We had a lovely lunch here. There is not a lot of choice in the city centre that is not chains…read more(Nandos, KFC, MacDonalds or pubs), or that is open for lunch.
The building looked quite big, but once inside, it is quite a small restaurant for about 20 covers, unless there was another floor. On entering the restaurant there is a small dining area with four tables, and then another leading up from there through to the back, with two tables, then the bar is situated in the third room in the back. It does give quite a cosy feel and it is quite intimate, and relaxing. We were shown into the middle room with the two tables.
There's a really good bar menu of soup of the day, sandwiches with hand cut chips and salad, but also salads and full dishes, as well as the à la carte menu of starters, mains and desserts, or the steak menu of four kinds of steak with four kinds of sauces plus side orders, so plenty of choice to suit every taste.
I went for the bar food of soup of the day which was a mint pea soup and the full dish of fish and chips with tartar sauce. The soup came with three pieces of warm ciabatta, my favourite! So that pleased me a great deal, as I am not a fan of pea soup, but I was happy to try it, as I really wanted some soup. The pea soup consisted of small chunks of cucumber, small pieces of string beans, peas and watercress, a very green dish and did not taste minty at all, looked good and tasted fine. It looked quite a big dish too until you realise the dish was really shallow, so was just really a bowl size soup in a shallow dish.
The fish and chips was a very nicely presented dish on a wooden chopping board. The fish is half the size of what one gets from the chippy. Would have liked a bit more as it was very nice, as the beer batter was very crisp and thin. The little tub of tartar sauce was also good, with small diced pickled gherkins and parsley. It was served on a bed of potato wedges with salad and a little tub of mushy peas as well.
My companion chose the 10oz steak from the a la carte menu with peppercorn sauce. This was actually a good size, well cooked with peppercorn sauce that also had a spice kick. I had a taste and it was very nice indeed.
The bar served draft beers, and there is live music here on Saturday and Sunday nights. Sunday lunch looks good value at £16 for three courses too. Pity we are not local, but only here for the day. It looks like a fun evening can be had here with good food.