Grosvenor Casino Portsmouth

It’s a bit of an old school site, this one. Driving around the old naval bits of Pompey, smelling plenty of salty old seamen, waving at some 13 year old mums with their bonny kids in prams, you stumble across the casino. That’s only where your problems start, mind – it must the hardest casino to park at in the UK (outside of Mayfair). Eventually I got sorted and wandered in. Turns out you are supposed to park over at the Queen’s Hotel and get your ticket rebated, I wish I’d known that before I toured the local estate.

First thing to mention is that I happened to visit on Curry Night, and what a pleasant turn up that was! I didn’t actually sample the delights on offer, but by the smell of them it was a pretty tremendous option. There were certainly some satisfied looking characters rolling about, and some delightful intestinal wind being shared in a caring fashion.

The casino itself is pretty old inside, but more in a charming than a dated way if that makes sense. The slots are of course bang up to date, and unusually for a UK casino in the summer, there was a super aggressive aircon system. In my world it’s better to be too cold than too hot, and this place was on the button.

The restaurant is over in the corner, and judging by their website and menu they do try to put on a bit of variety – Pie Night on a Tuesday of course is any sane person’s highlight. It was while browsing their website after my visit that I did notice a terrible apostrophe crime – I get a bit precious about punctuation – and I just can’t have “cooked by our special chef’s”. Drives me nuts ….

Leaving aside grammatical atrocities, it’s a classic old site with a lot of character and appeal. Drop in!