ReviewDespite it being right next door to our Travelodge we dismissed the Belle Isle as just a café / restaurant when walking past for the first time into the town centre. But was recommended by one of the local CAMRA branch members who we got talking to at the Chichester Arms Beer festival to visit in the evening when it functions more as a bar.
Built into an existing building and opened in early 2012, the Belle Isle functions more as a café in the morning when you will need to fight your way through the prams. Then a restaurant from lunchtime onwards and then a bar vibe takes over from 8.00PM’ish onwards.
A smart long bar is to the left on entering, and then the large internal space has an American diner décor style and is mainly a mixture of comfortable sofas, assorted sized tables and communal high table seating which gives it a bit of a feel of an Ikea showroom. And then to the far end is the dedicated table service restaurant section with colourful tiled floor under a strange wood canopy housing a suspended boat with the kitchen behind a wall of photos taken by locals. Then to the back is a pleasant outside courtyard section with mainly wooden bench seating.
As well as several chrome beer pumps, the bar supports four Real Ale hand pumps and Sharps Doombar and Cornish Coaster were complemented by Tiny Rebel’s Full Nelson and Yumi from the Hampshire Bowman Brewery for our couple of visits. And then there was a decent range of mainly craft ales available in bottles and alongside their house beer Belle Isle Pacific Ale (brewed by Sunny Republic Brewing Company) , I noticed Red Willow Wreckless Pale Ale, First Chop MIA and the always reliably excellent Bristol Beer Factory Milk Stout.
This place had a very comfortable bar vibe of an evening with a mainly younger crowd but with some older beer buffs in as well.. We did actually try several of the starters one evening, but wasn’t that enamoured by the food, certainly not as much as I was by the grapefruit and mango aroma’s of the house ale which I chose to accompany it.
