Lovely, lovely in Southsea!

What can be better in life than cake and a catch up with a good friend? This afternoon I spent a wonderful few hours with my old school friend and her little ones, we had lunch and put the world to rights over cake. Ace!

We'd heard that The Southsea Coffee Co. in Portsmouth sold vegan cake, and as her son has a dairy allergy we decided we had to investigate!

Set in Osborne Rd, Southsea, the cafe doesn't look much from the outside but the inside is wonderful; a really inviting space with plenty of seating and super friendly staff.

Although the menu wasn't huge the food was lovely - beautifully presented and tasted great too! Plus there was around 3 or 4 vegan cake varieties! The sandwiches are huge - I went for the hummus, sesame and carrot sandwich, just remember to ask for no pesto and butter. I also had a scrummy chocolate cake and the buttercream was to die for! 

My little companion had his heart set on porridge and jam. Unfortunately when ordering we hadn't remembered to check if it was made with milk and on arrival immediately realised it was. It couldn't be made without it either as the porridge contained milk powder. Totally our mistake for not checking but the staff couldn't have been nicer.

Instead the little man was offered toast and jam, which he happily spent a good 20 (sticky) minutes spreading on all by himself and then ate both the giant slices on no time at all. All washed down with fresh juice and raw flapjack. One very happy four year old.

We weren't charged for the porridge and the lovely lady even gave him a little treat to take home, as he'd been so disappointed about the porridge! What customer service!

The atmosphere is lovely - really relaxed and they even had a resident artist working on a mural. My favourite part was the chalk board wall at the back where your little companions can draw and scribble to their hearts content! (OK it was me!)

Well worth a visit if you're in the Southsea area and fancy a spot of lunch, or coffee and cake, I can highly recommend Southsea Coffee Co!

http://southseacoffee.tumblr.com/