Art House Gallery Café 16/25

178 Above Bar Street
Southampton
Hampshire
SO14 7DW

Tel:023 8023 8582

Website: arthousesouthampton.co.uk

Vegetarian & Vegan only

Parking: Public Car Parks

Wheelchairs: Easy

Loos: Average

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This will please all you veggies and vegans out there!

Yesterday we happened to be at the top end of Southampton (the old Tyrell & Green area) and the eye catching Art House drew us in.

I have since looked at the website and have read about their interesting concept; the Art House is so much more than somewhere to have lunch; I quote…

“Our licensed café offers delicious organic lunches, Fairtrade tea and homemade cake. We also have a busy programme of events, workshops, and art exhibitions, a clothing and crafts boutique and lots more. Most of our crew are volunteers and you might even want to apply to join them.”

The café is certainly very different and once we had paced our order at the counter enjoyed browsing all the handcrafted accessories and clothes on sale. All of the items they sell are sourced from small-scale makers in the UK, so they are all guaranteed 'fair-trade' and air-mile free.  Get in touch with them if you would like to sell your work!

Their menu states that all meals are suitable for vegetarians and most are vegan. Their kitchen is completely meat free and none of their dishes or cakes contain eggs. Most items are freshly made in their kitchen and are wherever possible using local and organic produce.

Our choices, Homemade soup of the day, it was carrot, with homemade bread £4.55. Naughty Nachos, organic corn chips, topped with vegan cream cheese and served with a mild salsa £3.95. For mains, Chef’s hotpot of day £6.75 served with rice and a generous salad and Art House main salad, a generous plate of all our salads of the day, topped with toasted seeds and I had mine topped with Olives and Feta £5.95. Everything was very fresh and well presented. Only a little criticism, I prefer a lot of my salad ingredients to be at room temperature especially tomatoes, they have so much more flavour but do realize it’s hard not to keep everything refrigerated.

We both really enjoyed a hot apple lemon and ginger drink at £2.25 each.  My husband was tempted by a slice of chocolate cake and then we both had coffees.

It was certainly a very different lunch and you must remember that it is all volunteers who run The Art House so don’t expect the service standards of professionals.  The people who do volunteer to work in this 'Community Interest Company' (CIC) are to be admired.

Check out their opening times on their website. Cost £££

Ladies Who Lunch Scoring:

Quality of food 3/5
Variety of menu 3/5
Staff and service 3/5
Ambience, setting & decor 3/5
Value for Money 4/5

Total Yummy Factor

5/5 = Cannot be improved upon, 4/5 = Very good, 3/5 = Good,
2/5 = Satisfactory, 1/5 = Poor, 0/5 = Terrible

The higher the "Yummy" factor, the better the food & service. The higher the number of £ signs the more expensive. (Roughly one £ sign = £5 per head)