The Jetty

What a great place right at the waterfront. We were there with a group of eight and so I was able to try most of the food. It was incredible. The cheese soufflé, the pork belly, the scallops, all appetizers we’re just stunning. For the main course, I had the vegetarian gnocchi, in my opinion too many vegetables and too little gnocchi, seafood and lamb dishes looked really great! I also had the winter salad which I can highly recommend.
The only downside was my dessert, I had the trifle and it was just really not good, one of my colleagues had the passion fruit soufflé and that was incredible! make sure to get that!
All in all, a great experience, especially if you love sea food.

Great location, fabulous views over Mudeford harbour — and kite/​wind surfers if the weather is right! Beautifully presented menu with plenty of choice whether Saturday night or Sunday lunch. Relatively pricey for the area, but with the quality of food to justify it and an extensive wine list whether ordering by the bottle or glass. Staff are extremely friendly and eager to ensure a good experience.

We went to the Jetty on a friend’s recommendation and weren’t disapointed even though Alex the chef wasn’t cooking that day. It was one of the best meals we had had in Hampshire and they excel at souffles. We had the lobster soufflé as a starter which was absolutely delicious a creamy lobster bisque-​type sauce and a richly seafood flavoured body. The fruits de mer were exquisite, served properly with mayonnaise and a vinegar shallot sauce. Then a passion fruit soufflé that was so full of flavour and of such a fine texture that it brought a round of applause. Service, though the restaurant was full and we only arrived at 1.45, was exemplary. My only quibble was that the huge plate glass windows kept the sea views a little bit too much at bay; I would have liked to sense a bit of the sea breeze in the room, but we are very comfortable and the bill at £43, extremely reasonable.

The expanding empire of self-​styled ‘super chef’ Gary Rhodes, has spawned not one, but two, restaurants in Christchurch. This one is in the grounds of the newly chi-​chi Christchurch Harbour Hotel (formerly Avonmouth Hotel). It is in a great location overlooking the harbour towards the beach huts at Mudeford, where you can watch the egrets feeding in the shallows. It’s a modern wood and glass structure, and the Bentleys and Rolls in the car park don’t bode well!
But the lunch menu, at least, is straightforward classic stuff — gazpacho, salad Nicoise, etc. I had grilled mackerel to start, served with pickled beetroot, goat’s cheese and cress. Our mains were chicken pot roast with braised little gem lettuce (a current favorite with chefs) and gnocchi; and grilled black bream with confit tomato tart, pesto, rocket and parmesan salad. It was all cooked to perfection, unfussy and used good flavoursome ingredients. There’s no pretentious chef speak in the menu descriptions, and the cooking has a few imaginative twists, without ruining or overdoing things. There’s no excuse not to have the freshest fish, as the fishermen land their catches at Mudeford Quay a few hundred yards away.
For pud we had a ‘deconstructed strawberry trifle’ — a platter with a glass with vanilla crème topped with red jelly; swiss roll; strawberries; ice cream. Simple, effective, different.
We had coffee outside under the parasols, where you can eat as well if the weather is good enough.
Service was adequate, but not of a standard consistent with the level the restaurant clearly aspires to.
A bit pricey, for a lunch, as the bill for 4 came to £134 (£33.50 per head). The set lunch menu prices are £19.95 for two courses; £24.50 for three.
No hooray Henrys the day we were there. Recommended for a special occasion.
EDIT AUG 2010: This restaurant is now no longer anything to do with Gary Rhodes, and renamed The Jetty. The press release said he was no longer able to devote enough time to it. But more likely it wasn’t meeting his standards, and was devaluing the Rhodes brand. A recent dinner there suffered from variable cooking standards and poor service. Starters (two of us had sweetbreads, one had red mullet, and another a special of 6 oysters for £8) were superb, to be fair. But the main of monkfish tails with seafood risotto was a fail. Cooked in an upmarket charcoal oven from Jospers, it was not cooked enough, and anaemic in look and flavour, despite the promise of being cooked with herbs. The risotto was bitty, with a token mussel in each serving. Puds were good. They were busy, but even so a restaurant that aspires to this standard (and prices) should be better able to cope — service was inattentive, and slow. Still a lovely venue, but needs a surer hand in the kitchen, and a decent maitre d’
EDIT MAY 2011: This restaurant now has a chef to match the high standard of the building and location. Alex Aitken (formerly Le Poussin) has a passion for local ingredients, coupled with a deep understanding of classic cuisine. A recent lunch was tip top — starters were milky, melting mackerel fillets on toast, and a cheese soufflé, followed by perfect duck confit with wild mushrooms, and for my partner a Mediterranean risotto surrounded by mussels, with a sea bream fillet on top, with lovely crisp skin. Puds were Eton mess, limoncello brulee, and an excellent rice pudding with rhubarb.
Not cheap — £118 for three people & three courses, with wine and service. Lunch set menu is £17.95 (2 courses) £21.95 for 3 courses. Highly recommended.