next to a Premier Inn, an upmarket budget hotel chain also owned by Whitbread, so is open in the morning for breakfasts, but not for beer. The pub hours start at Noon.

I've only popped in, during breakfast hours, hoping for a beer with my breakfast, same as Wetherspoons, and it was very crowded. So, as they didn't do beer in the morning, and it was packed, and the menu didn't look cheap, I went elsewhere. I need to come back to do a proper review.

Date: March 2020   Score: N/A

Whitbread

Romsey Road
Nursling
SO16 0XJ

Monday - Saturday: 11.30am - 11pm
Sunday: 12pm - 10.30pm

* Beefeater
* TripAdvisor 
* WhatPub 

***

• Pubs in Shirley

Pitcher & Piano, Ocean Village

Myles at the bar

This was my fourth venture into the heart of the bars in Ocean Village (not counting the Wetherspoon pub), and the second with Myles. Last week we tried Banana Lounge, and found it fairly average, though the food was good. This time we tried the venue next door.  Pitcher & Piano is Marston's upmarket pub chain, which they bought off entrepreneur Crispin Tweddell for £20 million in 1996, when there were only seven pubs in the chain. The deal seemed to include Sheila McKenzie as managing director, as she appears to have created the brand, and made it something that appealed to women. The success of the brand made Marston's an attractive proposition for Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries who bought out Marston's in 1999 for £300 million, and changed their name to that of Marston's. But, despite developing the Pitcher & Piano brand so there are now 18 pubs across the country, Marston's were considering selling it last year for £40 million. No sale took place, so all must now be happy in the Marston household. 

View to the right over Ocean Village

View to the front over the harbour towards Southampton Water

This is a bright, airy, clean, modern and attractive pub. More bar than pub (there are three hundpumps, but none were in use on our visit). With lots of space. There is an air of calm about the place that I liked, and a gentle buzz of conversation. The place wasnot crowded, but there were a good number of tables occupied, so this is a more popular location than Banana Lounge, and we can see why. The bar is higher up than the Banana Lounge, so it has a greater view of the harbour in Ocean Village. There are windows all round, and this creates a lovely vibe. You can imagine yourself on holiday in some exotic location. It really is very nice.

My lunch

The food is upmarket pub grub rather than the restaurant style of Banana Lounge, but the prices are lower as a result. The lunch menus though are similar prices.



Date: Feb 2020    Score: 7


Channel Way
Ocean Village 
SO14 3JB


Monday to Thursday: 10am to 11pm
Thursday to Sunday: 9pm to Midnight

* Pitcher & Piano
* WhatPub
* TripAdvisor

* PubsGalore

* BITE

Banana Lounge, Ocean Village

Not a pub, but a restaurant with a bar area where you can just have drinks. Banana Wharf is a modern diner in Ocean Village. Large windows provide a view over the yachts in the harbour, and also across the water to Woolston Sewage Works. It's a little more bland and prosaic looking inwards, so if you're bringing someone here for a special meal, be considerate and give them the seat facing out. Myles and I came on a Friday lunchtime. The place was mostly empty so we weren't seeing it at its best, but even so, there is a bland coldness about the interior that is not inviting. There is little in the way of style or quirkiness, such as with the nearby Maritimo Lounge, nor any cosy warmth. It feels like a modern office space. Matters are not helped when, even empty, you have to stand at a podium to wait to be directed to a table. Each to their own, but I prefer to sit myself, but I suppose they wish to create an upmarket feel. The prices are a tad high for everyday eating, but are not excessive, and the lunchtime menu was very inviting, and if accompanied by the £1 soft drink deal, offers reasonable value.

The dated decor in the bar area

I really enjoyed my squid. Myles had the fish finger wrap, which came with chips (why not offer a salad as an option?), and was pretty average.

Myles with the fish finger wrap, and a view
of Woolston Sewage Works over his right shoulder

We didn't find anything special to like about the place,. On the plus side I really liked my Salt & Pepper Squid and fully recommend that, on the negative side we found the decor to be old fashioned, and the general ambiance to be cold and functional. On the whole the place is kinda average. If you come here with appropriate expectations I can't see anyone being disappointed, but this isn't the place to bring your special one for a date, nor is it the place to bring friends for a good night out. Business meals on expense accounts is what this place is best suited for. Nobody is going to be distracted or get the wrong idea, and the service and the food is not going to disappoint or embarrass anyone.

Date: Feb 2020   Score: 5



Ocean Village,
Southampton
SO14 3JF


* TripAdvisor
* WhatPub
* Banana Wharf