Annie Jones Restaurant & Tapas Bar, Petersfield

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Annie Jones Patisserie on the left and the restaurant on the right of the iron gate.
Annie Jones in Petersfield, Hampshire is a tapas, restaurant and patisserie all rolled into one. Situated in Lavant Street the front of the patisserie and the restaurant are separated by an alleyway. Walking through the iron gate and down the alley you’ll find yourself in a courtyard containing a bar, the ‘roof’ being made of bamboo-type fencing with twinkling fairy lights which makes it look cosy come evening time. There you’ll also find the entrance to Annie Jones’ patisserie on your left where you can also enjoy tapas, cakes, and coffee and on your right, you can enter the restaurant or from the street.
The tapas review …………..
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Meat tapas menu
Inside the patisserie there are only around four tables and as it’s so small there’s only really enough room for one member of staff to be working, so service was a little slow when we visited for some tapas. What didn’t help was if someone wanted tapas the waitress would have to go to the outside bar and order them, likewise if someone in the bar area wanted a coffee, so as you can imagine there was a lot of to-ing/fro-ing, with people coming/going and doors opening/closing. As it was March and we were seated by the door it got a bit chilly each time this happened but luckily there was a heater on full blast which helped, plus the very tasty food more than made up for this slight annoyance.
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Lamb Merguez

There was a list of tapas, meat, fish, vegetables and salads and also charcuterie. We decided to share two, the lamb merguez – lamb meatballs, olives, chilli, roasted peppers, slow cooked tomato, crème fraîche & sweet chilli was bloody delicious, excuse my French, but it was! We just looked at each other with faces of pure pleasure. We wished we had ordered some bread as the sauce was so good we needed to mop it up. No matter, I had my finger 😉

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Belly of pork

The belly of pork, squash, bacon & apple compote was really tasty, full of flavour and we made all the right noises whilst eating it. This was equally as good as the lamb meatballs, the fat melted away and the sauce again was so tasty. We were impressed and vowed to return.

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Chocolate crumble cake
Well, with all those cakes on display in the window we couldn’t leave without trying one. Chocolate crumble, named I assume because of the crumbled chocolate Flake bar on top of the butter frosting. Or perhaps because it just crumbled each time I stuck my fork into it. Although it was nice and fresh – and very chocolatey I must say – it could have done with being a little more moist. With a coffee each the bill came to just shy of £20 which we thought was jolly good value.
The restaurant review ……………………………

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Last Friday, the evening before my birthday I revisited Annie Jones with my Italian friends, Catia and Loretta to have a meal in the restaurant. Two courses for £30 and three for £40, so not cheap.

We ordered a bottle of prosecco which came with some really nice old fashioned glasses which we all remarked upon, they reminded us of Babycham.

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The restaurant menu

We were served first with a complimentary wooden board of fresh bread and olives with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

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Belly of pork

I ordered the same starter as one of the tapas I had on my previous visit, the belly of pork. This time it came with a lovely large piece of crackling, yum. It wasn’t as good as the tapas we’d had though, it was still very tasty but it could have done with being cooked for longer on a low heat as it didn’t quite melt in the mouth like last time and was also a little hard to cut. So slightly disappointing seeing as I’d had it before and enjoyed it so much. The rich jus and bacon & apple compote made the dish.

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Beef tartare

Catia’s beef tartare, wasabi mayo, toast & pickles was presented very nicely with little florets of cauliflower. I had a taste of her dish and it was very nice – even though I don’t normally like wasabi – and Catia enjoyed it very much indeed.

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Fillet of lamb

Catia and I both had the fillet of lamb, pomme foam, quinoa & lentils, spring vegetables & wild garlic butter. This again was well presented. The lamb was very tender and lean, the vegetables were cooked nicely and served with a lovely rich jus. I especially liked the quinoa & lentils of which I wish there’d been a bit more of.

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Pan fried cod

Loretta had the pan fried cod with clams, Jersey Royals & warm tartare sauce, fish bonbons. She said it was very nice and fresh. Delizioso.

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Dessert menu

There was at least one special of the day for each course and for dessert Catia and Loretta decided upon dessert special of the day, lemon sabayon with mascarpone ice cream.

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Lemon Sabayon

They both liked this but I think they preferred the ice cream the most.

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Textures of chocolate

I chose the Textures of Chocolate dessert which consisted of a sort of chocolate brownie, with nuts in the base. It was a little hard to cut through but the centre was softer with a rich chocolate topping. A round ball rolled in chocolate soil which I thought was a truffle but it was very soft and creamy inside, very tasty too. The ice cream was nothing special, just chocolate which I never normally have. I suppose I could have asked for the mascarpone ice-cream had I known. In a shot glass was a lovely light and airy, almost foam-like white chocolate froth with a few white chocolate shavings on top, I loved this. Two large chunks of honeycomb finished the dish off which I left until last and they were fantastic. I must add that I didn’t offer any of my dessert to my friends and they didn’t dare ask. It was all MINE! I can handle sharing other dishes (sometimes) but hardly ever a dessert, especially a chocolate one.

We finished our meals off with an espresso each. When we received the bill a 12% service charge was added. We had a very nice meal and all enjoyed the evening, however we thought that it was a little expensive for what we had and for only £1 extra we could have gone to somewhere like Bistro Montparnasse in Southsea and experienced some fine-dining.

If you phone to book (it always goes to answer machine, but they do call you back), make sure you say you want either the tapas or the restaurant as they are in two different parts. When I rang they presumed I wanted tapas and I had to quickly rectify that.

Ambience 8
Value 7
Service  8
Quality  8
Would I return?  Yes!

Living life, loving cake

A x

 

6 Comment

  1. […] returned one Friday evening three weeks later with my Italian pals Loretta and Catia. I have a feeling that we arrived in the middle of a small crisis as most of the staff seemed to be […]

  2. […] It was my birthday and although I’d already celebrated the evening before with friends at Annie-Jones in Petersfield (which also has a tapas bar as well as a restaurant) it would be a shame to leave […]

  3. […] to take out into the bush, but I’m sure it went down a treat just the same. 2. We visited Annie Jones Restaurant and Tapas Bar in Petersfield last week for my birthday meal. It’s a pattiserie, tapas bar and restaurant […]

  4. […] with rum. Expecting chocolate in several different ways like I’ve had in other places such as Annie Jones in Petersfield, it was just a little […]

  5. […] I soon realised that this was their deli’ on one side of Lavant Street, just along from Annie Jones Restaurant and the larger tearoom was across the road within One Tree Books, an independent […]

  6. […] on these and other events. Petersfield is a very pleasant market town with plenty or eateries, Annie-Jones, The Natural Apothecary, to name but a […]

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