Link the culinary expertise of David Sargent, formerly of The Mirabelle in London, the top rated restaurant owned by Marco Pierre White, with the oldest pub in Britain, The Royalist, and you have a recipe for success. 947AD, The Eagle and Child and The Royalist are really all one happy family working flat out to entertain and succour families who may not be all that happy on arrival but certainly are by the time they leave. By subtle handling the full blown families are guided towards the Eagle and Child, the finer points of dining are a priority in 947AD and everyone else congregates in The Royalist.

In 947AD the emphasis is on first class food in relaxed and comfortable surroundings, insulated from the ruderies of the world we inhabit for much of our time. An elegant menu offers a good range of starters including a rillette of crab and home smoked haddock with pimento and poached quail egg, a mille feuille of roast quail and apple compote with a Madeira jus, or a terrine of confit duck and foie gras with prune and roquette salad.

Main courses follow the same enterprising pattern and a roast halibut fillet with warm Nicoise salad and caviar will be a first stop for many. A Cornish lobster with butternut pumpkin and lemon grass risotto comes close and the roast lamb chump with ratatouille, feta and rosemary should keep the carnivores more than happy.

Red berry soufflé with strawberry ice cream makes a good combination of flavours and colours, and much the same could be said of warm poached cherries with mint mascarpone, though if all else fails there's always the 947AD Grande Assiette.

The décor is a well thought-through blend of old and new, though connoisseurs of the old and creaking (furnishings that is), may be disappointed at first. A worldly wine list completes the picture and is the final reassurance of a memorable experience to come.