I've been photographing food and drink around Southampton for over 6 years now, and one of the best side effects of that job is that I've ended up eating my way through a fairly big chunk of the city, quite often in places I'd maybe never have walked into on my own. I get to meet the owners. I get to stand about in kitchens while service is being prepped, and I get to hear the part that customers never really hear, and how much of themselves the people running it have put into it.
So I sort of feel like I could have a decent go at being a food blogger, if I had the time to run a whole channel for it, which realistically I don't. The opinions have been piling up for a good while though, so I thought I'd just write some of them down here instead.
Two quick bits of honesty before I start. Some of what follows comes from proper nights out, paying my own bill, with no camera anywhere near me. Some of it comes from shoots, where I've seen a lot more of the workings than a normal customer ever would, that's worth saying, because it does colour how I see a place. And more than one of these is a client of mine, which I've flagged in the section itself, because I'd far rather tell you than have you work it out afterwards, they're all genuine picks though.
Every photograph on this page is my own, taken in the places I'm talking about.
Right. One pick per thing, mostly.
Japanese: Sakura on Bedford Place
This one was a genuine toss-up between Sakura and Hokkaido over in Guildhall Square, and I went with Sakura in the end.
Hokkaido is good, and I'd never talk anyone out of going. It just has more of a polished, chain-style feel to the service, whereas Sakura feels like a family business on Bedford Place. It's small, it's a bit worn in, and you honestly feel like you've stumbled into a back street restaurant somewhere in Japan rather than a unit in a British city centre.
I love that about it. Personality is really hard to manufacture, and Sakura has loads of it without appearing to try at all. I know a fair few people that swear by it as their favourite Southampton 'hidden gem', especially sushi lovers.
Thai: Mango Thai Tapas, for well over a decade now
Mango has been one of my favourite places to eat in this city for more than ten years, and I don't think it's dipped once in that time.
You can tell how freshly everything is made by how much they'll adapt a dish if you need them to. That flexibility only exists when things are actually being cooked to order rather than assembled, and the flavour backs it up every time. The room helps as well. They go for a mixture of patterns, wood and plants, all inspired by Thailand, it doesn't feel like anywhere else in Southampton.
The cocktails there...
This is the part that separates them, for me. Cocktails are so often where a restaurant quietly gives up: you often get something poured out of a pre-made mix, and it's fine, and nobody complains. Mango genuinely make theirs, and they're a big part of why the place feels like a night out rather than just dinner, they're known for their cocktails being great!
Noodles: Mi Rice, on Commercial Road
I don't eat all that much of what you'd call typical Chinese takeaway food, so I've made this one a noodles category instead. Soup noodles, ramen, the drier stir-fried sort, I'm in for all of it.
Mi Rice at 52 Commercial Road is hugely understated, and definitely my choice of hidden gem, and I'm slightly reluctant to write that down. It's open at lunchtimes and again in the evenings, it's understated to the point of being easy to walk straight past, and the food coming out of that kitchen is fresh, precise and quietly excellent. The owner is lovely and they'll happily adapt things for you, while doing it at an amazing price, and huge portions (you never ever need the large sizes).
It can get busy, and it gets busy with a largely Asian crowd, which in my experience is about the most reliable signal there is. When the people who grew up eating a cuisine are the ones queuing for it, you're in the right place.
Italian: Soleto, and it isn't especially close
I've eaten at pretty much all of the Italians in this city, and I still can't put anything above Soleto.
They specialise in seafood, and it shows. The fish is bought fresh, and you can taste the difference immediately. They're just as good with meat, though, and the pasta and gnocchi are made by hand on site rather than pulled out of a bag, which always elevates the meal, instead of just filling you up for the sake of it.
What really does it for me is that it manages all of this at once. The food is excellent, the service is warm and full of personality, and the room feels intimate and truly family run. It works probably better than anywhere else for a date night, and it works for taking your parents somewhere. I'd honestly say it should be sitting at or near the very top of any list of restaurants in this city.
Southampton's actually quite well served for Italian otherwise, and I'd happily point people at Figurati, Ennio's or Piccolo Mondo too. They just do slightly different jobs. Figurati's food is genuinely great, and the fact it sits right on the marina is really nice, to me though, it just shouts fancy business meeting or influencer evening to me a bit more than it says quiet dinner with my partner. Piccolo Mondo leans towards pizza and pasta and does it well, but I tend to want the option of a serious seafood or meat dish on the same menu. None of that is a criticism of anyone, it's just what I personally end up wanting when I go out.
Spanish: La Regata
There aren't a huge number of options for Spanish food here, so this is a slightly shorter list to choose from, but La Regata makes it an easy pick anyway.
The couple of times I've eaten there it's reminded me strongly of trips I've made around Spain, which from me is a big compliment, because it's a very easy thing to get slightly wrong. It's near the ports so it does pull in a lot of the cruise crowd, which means it isn't really a secret any more, but they've kept the standard up regardless.
I photographed there once, and the owner was really warm and friendly and visibly proud of the place, and was keen to show me everything, which I always like to see. It's a small, genuinely authentic Spanish tapas restaurant.
