Salisbury - Where to Eat
|
|
Here's a range of
different styles of restaurants that will ensure you don't
go hungry during your time in this charming town.
Part
3 of a 4 part series - click for Parts
One
Two Three
Four |
Whether you're looking for
traditional British fish and chips, or some 'pub grub', or
something more elaborate, there'll be somewhere that will
cheerfully serve you what you're looking for in Salisbury.
La Luna
Our current favorite for a moderately priced dining spot in
Salisbury is the recently opened Italian restaurant, La Luna,
centrally located at 23-25 Milford St, ph (0800)970-8510.
This is a ‘genuine’ Italian restaurant (Italian owners and
Italian staff) and provides a good range of good Italian food.
The restaurant itself is rather bare, although being located in
a protected historical building limits what they are allowed to
do to the interior. Nonetheless, while they might be limited as
to how they handle the décor, we did feel that their music
choice was not as quintessentially Italian as would be desirable
– Dean Martin crooning away songs such as ‘Everybody Loves
Somebody’ and ‘The Impossible Dream’ seemed a bit out of place.
Appetizers ranged from £3.20-6.00; mains from £10.00-15.50, and
most desserts were £3.90. A pizza was £6.00-7.00; and pasta
dishes around £6.00 for a main. Service was friendly,
enthusiastic, and neither too fast nor too slow, but a bit
inconsistent – plainly some of their systems have yet to be
fully developed. Full marks for the fresh pepper grinders, and –
a novelty – a battery powered electric parmesan cheese grater
that ensured the parmesan cheese sprinkled on one’s meal was of
maximum freshness.
The Brasserie @ 206
The Brasserie @ 206 is the name of the restaurant at the Milford
Hall Hotel. This is more a formal ‘white tablecloth’ type dining
room where you feel the need for a suit and tie (indeed they
indicate that this is their ‘preferred’ dress), but the food is
of high quality and so too is the service, and it holds an AA
rosette.
LXIX
LXIX (‘69’) is a modern styled restaurant at 69 New Street with
an associated bistro next to it. It offers a varied cuisine, is
recommended by locals, and has a modern feel to its décor. It is
probably the most expensive restaurant in Salisbury, but we
can’t promise that it is also the best.
Grasmere House Hotel
The restaurant at Grasmere House Hotel is very good, especially
for a small hotel. The menu changes daily, and typically
features five or six main courses and a similar number of
appetizers and desserts. Prices range between £3-4.50 for
appetizers, £15-18 for mains, and £4.50 for desserts. There is
usually also a vegetarian main course (less expensive), and the
cuisine is a mixture of traditional (eg Roast Lamb or Roast
Beef) plus also more modern cuisine, with a slight touch of
Indian influence (their chef is Indian) thrown in for good
measure.
Jade Restaurant
Perhaps you fancy a change of cuisine. The Jade Restaurant at
109a Exeter St offers a good range of Cantonese style food
(mainly fish dishes) and is another place recommended by ‘the
locals’.
 The Old Mill
And for a lovely setting,
combined with ordinary ‘pub grub’, try the beer garden at The Old Mill, just off Mill Road on the Town
Path to Harnham. This restaurant and hotel has parts of its
building (which is indeed an old water mill) dating back to
1135, and provides eleven acceptable quality two star rooms as
well as a ‘pub grub’ type bar and restaurant.
The distinctive feature of this venue – quite apart from the
lovely walk across the fields from the Cathedral to the Old Mill
– is its outdoor beer garden, with the river that powers the
mill a prominent feature. If the weather is good, head to the
Old Mill; lunch 12-2 every day and dinner 7-9 daily except
Sunday. You might even see otters as well as plenty of ducks and
swans in the mill stream.
Traditional Fish and Chips and
other Takeaways
If your needs are simply for a snack, there is a good takeaway
fish and chip shop almost immediately next to the Tourist
Information Center, and a lovely bakery adjacent.
Haunch of Venison
Lastly, a good example of the danger of relying on out of date
guidebooks can be found if dining at the well known ‘Haunch of
Venison’, located in the center of the city on Minster Street.
For many years this was well regarded, and it served archetypal
English food in a lovely medieval half-timbered building in the
center of the city. Its location and building were probably its
prime claims to fame rather than its cooking, a situation which
has now become even more pronounced.
The owners seem to be
allowing the restaurant to exist on its reputation and location,
and - based on our culinary disappointment - are making little
effort to provide either good food or good service.
For example, my steak, ordered ‘medium-well’, was served very
rare, so I returned it to be cooked some more. Rather than
putting it back under the grill, they just microwaved it!
Indifferent service and unappealing food.
Not recommended.
|
If so, please donate to keep the website free and fund the addition of more articles like this. Any help is most appreciated - simply click below to securely send a contribution through a credit card and Paypal.
|
Originally published
15 Apr 2003, last update
22 Apr 2008
You may freely reproduce or distribute this article for noncommercial purposes as long as you give credit to me as original writer.
|
Search 
Related Articles 
