Nova forest kitchen — Restaurant in New Forest

Myself and my partner have visited this establishment a few times and generally always enjoyed our visit.

However, today was an entirely different experience…

I have never been somewhere and been made to feel so unwelcome and the male front of house staff member was totally unaccommodating.

The restaurant appeared to be pretty empty. When we entered and asked for a table it was portrayed that there was no availability. We were then seated and the male front of house staff who we dealt with told us that the kitchen was currently closed but opening soon with a limited roast dinner menu. He presented us with a menu printed on plane piece of a4 paper and he then proceeded to tell that he wanted it back should we not want to order anything from it?

I think another female member of staff picked up on his attitude and kindly suggested that are actually other offerings to be had.

We looked at the menu and given the options available we decided we would just like some hot drinks and potentially a cake.

Said staff member told us then we had to move from the position he had just seated us due to our choices.

It was at this point that we decided that we were no longer wanting to be treated in this manor and I told the staff member we were going to leave due to his quite frankly rude manor, his response was ‘Am I?’ - not an apology or any effort to remedy the situation.

Quite a shame as we enjoyed our previous visits and we will be taking our custom elsewhere...

I found this gem by chance looking for a coffee shop, as I don’t live in the area and was giving a friend a lift. It looked inviting from the outside with easy parking and then the staff were very friendly and welcoming inside. I sat in a cosy corner to people-watch and looked at the menu. There were two sides to the menu, a vegetarian/vegan side and a regular side. It was a lovely surprise to find so many vegetarian options and also to find that all the options were available all day. The staff were attentive and my order was taken quickly. I ordered a large latte and the Wild Mushrooms Eggs Benedict with greens and truffle oil. My latte was perfect and large - so many large options are not very large in my experience! My food came quickly, was piping hot and totally delicious. It was all beautifully cooked and full of flavour and I enjoyed every mouthful. There were also some amazing looking and sounding cakes and pastries available, but I managed to resist - just! The whole experience was a joy - and even the toilets were good! I only wish it was closer to where I live, as I would definitely be a...

Have used Regan @Nova to cater for both our birthday celebrations. First was last November where we hired the restaurant and Regan designed an amazing menu around the foods we loved (seafood mainly!), whilst preparing a similar, but vegans options for one of our guests. They organised flowers for the table, as well as a wine tasting to decide which ones to choose. Second time was last weekend when we opted for the outside catering. Again Regan came up with a delicious menu within the budget we had set. She arrived with all the food, aside from the scallops, prepared and used our kitchen to cook the latter. Once it was all over you’d not known they been there it was so clean and tidy. On both occasions the food was delicious, innovative and beautifully presented. Nothing was too much trouble. All the staff we met have been friendly and professional, happy to chat and have a laugh. I cannot emphasise enough how delicious and amazing Regan’s cooking is and would certainly recommend using Nova for any celebration event, or just pop in for...