Welcome!
I’m Helen and I run this blog with my mum, Alison. We’re from Portsmouth on the sunny south coast of England and we love eating out. We first started this blog, originally called livelifelovecake.com in 2012 when I was living in London. I’ve always been into my food (nicknamed Helly Belly as a child) and the food in London amazed me. I immersed myself in blogger events and launch parties and had a really great time sharing my favourite food fines with whoever would listen.
Back then our blog was all about cake, as the name suggests, as cake was (and still is) our favourite type of food. So, as you may expect, we ate a fair bit of cake over the years. Coupled with a busy job and social life, my obsession with eating cake formed an unhealthy relationship with food, which was clearly visible in my changing appearance. Enough was enough and I left England the following year to travel through Asia and Australasia (where I kept a travel blog called felicitymacintosh.com) while mum kept up the blog back home. Luckily my relationship with food soon improved and I was back to myself again.
I moved back to Portsmouth in 2018 and started blogging more regularly. I was amazed at how much Portsmouth’s food scene has grown over the years. I can honestly say, it’s one of the best places for independent bars, cafes and eateries on the entire South Coast. I’ve fallen in love with Southsea and bought my first home here in 2020. I still eat out, nearly daily, and I complement my love of food with running, my favourite distance being ultramarathon.
My mum Alison is obsessed with cycling and spends her days cycling the countryside in the search for hidden tea rooms and cake stops. She also regularly dines out and particularly enjoys reviewing products and eateries in England and abroad. A few years ago, Mum turned vegan after taking part in Veganuary. This originally made it hard to enjoy coffee and cake but thankfully vegan cakes are now plentiful and oat milk is everywhere.
Together, we’re on the search for the best food and drink in Portsmouth and beyond. We do a lot of research to keep up to date with what’s going on in the area; new openings, new dishes, events and general foodie gossip. We hope our honest reviews will make it easier for you to decide what to eat and where to go. And what if a place is really bad, we hear you ask? Then we will message them our honest feedback and refrain from talking about it online. We understand that it’s a hard life for small independent businesses and their business if often their baby so we much prefer to keep our feedback private and support them where we can.
In 2022, we rebranded to become the Little Portsmouth Foodies as we realised our blog was about more than just cake. Soon after, we won our first award! ‘Best Blogger’ at the Southsea Folk Awards and we couldn’t be more proud. We’re now joined by my partner Carlos, aka the @southseasnapper, who takes amazing photos so I can now enjoy my food when it’s still hot!