A large restaurant situated on the first floor near the town centre. The approach is not very inviting. The door at street level was smashed, the carpet on the stairs was torn and lifting in several places, and it was completely torn up on the middle landing. As the toilets are situated here rather than in the restaurant itself I suspect they are used by the general public during the evening which probably accounts for the state of the stairway. Nevertheless, it is not a particularly alluring invitation to use the restaurant, and almost put me off to start with.

However, not one to give up easily I decided to at least give it a look. I saw nothing to dispel the poor image created by the stairs. The restaurant itself is quite big but looked very dingy in a half light. The fact that only two tables were taken in a large area gave it a dull, dead atmosphere (and it was mid-evening on a Friday, so I expected it to be better patronised). They were too far away for me to see any food on the tables, but no spicy aromas filled the air to tempt me.

The last straw was the waiter who was sitting behind the bar looking distinctly bored. He didn’t even rise when I entered. When I stalled for time by asking to look at the menu he nodded dumbly at a pile of take-away menus. No smile, no speech. That was enough for me. I took a take away menu and left, not to return, and ended up having a very good meal in a pub!

Perhaps I am doing them a great injustice as for all I know the food might be marvellous. But somehow I doubt it!

Malcolm Wilkins - May 1998