If you want to celebrate ‘Freedom Day’ there’s probably nowhere better to be than Pompey. The islanders are a liberty loving people and any Covid related caution was greeted with a sceptical eye bordering on ridicule.

You can walk through centuries of history and centuries of architecture in a journey from The George (one of the best) through Gun Wharf, Old Portsmouth, Spice Island and sometime (still) genteel Southsea. And it would profit you more than any snatched holiday in the Med. The people are amazing, the mini golf compelling, and the kaleidoscope of references as dense as any area of London.

Which is why Spice Merchants immediately put me in mind of the Standard. The decor is more upscale but the greeting, service and food are classic high street Indian. And wonderful for being that. They did the best jalfrezi – which can be a very unsubtle dish – I’ve ever tasted. And that is wonderful. Long may they prosper.

9/10

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