Mexican: Mexifun on East Street
Mexifun on East Street is my answer here.
You can honestly taste how fresh everything is straight away. I usually skip the burritos and go for one of the rice bowls, which are lighter and let the actual flavours do the work instead of burying them, and I've never had a bad one. It's a small place with only a few tables inside, so it's kept a bit of hidden gem energy too, although anyone who likes Mexican food round here already knows about it.
The service is always friendly, and they remember who I am, which I find genuinely lovely in a city this size. I think a lot of the burrito-style places around town have slipped a bit over the last few years. Mexifun just hasn't, and the reviews everywhere back that up.
Pizza: What A Pizza
What A Pizza on Shirley Road is a sit-down restaurant as well as a takeaway, although I'll be honest, if I get pizza, I nearly always end up ordering from them rather than eating in, and I used to order from the food van they had parked in Bitterne.
It's consistently very good. A lot of genuinely nice pizza turns up at your door as a sad, folded disappointment. This doesn't. The pizzas are of course cooked in a proper wood-fired oven, and are wonderfully crispy on bottom with the toppings cooked just right. It isn't quite in the city centre, I know, but if it's arriving at your house then I'd argue that's a technicality.
Second place for me would be Smokeys up on Portswood Road, right at the top of Bevois Valley. It rather understates itself from the outside and the quality's always been really nice, so it's worth knowing about as an honourable mention.
Indian (where I'm going to cheat and have two)
I don't think one answer covers this one, to be honest. Indian food in this city splits fairly cleanly into sitting down properly and making an evening of it, versus it being 9.30pm on a Friday and wanting a bag of food to arrive at the door. Those are two genuinely different jobs, and I don't think the same place wins both of them.
For sitting down, it's Padharo.
Padharo are an ongoing client of mine, so factor that in however you like. I'd argue it's exactly why I can vouch for them though, because when you work with a business over a long period you end up seeing all the unglamorous bits, whether it's their menu that gets rewritten four times before anyone's happy, or the amount of effort that goes into things nobody outside the building is ever going to consciously notice. They care about it to a degree that's honestly a bit mad sometimes, but it matters.
They're also 100% vegetarian and vegan, which I think is a much bigger deal than it tends to get credit for. It means you can take absolutely anybody there. Nobody's sat scanning the menu for the one thing they're allowed to eat, nobody has to be the awkward one in the group, and nobody ends up with a sad plate of chips. For a city that still isn't brilliant at this, that accessibility genuinely counts for something.
For takeaway, though, when I want meat and the more familiar end of the menu, I go for Bayleaf Kitchen.
What's kept me ordering from them is consistency (many places don't manage it.) I've had loads of Indian takeaways over the years that were brilliant for about eight months and then changed hands, or changed head chef, or quietly changed the recipes, and the whole thing fell apart. Bayleaf just haven't done that. What turns up is rich, textured, and tastes like somebody in that kitchen actually cared about it.
They also run their own delivery drivers rather than handing it all over to Deliveroo and Uber Eats, and you really do notice. The food arrives in better shape, and the people bringing it are unfailingly friendly, which sounds like a small thing and absolutely isn't when you've had a long week.
Burgers: 7Bone, still
It's really hard to beat 7Bone. I'd say the quality isn't quite where it was when they first opened, and I don't think that's a controversial opinion, but it's still a clear step above most of what else is out there.
Closest second for me is Burga over in Portswood, who do a fantastic burger too. Where 7Bone wins it back is everything around the burger: the sides, the drinks, and the fact that they've got a sense of humour running through the menu. Too many burger places seem to have settled on deep-frying another six things and calling it a range, and they all end up feeling like copies of each other. 7Bone still feels like itself.
Steak: Porters Steakhouse
Porters gets this for atmosphere before we talk about the food. It's dark, with a warm glow coming off the decor, and it feels like a steakhouse should feel rather than like a room that's had steak options added to it.
You can see into the cabinet where the meat is dry ageing, which I love, because it's the restaurant showing its working. Nobody puts that on display unless they're confident about it. The drinks are strong too, with a wine list that's clearly been thought about rather than just ordered in.
I've worked with them a couple of times now and it's always been a friendly, easy experience. Seeing how things run from the kitchen through to what lands on the table tells you a lot about how professional and how careful a place is, and Porters came out of that very well.
I'll admit there are a couple of steakhouses in Southampton I still haven't got round to trying, so there's every chance one of them overtakes it eventually. For now, though, this is the one I choose.
That's the list, for now
None of this is definitive, obviously. It's just where I actually go, built up over a lot of years of eating out in this city and a fair few years of photographing it as well. I'd genuinely love to be proved wrong on a few of these, especially the ones where I've admitted I haven't tried everything yet, so if you think I've missed something then please do tell me.
And if you run one of these places, or somewhere like them, and you've been thinking your food deserves better photos than it's currently getting, that's very much what I do for a living. Get in touch and we'll have a chat about it. I promise I'll behave myself and stop fiddling with your garnishes.
