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Detail Pages
The Belle Isle, Chichester
Chichester
PO19 1AB
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 7 of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Pub SignMan left this review about The Belle Isle
Tucked down a side street opposite the cathedral, this is a particularly large open plan bar and restaurant which has an unusual feel, falling somewhere between modern craft beer bar and 90’s drinking barn. The huge bare boarded room has predominantly white walls, all covered with various signs and murals relating to the various food and drink options available. It doesn’t make for the most engaging interior, but it’s been done with a degree of flair, rather than corporate homogeneity, so the final result is actually not all that bad and far preferable to similar sized efforts from the usual pub-co suspects. The servery is along the left hand wall and has a nice curved counter, high mirrors on the bar back and a large wooden plank end piece bearing the pub’s name. The bulk of the room has been filled with a good mix of seating options, with something to suit just about everyone. Some driftwood-style low partitioning, chunky pillars and loads of potted plants break the space up to a degree whilst contemporary photographs, compact book shelves and a large map of the world add colour and points of interest around the room. To the right there is a small table service area under some fake wooden beams. Tables here were formally set, with lots of photos on the walls and a nice section of patterned tile flooring. An enclosed rear patio garden could be viewed through large glass doors to the rear, although I didn’t get out there to explore properly. A folk music soundtrack played throughout most of our visit but the place was very quiet, with just a couple of locals near the bar and a small group playing board games at the back.
There were four cask ales on the bar – Beer Studio Flaxon Flagon, Franklins Belle Isle, Kingston Farm Ram Radley and Vibrant Forest Chinook. I had a pint of the latter, served by one of the friendly bar team and whilst it certainly tasted fine initially, the pint was very cloudy and the quality quickly tailed off as the pint went down. A strong keg showing included beers from popular breweries such as Siren Craft and Tiny Rebel and there was a pretty good bottled range to beef up the options available. We stopped here for a bite to eat following a walk out to Chichester Harbour and back and found the food to be good quality and the menu a little left-field with most mains costing around £13.
I had some initial reservations about this place, but soon warmed to it. I found it a friendly and comfortable spot for a good meal and whilst the pint wasn’t great, the pub did make the last Good Beer Guide and I may therefore have been a bit unlucky – the decision to restrict ales to four interesting micros means it is probably well worth a look to see what they have on. It’s a shame the place was so quiet, as I imagine it comes into its own more with a bit of a crowd in, but overall I enjoyed our visit and would pop in again when I’m next in town.
On 16th August 2016
- rating: 7
[User has posted 3114 recommendations about 3114 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Steve of N21 left this review about The Belle Isle
Despite 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.
On 18th June 2014
- rating: 7
[User has posted 2111 recommendations about 1992 pubs]