The Southsea Village, Southsea

A large interior that goes back some way, wood tiled floor with mixed seating. There is an open kitchen majoring on Pizza and Burgers and food of that ilk. Four handpumps two of which had Old Rosie Cider clips attached leaving a beer choice of Sharps Solar Wave and Adnams Ghost Ship, twelve keg fonts on the bar of bog standard stuff, with five wall mounted craft taps but this was corporate craft, also a fridge stocking mostly continental beers. A half decent place but certainly not a priority revisit.

A relatively new addition to the pub scene on Southsea’s drinking strip, this is a large, drinking-barn sized venue that was decidedly quiet on a Friday afternoon. The large single room layout sees brick pillars and bits of partitioning wall run through the centre, breaking up sightlines and hinting at a possible conversion from two formerly separate shop units. There are large windows to the front, including one with a nice arched stained glass upper section, all ideal for a bit of people watching if you can bag one of the seats in front of them. There’s plenty of sofa, wingback armchair and standard chair seating, especially over on the right-hand side of the room, whilst over to the left, an open kitchen allows you to inspect the food preparation before you order anything. Some low, wire-mesh partitioning breaks the room up into a number of distinctly different seating areas, whilst the servery appears midway down the left-hand wall, with a nice wood and stone counter, metal framed canopy and several keg taps on the similarly styled bar back. Opposite the bar, a raised, bare boarded area has bench booths along the end wall under some display cases full of old sewing machines and modern beer cans. There are quite a few TV screens dotted around the pub and they all seemed to be set to a TV channel guide, rather than to an actual channel, which seemed like an unnecessary drain on resources. Elsewhere, the eye is caught by various bits and bobs including some old photos of Portsmouth, numerous dusty hardbacks and some unusual lamps mounted on extendable arms. Pop music played quietly in the background and a trip to the toilets revealed a small room to the rear of the pub with a ping-pong table. I was a little surprised to find four handpulls on the bar dispensing Urban Island Urban Pale and Mosaic, Eagle Parallax IPA and Fallen Acorn Hold on to the Pint. My pint of the Urban Pale (£3.80) was okay and there looked to be an interesting selection of keg beers including a mix of mainstream and craft options. I think this place has done well to create a nice interior in such a large, open space, giving it some cosy spots and some interesting décor. It was a bit too quiet to properly assess how well the pub works and I have to wonder how I’d feel if I visited on a busy weekend evening. But based on this visit, I liked the place and would say it’s one of the better options if you’re drinking on this strip of bars.

A modern place, open plan and quite modern but with discrete drinking areas. Modish interior with exposed brick, modern wood floor, stripped wood beams, square wire mesh dividers. And a table tennis area in a room at the back. Four ales on, Eagle Parallax, Fallen Acorn Irish Red and 2x Urban Island. No complaints with the Urban Pale (NBSS 3.5), unfortunately served in a chunky glass like it’s squash or something. Beer fridge with straightforward US and Belgian options available. Despite some reservations, I decided that it was a decent place overall. 6.5

Southsea Village is an open plan bar with an open kitchen to the left of the entrance next to the bar which runs up the left wall. Large booths run up the right-hand wall and each has a plasma screen for showing live sports. These screens were muted in favour of some background music. At the rear is a separate glass walled room which houses a table tennis table which was being used by the two other customers who were in the bar during my recent Friday afternoon visit. The bar supports a premier keg range and four hand pumps which were drawing two Urban Island beers and offerings from the Eagle Brewery and Falcon Acorn Brewery. The menu consists of pizzas, burgers and the like, a standard burger is priced at £9. I found the service to be friendly and would revisit if in the area.

Lighter inside than the dark exterior paintwork might suggest, with a small pizza kitchen in one corner at the front, several seating / dining areas with modern furniture scattered around the bar and a back room unusually housing a table-tennis table. Four real ales on handpump - including Hold On To The Pint! from Fallen Acorn - plus various craft keg beers from a row of taps on the bar-back.