Pubs and Beer in Southampton: Mettricks, Portswood

After several years under dodgy ownership, Mettricks is back under the control of the founder, Spencer Bowman, and he has opened a new branch in the old Lloyds Bank building in Portswood, which had previously been converted into a pizza restaurant.

The ambience

The inside is very attractive, and the atmosphere is buzzing, and the vibe is cool, trendy, and bohemian. The music is, though, just a tad too loud for comfort; and, with the high ceilings creating an unpleasant acoustic echo which makes the music sound harsh and hollow, that, for us, was a serious flaw. But the place looks great, the service is pure Mettricks (smooth, casual, friendly, and rather slow), the food menu is small, but very interesting, with a decent choice for non-meat eaters, and there's a local beer on tap. The place has more good than bad. But it could be absolutely brilliant if the music were turned down a tad. The buzz of other people chatting and enjoying themselves is the best music - the canned music should be warm and low for the customers, just there to fill in any spaces between the conversation (or, preferably, not there at all in order to allow people to relax and chat to each other without having to raise their voice - but that's a personal choice).

The choice of keg beers and cider

The beer I had was Unity Conflux - a locally made beer (Unity are just down the road - oh, no, they are not, they moved in 2019 to Princes Street). It's a modern hazy pale ale, in which the citric hops are added late to create a soft and fragrant citric flavour with little bitterness.

My Turkish eggs

I ate the Turkish eggs: Poached eggs with seasoned yogurt, spiced smoked paprika butter, herbs & buttered toast. Bloody good stuff! Lyn had the breakfast butty with awesome crispy kale. Both meals gave me ideas to try out at home.