T & Thistle, Southsea

The T & Thistle Coffee Lounge – a slightly Scottish themed cafe – opened at the end of February this year. They are situated in Highland Road close to the Festing Road junction – not far from Hunter Gatherer which is on the opposite side a little further along.

I knew nothing about the place – mind you, I was away for a month whilst it was opening (which you can read about here) – it was my sister who told me, so we went together to check it out straight away.

They have a good menu, lots to choose from, dishes such as breakfast ie., eggs benedict/Florentine/Royale, crumpets, bagels, lunches of toasted bagels with smashed avo’ and so on. The only Scottish thing on the menu I could find was on the ‘T & Thistle’ platter for two which included haggis chutney and oatcakes. That sounded good but my sister Gill didn’t want it, do’h! No porridge either. Not that I wanted any but I would have thought that would have been on the menu.

I went for the ‘veggie’ panini which was very nice, lots of lovely roasted peppers along with halloumi and pesto. This was served with a handful of crisps and salad.

I liked the decor, the light bulbs hanging from the ceiling reminded me of very large spiders. There are a couple of large settees with some tartan cushions.

The carrot cake was very nice with lots of walnuts inside and out plus flakes of almonds.

We shared both the carrot cake and this ‘Jewel’ bar, a flapjack style base with nuts, a butterscotch topping sprinkled with chocolate nibs and dried cranberries. Half was enough as it was quite sweet. Nice though.

I just had to pay them another visit so I dragged my husband there two days later. He didn’t want to share the platter either so I had the toasted bagel with avocado, halloumi and paid for the bacon as an extra, which was lovely and crispy.

I had seen on their Facebook page that they had a cake which had been popular the previous week, the chocolate orange cake. As a rule I don’t normally like chocolate orange cakes although I do like Terry’s chocolate orange. I just had to try this cake. I’m glad I did as it was really very nice. A triple layered sponge with buttercream all around plus through each layer, and the top along with two segments of the chocolate orange. It was quite rich I must say and not for the faint hearted but I got through it and would definitely have it again.

The fruit scones looked very nice with cherries added. Unfortunately it wasn’t that fresh, the butter was too hard to spread – even though we tried to warm them in our hands – so that was a disappointment for Geoff.

The coffee beans used at T & Thistle are Moonroast which is one of my favourites, I used to buy the coffee in Fork Handles in Petersfield to use at home but for a such a long time they never had them so I eventually gave up. With the coffees they serve homemade shortbread biscuits, only bite-sized but I really like this simple touch and wish other places would do the same. There, that’s another Scottish thing to add to the theme I guess. There was a nice floral display on the counter from a nearby florist (I think) but again, it would have looked good adding a few thistles. I’m half Scottish myself so as I said previously I was kind of expecting more.

Having said that, its an excellent cafe and I wouldn’t hesitate on returning nor to recommend it to others. The staff are friendly, the food and coffee is good and the prices are fair.

Ambience 8
Value 8
Quality 7 – let down by the scone
Service 8
Overall 8/10
Return? Yep

Living life, loving cake, Cheerio the nou.

A x