Beachcomber — Restaurant in New Forest

Wonderful location on cliff top, great outdoor seating. Refurbishment inside is great. Quick service. Good live entertainment. Unfortunately the new menu is too expensive & I feel they may have out-priced themselves in the market as the prices have almost gone up to the fine dining range, which means they have put themselves in competition with some very high end, spectacular nearby restaurants, such as Pebble Beach, (almost next door), The Lord Bute, The Kitchen @ Chewton Glen (James Martin) & The Oaks (Raymond Blanc). All of which have Michelin star/celebrity Chef's. The Beachcomber was always a great place to go for a casual, mid range, fairly priced bite to eat, which now leaves a gap in the market for such a place, particularly for the locals as if you were planning to pay the prices on their new menu you, you may as well pay a small bit more & go to one of the aforementioned places above, as the food itself just is not up to the standard that they are and nice as it is, it is not in the same league, the only thing that is are their prices. The place itself, lovely as the refurb is & the food are not up in the same arena. It will always attract the tourists & will always be busy as it is great for ice cream, cakes, drinks & breakfasts & their live music is excellent. They are certainly well worth a visit for any of these as it is a lovely place to go, friendly staff & nice decor, withamazing views accross to the Isle of Wight. its just a shame they have increased their main...

I saw this cafe on the web and really wanted to go. We parked and walking towards the cafe we said to each other, ‘Lovely. Just what we wanted.’ The location is perfect, by the sea and the cafe is beautifully done. Very inviting.

I wanted this to be great. I did. It wasn’t. A tough review to write because I know that people make gut instincts and then rationalise them in their heads. I’ll try to explain…

After we walked along to ‘Pebble Beach’. As we opened the doors the guy said ‘Welcome. Good morning. How are you doing?’, with a big smile. As we walked further in another waiter said something similar. The first guy showed us through the venue and offered us anywhere to sit, explained that there was outside seating. Even the maintenance guy who was fixing a table created some rapport.

In contrast, none of this happened at the Beachchomer. The impression we got was begun by the greeting, or lack of it, as we approached the ‘wait to be seated here’. It felt like customers were an inconvenience.

Continuing, the sausage bap arrived. A couple of bits of dry bun with tasty sausages. Not presentation. Just on a plate. The red sauce was the vinegary stuff. Cheap.

Hospitality is hard. Covid was particularly hard on independent places like this. I get it. The problem is that what sets independents apart from the chains is how you make customers feel. We...

Very nice bistro café with sea views and fair prices!

This is a very atmospheric bistro café with a maritime feeling. It has a great choice of fresh and home made cakes and a good variety of hot drinks to choose from. There is a small menu on snacks and small dishes which is accompüanied with a few daily specials making it a great choice of fodds to choose from. The foods were freshly prepared and very tasty! There is a vintage tea available, which we are to find out on in My, for a reasonable price of 10,50 per person. There is a view of the sea from all window seats, which is not the case for most other places near which are also on the top of the cliff. There is also an outside area with about 40-50 seats on classic wooden camping tables and also sea views from most seats.

Parking is no problem, as there is a public parking lot just 50 yards to the east along the cliff coast line.

Not to forget: Dogs are welcome in the bistro and there are nice walks down on the beach for dogs which are open to dogs all year round. A nice place to start or end a little walk on or above the beaches and also to enjoy a little snack and warm up if needed. There is a small fire place for the cold days.

One of the nicest bistros with a sea...