The Natural Apothecary Petersfield

I finally made it to The Natural Apothecary in Heath Road, Petersfield with my husband Geoff late on Friday afternoon. Thankfully there were plenty of tables when we arrived not long after 2pm. What a wonderfully old-fashioned word we don’t hear these days, along with ‘haberdashery’ and ‘millinery’. The front windows had lovely old-fashioned signage too.

Inside is really nice, we were warmly welcomed as soon as we entered.  Upon entering the counter is in front of you with fresh salads in a display cabinet and they all look delicious. Turn left and there is a large tall table with tall chairs to sit up by the front window, when not in use a lovely display of flowers was set upon it. Then on your right you pass the cakes…mmm…cakes…

All along one wall is a bench with lots of cushions, a little like the settle at The Vine in Hambledon it looked a tad too high for the table, but I may have been mistaken. We sat at a table with velvet padded chairs down near the far end where on one wall are loads of beautiful apothercary-type wooden drawers. Above that is a shelf with old weighing scales and medicine bottles from a bygone era.

Soft music played in the background and upon the tables were little blue medicine bottles holding a couple of fresh red roses.

The menu is not extensive, but still it didn’t make it easy to choose, for me anyway. Geoff’s getting a little grumpy in his old age (he said this himself), and so I’m afraid there wasn’t an awful lot for the poor man to choose from as he’s not into healthy salads, juices or smoothies. There was a spicey chickpea & red lentil soup on offer which he would normally go for and also lentil cottage pie served with sweet potato mash as the daily special, but today he chose the bacon lettuce and tomato (without the tomato) open sandwich on granary, although rye, gluten free and sourdough were also available. The lettuce was a mixture of baby salad leaves which to Geoff, is not lettuce! He thinks lettuce is just your normal iceberg. He’s very uneducated when it comes to salads and lettuces. He said his meal was average and he would have liked thicker bread. I much prefer mixed baby salad leaves so I had his.

I chose grilled halloumi and three different types of salad for £3.95. Lentil, chickpea and carrot. No quinoa left unfortunately. The salads were very fresh and all tasted really lovely.

To drink I had the ‘energiser’ juice which contained celery, pear, ginger, apple, maca, ginseng, yacon, purple corn, ho shou wu with crushed ice. This was very nice and fresh too and I could certainly taste the hotness from the ginger.

Geoff’s loose leaf Jing Assam Breakfast tea was served in a filter coffee-type pot with the large leaves swirling around inside. He had a clear cup & saucer – which he didn’t see at first – but I’m afraid he wasn’t so keen on the tea. I thought it looked lovely but I couldn’t taste it as all I could taste at that time was ginger 😉

I had to try a cake of course so I had the lime coconut and almond cake which happened to be gluten free. This was quite crumbly but tasty with lime juice and coconut flakes on top.

Geoff had carrot cake which was nice too, especially the butter frosting on top with orange zest.

We had a coffee each with our cakes, me a flat white which wasn’t the best coffee I’ve had but certainly not the worst. Geoff had a cappuccino.

To take home I treated us both to a cranberry & ameretti cookie which was more a cross between a cake and a biscuit. It was quite soft and spongy but extremely fresh and packed with cranberries and dusted with icing sugar. Luckily he let me have most most of it.

In the shop they had a few things to buy like the Flora Tea which I had in Gracie-Ann’s at Port Solent once, which was lovely to watch opening up and very pretty. A  nice idea for a gift.

If I lived in Petersfield I suspect this is one place which I would frequent, but for Geoff, it just wasn’t his sort of place. I spoke to someone only yesterday who mentioned The Natural Apothercary to me and said that she lived nearby and she went there often and loved it. How lucky is she.

Ambience – 8
Value – 7 (£33.80)
Service – 8
Quality – 8 from me and a 6 from G
Returnabilty – a big yes from me, but unfortunately a no from Geoff. I shall just have to return with someone else won’t I 😉

Living life, loving cake

A x