Fat Badger, The

The story opens along now familiar lines. An old boozer with a reputation for determined drinking and music so loud that the glass used to bend. Galloping to the rescue come three bright young men full of experience blended with enthusiasm and supported by serious piles of dosh, and within a remarkably short space of time the whole place has been transformed, the terminal drinkers have departed for other bars and the new well-to-do bring their own cool to a décor that leaves little to the imagination.

The menus would not look out of place in a modern brasserie, nor come to think of it would the décor, and I could quite happily have eaten off the brunch menu all day, enjoying such dishes as a Lowestoft kipper with potato salad and poached egg, or porridge and bananas. Lunchtime yields smoked salmon and scrambled eggs, Cumberland sausages, or slow roast shoulder of saltmarsh lamb with cabbage and carrots.

Head Chef Will Leigh serves dinner as really much of the same, a few more desserts around, including chocolate and brandy mousse with Agen prunes, but otherwise a variety of dishes that will appeal to those who nibble as well as those who trench, in the evenings.

Let it not be supposed either that the consumption of liquor is seriously diminished; more targeted might be a better description with plenty to satisfy all tastes, through imported lagers, well tried cask beers, and a wine list drawn from all the major areas.