Grab the napkins and prepare for big messy eats, a street food extravaganza has arrived in central Portsmouth!
There’s a storm being cooked up at Outside-In Food Court! Tacos, dumplings and fully loaded burgers are just a few of the foodie offerings on the menu at this market style dining experience.
Plus, Outside-In are going all out trying to tick all the boxes for our beautifully diverse society. I’ll round them up quickly in case on of them catches your eye, here we go…they are cashless, plastic free or recyclable, vegan friendly, gluten free friendly, family friendly and dog friendly. PHEW! Let me catch my breath guuuuurl!
Click on the image to take a look at what’s happening just a few short strides from Portsmouth Guildhall.
The interior is Outside In is so cute!The big warehouse space has been broken up with six mini kitchens each occupied by a different kind of street food, one bar and a deli in the entrance. The ceiling is lined with rainbow bunting, there’s murals on the wall and umbrellas and lights hanging from the roof.
Eating is very social too, long benches in lines give it a very communal feel and it’s all a bit mis-matched and home-made which adds a warmth and creates a really welcoming vibe.
Food concepts like Outside-In are really very popular in Europe and Australia. Cities are peppered with large undercover markets filled with street food sellers and shops creating a thriving market scene. The best bit is that they really come alive at night with resident DJs and bands performing while you eat and drink your way through the evening. But, you rarely ever see these kinds of things in the UK, the closest I’ve found is the Covered Market in Oxford and one in central Bristol. These both haven’t mastered the buzzing evening scene yet either.
The interior at Outside In is so cute!This is where Outside-In will excel, it bridges the gap between day and night and brings a new concept to our shores that is much needed to break up the commercial chains dominating the high streets.
Occupying the six kitchens, bar and deli are…
- Tacos by Guerrero (no instagram page or website!)
We went on the Cinco de Mayo weekend and unfortunately the majority of vendors had sold out of food when we went. Only Arepa2Go and Tacos by Guerrero were open, with limited menus, when we visited. I was a little disappointed, but it’s a great excuse to go back though as I’m still really keen to try Dumpling Dumpling and La Boca Rica and One Tonne Burger Co.
I’ve been to Hunter Gatherer before, as it has a separate cafe in central Portsmouth, and I have a post going up about my visit, so keep an eye out for it.
Anyway, onto the good stuff, the food. Arepa2Go cooks up Venezuelan street food and, while I’ve been to restaurants serving food from this part of the world, I’ve never had arepas before.
An arepa is a chunky corn bun usually filled with a meat, cheese and avocado. Arepa2Go had so many amazing flavour combinations but I decided to go for the Sifrina which is fairly traditional – a chicken, avocado and cheese arepa.
It was delicious but not as tasty as Henry, my more mathematically minded better half’s choice. He went for the Cumana, which is pulled beef with black beans, and to be honest, he’s lucky he got to finish it. It was superb!
It was a big bun too easily the size of my hand, the maize makes it very filling, I could barely finish mine! I wonder if they are as big in Venezuela? Do I have any Venezuelan readers out there that can let me know what the size of an arepa should be?
Feta covered fries with an avocado and coriander sauce – yum!
Cassava friesOn the side we had some feta covered chips with an avocado and coriander sauce to share and some cassava fries with mild mojo sauce which was SO TASTY! I could have poured that on everything – ha ha!
Tempura Fish taco!We also shared some tacos from Tacos by Guerrero, the Tempura Fish Taco with chipotle mayo, jicama slaw and fragrant herbs and the 12 Hour Rubbed Smoked Pork Shoulder Taco with adobo sauce, fennel slaw and pickled pineapple.
12 Hour Rubbed Smoked Pork Shoulder TacoI really liked that you could watch the chefs making the food in each of the little kitchens, it really added to the atmosphere of the place!
I’ll have to go back for the churros, they’d run out and we were gutted, apparently it’s amazing, so you know we’ll be going back!
We had a great time despite the restricted menus and we’re going to head back soon for more incredible street food.
Take a look at Outside-In Food Court if you fancy something a little different. The food court’s Instagram account links out to all the vendors and it’s hard not to be hungry looking at the epic food pictures they post!
Let me know if you head to Portsmouth and try any of the food at Outside-In, we can compare notes.
Equally, if you know of any street food places or restaurants, I’m open to recommendations.
On my next visit I’ll let you know what else I try from Outside-In and hopefully get my hands on some of that churros!
Take a look for yourself…
Love the photos! The food looks absolutely yummy!
Thanks Kally, it’s really tasty food!
This place looks awesome. I’d be all over it. There are street vendors that sell arepas in Boston but they are different. It’s just cheese inside a corn tortilla shell. There is a cafe near one of my jobs that is owned by a Venezuelan family. They sell real arepas that are really good.
Oh that’s cool, we don’t really have any cafes doing Venezuelan food here. And, we just don’t really get street vendors in the U.K. full stop! We get ‘pop-ups’ but street vendors are usually just at festivals and things. It’s getting more popular though. I bet Boston has a great foodie scene? What’s your favourite food or place to go there?
I know it’s touristy, but I still love to visit the food stalls at Quincy market and then get a table where I can watch the crowds. Cheers!
Oh I’ll have to look that up! Thanks for sharing. People watching is one of my fave things to do too!