Gunwharf Quays – Restaurant and retail therapy a plenty!

With more than 30 bars, cafés and restaurants (as well as over 90 shops) Gunwharf Quays offers an abundance of opportunities for plenty of remedial treatment. Supported by its impressive waterfront location, attractive design and assorted leisure-related reasons to visit, Gunwharf Quays is one of the UK’s finest outlet shopping centres. So amongst some Christmas shopping, I was keen to see how it is using its extensive assortment of Food & Beverage purveyors to both restore weary shoppers as well as to act as a footfall driver in its own right. But also, and more critically, I was keener to see some something new and surprising.

Within the café and coffee shop segment there is the usual suspects of Caffe Nero, Costa Coffee, Krispy Kreme and Patisserie Valerie, as well as a few less well-known operators, including the Waterfront Café, Parade Tea Rooms and The Real Eating Company. Ticking my new box at least, is the latter two, both a couple of small and potentially emerging, multiples. The Real Eating Company benefits from the better, more central location, though its appeal, certainly in the wintertime, is diminished by the compromised internal seating area and layout. In contrast, the Parade Tea Rooms is more peripheral, but in their gorgeous gateaux offering, have a stronger standout, signature category. In terms of surprises, the absence of any artisanal quality-led coffee specialist is of note, though inevitably influenced by the high rents required here.

Within fast food, operators present include Burger King, Five Guys and Hubbox. Maybe the surprise here is the inclusion of a traditional fast food operator, with several other leading mixed-use shopping schemes, keen to make a positioning statement by excluding the likes of Burger King.

The bakery & sandwich bar segment is covered by The Cornish Bakery, Pret A Manger and Subway. No great surprises there perhaps, but I was taken by how popular The Cornish Bakery was with visitors. Certainly, its slightly older than average visitor profile appeared to be buying into the brand’s strapline that it “tastes like nowhere else”, though maybe a hot pasty on a cold day just hits the spot.

What might surprise rather more, is the sheer extent of the casual dining presence. There is Bella Italia, Brasserie Blanc, Café Rouge, Carluccio’s, Chiquito’s, Coast to Coast, Cosy Club, Frankie & Benny’s, Giraffe, Las Iguanas, Loch Fyne, Nando’s, Pho, Pizza Express, Wagamama and Zizzi. That’s 16 major chains, meaning it would take a good few weeks for visitors to get tired of eating out options with this global assortment. Moreover, the absence of additional promotional activity and limited peak time availability suggests there is a decent amount of trade from the c. 8 million annual visitors to keep various management teams happy.

On top of this selection feast, there are also several bar and pub possibilities, including All Bar One, Eden, The Alchemist, The Liquorist, The Old Customs House (Fullers) and Slug & Lettuce. The Liqourist (part of Stonegate) and Eden (Deltic) are interesting in that they are trying to cover a particularly broad trading window that stretches right from breakfast/brunch and into the early hours. This chameleon challenge is by no means an easy feat to pull off well; as indeed, Deltic has confirmed in recent result announcements highlighting some softness with the brand’s late night trade, and as Liquorist might indicate with its extensive promotional programme of offers.

Finally and additionally, and just to complete this channel review of eating out possibilities, there is also some further supply/competition, from the various facilities available within the leisure-led operators that comprise Casino, Hollywood Bowl and Vue.

In summary, Gunwharf Quays has a wide catchment area that stretches into Southampton to the west, Farnham and Guildford to the north and Brighton & Hove to the east. However, its primary market is the naval base city that remains Portsmouth. So, we are not talking the higher end luxury positioning of say, Bicester, and its upmarket Oxfordshire neighbours or its designer label-obsessed international visitors. As such, there is much to be said for offering a broad and deep church of operators. However, the food & beverage offer is essentially mainstream and lacking some edginess. I readily accept there is no need to fix something that isn’t broken, but at some point some additional future-proofing will be required to sustain Gunwharf’s eminent standing.