The Marmion, Southsea

Absolutely terrible pub!! They closed and reopened recently for a refit and a group of friends and me thought we'd go there for a meal. We walked into a tiny pub that was half busy and walked over to a table to sit down, at this point a barmaid said rather loudly 'and where do they think there going' as if it was strange to sit at a table. Another women approached us and said we are very busy (which they weren't) but if we could find a table we could sit down. The place was mainly being used by a group of foreign teenagers to eat at several tables. We sat at a table which had someones bicycle parked next to it under the food serving hatch. At this point we all looked at each other and decided we'd rather walk out now before we wasted any money. A real shame as we'd heard good things but clearly since the 'refit' the place has lost any semblance of friendliness or hospitality. Plus for somewhere thats supposed to of been refitted it looked really shabby, dirty, and badly laid out.

Heard that it was trying to go "wine & cheese" type bar, if so they still have loads of great beers, 6 on my visit including Flowers, 49er, Directors, Bass, Old Speckled Hen and guest was Chiswick The cheese theme is still there, loads from all regions & worldwide Has 4 wines "on tap" with bottles around £16 [gulp] Usual array of lagers & stouts, but Scrumpy Jack cider as well if that is your tipple Furnished in a wood / traditional way, all very comfy and pubby

What can I say. I heard that the Marmion Tavern had a great cheese menu, but could find no reviews anywhere on the web. So instead of calling them to confirm that they did indeed offer this, we took a chance and went down there. We were confronted with a pretty small public house with an even smaller 'restaurant' area, and then looking at the menu on the wall, the rumours were confirmed - it was almost all cheese! We were a group of 7 (very poor) students (it's the very end of term!), so went for 3 cheese platters at a total cost of £22, including bread and butter, pickle, onions, grapes, apples, celery and tomato. A fantastic evening with plenty of great cheese!