Cloisters Café, The Square, Petersfield

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Cloisters Cafe, The Square, Petersfield

Whenever I cycle to Petersfield 9 times out of 10 we visit Cloisters Café in the square – I say 9 because sometimes we can’t get in, otherwise it would 10. I must admit that I prefer Cloisters as it is an independent coffee shop and there are a few in Petersfield. It’s nice to sit outside as there is plenty of seating and places to put the bikes where we can see them. The church is next door and in the square is a lovely statue of William of Orange, a photo of him is in one of my recent posts, The Natural Apothecary, also in Petersfield.

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Plenty of seating outside

A few weeks ago on a freezing cold day, whilst we were in there another fellow cyclist came along just as we were leaving. I knew her and she told me that she felt unwell. Jorge, who is the owner of Cloisters, very kindly took her all the way home to Denmead and put her bike into the back of his van. How kind was that! and when I saw him a few weeks later he asked me how she was. (She’d recently had a virus and hadn’t really got over it properly). Funnily enough, a guy I was with decided he was also ill two miles out of Petersfield. If he’d only mentioned it earlier he probably could have got a lift to Portsmouth after Jorge had dropped the other cyclist off in Denmead! 🙂 As it was we had to cycle back to Petersfield and put him on a train. It was getting to be a very eventful ride.

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Breakfast, lunch, lots to choose

Normally I just have cake and a coffee but today I had a lunch. The Polish bigos, which I believe is some kind of stew, sounded very tempting but I wasn’t sure how big it would be and whether I would actually be able to cycle after eating it. There are hills to climb between Petersfield and home.

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My smoked chicken & avocado ciabatta

So I had the ‘chickens & avocado’ ciabatta. I wasn’t sure how many chickens I was going to get mind 😉  It turned out to be smoked pieces of chicken which were very tasty. Along with the slices of avocado were sun blushed tomatoes and mayo’. The ciabatta was lovely and fresh.

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Home-made vegetable crisps

On the side of the plate were some fresh mixed salad leaves and a handful of lovely vegetable crisps, which I’m guessing they made themselves.

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A delicious cake I enjoyed a few weeks back

The cake I had a few weeks ago when I last visited had a brownie type base, if I remember rightly. Whatever it was it was very nice and fresh.

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Geoff’s humongous slice of fruit cake/scones

Today they had a Victoria sponge, chocolate cake and a few others, plus the scones on the side looked really nice. I was half tempted to have one of those instead.

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Lemon cake

They also have a loyalty card which is a good idea, I have tons of them in my saddle bag for Compton village Stores and Tearooms, Southsea Coffee Co, Nero’s etc., etc.,

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Old phots of The Square/The church clock tower

Inside they have some lovely old black and white photos of The Square and the town. The church is next door.

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Chippy chips!

Cloisters has a large menu of breakfasts (which are served until 11.30) and sandwiches, paninis, soup and ‘proper’ meals such as bangers & mash and the stew – which was a ‘special’. It would have been nice to try something different like the stew as Geoff and I visited a Polish restaurant, The witchEZ (witch was excellent!) in Brighton last year and we really enjoyed the food there.

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The interior

The service is very good and the young girls are friendly, so too is Jorge of course.

Ambience – 8
Service – 8
Value – 7
Quality – 7
Return ability – yes – in fact we are aiming on having lunch there on the way to the airport to see Helen!

Living life, loving cake

A x

 

1 Comment

  1. […] was a very hot sunny day – a rare occurrence – I couldn’t get a table outside of Cloisters which is my usual haunt when in Petersfield (mainly because they have lots of outdoor seating plus […]

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