Coast to Coast, Gunwharf, Portsmouth

                           Well, Yeehah! What a fabulous birthday meal!!
So, for the month of April we celebrated Mikes Birthday by going to Coast to Coast, an American restaurant with style and plenty of happy staff!!

The menu is fresh and exciting, offering everything American from burgers to pizza and sizzling Fajitas. At first, we were concerned that the place may be very noisy as it was busy even on a Tuesday evening, but although busy the place had such an exciting ambiance, the noise was hardly heard!!

The staff are welcoming and friendly, making sure you know what is not available on the menu, what the best selling dishes are and what they recommend all before you have a chance to look at the menu! This is such a change from recent Grubgang meetings where we are told meals are out when we order!!

The starters are delicious. Chowder......massive!! Served in a whole HUGE bread roll, the chowder inside was excellent and very filling indeed! Would even do as a fulfilling lunch time dish! Clair tried the bruschetta  which was again delicious, but a little more starter sized!! Dean chose the spicy chicken wings which he soon devoured! They were nice and hot, as he likes them!

Chicken wings was where Clair headed for her main too, with BBQ sauce oozing from them.They were totally to die for, and definitely recommended! Gemma had the pasta and meatballs which were tasty, but she felt the sauce was a little too thin for her liking. Dean had the Philly Cheese burger and Mike the Pulled pork, which all disappeared very fast!!! It was looking good for Coast to Coast!!

Great banter with the waiter made the evening even more interesting and we were definitely full after the 2 courses, but felt it would be rude not to try something from the dessert menu. Looking for something cool, we opted to try the ice creams. We were offered to have a selection of ice creams and as we were sharing, we had every flavour on offer!! The blueberry cheesecake and mint choc chip in particular were lovely!!

We totally enjoyed our time here at Coast to coast. The only mark down is due to the sauce on the meatballs



Marks out of ten................................................. 9 (Mike Dixon)
Birthday revisit August 2014

A little later tham his actual birthday as many of the Gang had holiday commitments and lots of work on, Dave chose for our meeting to be held again at Coast to Coast. Some of the members had visited since the first time we tried this restaurant, but Dave loves a good American feast and had high hopes where the venus had done so well in our estimations previously.

So here we were again, and Gemma knew exactly what she wanted for her starter! After enjoying it so much previously, the corn chowder was straight on the agenda! It was just as good as remembered, although perhaps the chicken was a little overcooked. Pete ordered the potato skins which he felt were not something he would overly recommend to order. Clair ordered the BBQ rub chicken wings, which when they turned up were not as ordered! They had been made with a sauce, which due to some dietry requiremements were not suitable. She had to wait several mintues for her starter to finally arrive, meaning that the rest of the group had finished their starters by the time they arrived!
To remedy this, Clair was offered a drink free of charge by way of apology. Unfortunately, this still was not reflected in the bill!

So to the mains, which some people were hoping would be better than the starters! Clair had the Chicken New Yorker which was very tasty. As a side, she opted for sweet potato fries to try out a healthier option and was pleasantly surprised at how tasty they were!It felt good for her to have something tasty without feeling too left out from not having normal fries. Gemma too tried sweet potato fries, which she really enjoyed alongside her fish for her fish and chips dish. Mike liked his five bean chilli, but was not overly impressed as he had been before with this visit.
Pete had the chicken fajittas, which he felt were over priced for the quality of the food, although adequate in size, and felt they were not overly exciting.

Dessert needed to be a saving grace for some and the carrot cake that Clair and Dean shared was beautiful, melting in the mouth! Pete did not see anything on the dessert menu to tempt him, so opted for a honeycombe milkshake which he felt was the highlight of the meal. Gemma had pecan pie which was a warm pudding with cream and ice cream which was nice enough but nothing to make her crave to order it again.

The overall decor of the restaurant proved appealing to the group, although the table we had for 6 people could have been a bit larger.The waiter we had made mistakes and was a little vague, not being as open to banter as we had experienced before. Service was a little slow. Toilets were clean however, which helps save them on this occassion.

Marks out of 10......................................................... 7 (Dave Graham)