Recommended Eats: Antonio's has brought the heart of Spain to Fareham for 20 years

The News, Portsmouth

Antonio's in West Street, Fareham, has been serving delicious Spanish cuisine to the community for nearly 20 years.

Transcript

00:00Well, I'm Antonio and we are in Antonio's restaurant in Ferrum.

00:04Nice, perfect. And how long have you been based here?

00:0620 years this year. We're celebrating our 20th anniversary.

00:09Oh, amazing. And when's that, is that coming up soon or?

00:12In December, the 6th of December.

00:1420 years.

00:15Happens to be the Spanish National Day. By default, I didn't know that.

00:20That's good, that's good. Yeah, and what do you, obviously 20 years is obviously

00:25very popular in Ferrum and broader. What do you think makes it so unique and so popular?

00:30I think because the food we do, the service we provide,

00:34also because we've always been involved in the community. We are part of Ferrum.

00:39We sponsor the local cricket club, Ferrum & Crofton Cricket Club.

00:43We sponsor two netball teams playing for the Ferrum & Gosport League,

00:47Antonio's and Antonio's 2. We've always done a lot of charity events.

00:52In fact, we have more coming up. I'm a part of the Rotary Club of Ferrum as well.

00:57So that would make us, I think, always being within the community.

01:02Yeah, obviously Spanish food is a popular cuisine, but there's actually not that many

01:06Spanish restaurants around here as well as either.

01:09No, it's not many Spanish restaurants. I don't think it's never been the popular

01:15restaurants to be. It was always more Italian and the old days French.

01:19But yeah, I know a few in Southampton. I know there are a few in Portsmouth.

01:25I mean, this one is probably unique because the chef is Spanish, the maître d' is Spanish,

01:30so it's a small family affair. It would make us a bit unique in that respect as well.

01:35Amazing. And whereabouts are you from in Spain?

01:37Both of us, we come in from north of Spain, a region called Galicia. It's the Celtic part

01:42of the country. Very famous for their meats, very famous for their fish,

01:48fantastic cuisine in the north of Spain. So yeah, we take that with us.

01:55We always eat well. Yeah.

01:57And have you got some kind of unique Galician dishes on the menu as well?

02:01Fish mainly. We try to cater obviously for the British market, but with a twist.

02:09We've got a fantastic range, especially fish. We try to use local produce as much as we can.

02:15And everything is made in the kitchen by Diego, so that makes it special that everything is made

02:21here or prepared here. And what are some of your more popular dishes that you've got on the menu?

02:25Obviously, we have an a la carmenia, we have a tapas menu, we have a set menu,

02:30and we have a fish menu. Tapas is always a very good common thing to come for.

02:38Paella, we make it to require 24 hours notice. It's another popular one. And fish, really.

02:45We have a big selection of fresh fish and that goes very well.

02:49OK, and I know there's normally quite a lot of controversy regarding paella and the different

02:53ways of making it and what makes it a paella and what doesn't. What makes it a paella? OK,

02:57according to the tradition of the Valencian people, paella is made only with duck,

03:04chicken and rabbit. No seafood or shellfish. So that's the traditional paella. Anything else,

03:12we shouldn't call it paella. It's a rice dish.

03:15Yeah. But we have to argue with the Valencians about that. But I think they're right. That's

03:20their traditional dish. That's how they make it. Anything else we call it paella is not really

03:26a paella. It's a rice dish. Yeah. The difference with the Spanish rice dishes is the type of rice

03:31we use. It's a special rice called bomba rice. It's a paella rice. It's not like the Italians

03:37or the Basmatis. It's a type of rice that once it's cooked, it needs to be served to them.

03:43Right. That's the difference of the paella. It's the rice you use. OK, interesting. And

03:47obviously you say you need 24 hours in advance for the paella. So what's the process that you

03:51guys do? The process is paella takes an hour to cook. Right. Give or take 45 minutes to an hour.

03:55Right. So we try to start cooking that before the customer arrives. Yeah. We need to have the

03:59proper stock and the proper ingredients for it as well. And that's what we ask for 24 hours notice.

04:04Sometimes we can do it on the spot. But again, it takes 45 minutes to an hour. And you can't

04:10leave it alone. You have to nurture that paella. You can't just walk away from it.

04:16Yeah, interesting. And obviously talking about menu, do you often have quite a few

04:20changes to the menu or does it update regularly or what's that like?

04:24The tapas menu, the set menu and the fish board, they change on a daily basis pretty much.

04:30The a la carte menu is sort of sustained for a few months of the year.

04:33And we change as we go. But yeah, the tapas menu, the set menu and the fish menu is what we buy

04:42daily. So that changes pretty much on a daily basis. So it's all fresh and fresh ingredients.

04:46Absolutely. You're welcome to go in the kitchen. There's no frisks in there.

04:50Only the one from the gelato, that's it. Perfect, perfect. And do you have any kind of,

04:54obviously you said you've got your 20th anniversary coming up. Have you got any

04:58events coming up throughout the year that people can look forward to?

05:01We do a few charity nights. We've been supporting charities for 20 years. We've raised an incredible

05:06amount of money over the years. And we concentrate on those. We don't do as many as we used to do,

05:12but we're still doing about three or four a year. We've got one for the Rowan's hospice coming up.

05:16We're already fully booked for that. So if someone wants to give us donations or raffle prizes,

05:20they're more than welcome to. Those for a good cause. And in respect to the 20th anniversary,

05:26we wanted to do something and when we realised how many customers we needed to invite,

05:31we don't have big enough. So I just buy them a drink, I think.

05:38And just lastly, kind of circling back really, but what do you think makes kind of Spanish food

05:45some of the best food in the world? The quality of the produce. Spanish food should be fresh,

05:53it should be cooked to order, it should be nurtured and careful. And very much, I mean,

06:00the Italians are the same, the French are the same, the Portuguese are the same. We love our food.

06:04We're having lunch and we're talking about what we're going to have for dinner. And also the whole

06:09range of opportunities you have with the Spanish food. You can have from many dishes as a dish,

06:14you can have from a lovely fish, you can have a lovely meat dish. It's just endless what you can

06:21do with it. And every region is different. So you will have thousands of menus in the Spanish

06:26peninsula and they're all different and they're all particular to the region they are coming from.

06:31And that's what makes it special, I think. Perfect. Thank you very much.

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