Costa Coffee

You know that mid-afternoon slump when you're trudging down Commercial Road after a morning of shopping or meetings? This Costa becomes your salvation. Positioned perfectly between the city centre chaos and Fratton, it's where Portsmouth's office crowd mingles with students from the university and mums taking a breather from Cascades shopping. The flat whites here are consistently better than you'd expect from a chain - the baristas actually seem to care about getting the milk right. Their bacon baps at £4.50 are proper filling, and the chocolate twist pastries disappear by lunchtime for good reason. It's nothing fancy, but when you need reliable coffee and a decent seat to check your emails, this place delivers without any pretence.