Fifty Grill & World Tapas

Fifty Grill and World Tapas has certainly added an interesting and varied dimension to eating out in Loughborough, offering a quality of modern food that seemed to be rather thin on the ground before. The restaurant is centrally located with ample parking in the nearby Rushes car park. Loughborough is a university town and Fifty is held in great favour for providing a thoroughly appropriate setting for graduation lunches at prices that most certainly will not cripple joyful graduates, their friends and families.

The place offers a relaxed, warm ambience, where guests can enjoy an imaginative selection of wines, champagnes and cocktails as they cast an eye over the world-influenced menu that is a hallmark of Fifty's culinary skills.

In fact there are several menus to suit the mood and the time of day, let's take the grill and tapas carte, with starters of smoked paprika chicken goujons and chilli mayo, or braised calamari with saffron and white wine sauce.

Centrepiece of the principal dishes might turn out to be char-grilled sirloin of beef, with chunky chips, tomato, mushroom and a choice of brandy and peppercorn, Port and blue cheese and Madeira sauce, for which there would be a modest supplement. An organic pork belly is served with noodles, vegetables and plum sauce.

Loughborough is within hailing distance of some of the best sausages in Britain, so this might be the moment to enjoy the same, with mashed potatoes and red onion pan gravy.

Fifty's taster plate of desserts includes a layered fruit mousse and shortbread, rich chocolate tart and ice cream, banana iced parfait and hazelnut praline, and Bakewell tart with custard, designed to share between two.

Loughborough, an interesting blend of learning, industry and commerce, mixed with a spot of former country market town, still does lunch and over the starter of Fifty's dim sum plate with sweet chilli you might pick up the occasional piece of scholarly gossip, before deciding that for your main course you could not resist the free range chicken breast with tagliatelle, vegetables, bacon and tomato sauce.

For those with no time to spare there is an enterprising range of open sandwiches, all served with chips or a side salad.

The wine list, which includes a nod to the steadily increasing organic movement, offers a good range by the glass, some interesting forays into South America where wines from Chile continue to fortify their reputation for sound production at all levels. Riesling is back in fashion, and if you like this medium sweet wine with floral notes Villa Sittman's late harvest should have you purring. While fans of Amstel will be delighted to hear that they have it on draught.

Facilities include disabled access, and Fifty is fully air-conditioned. For more information, including their latest menus, which change every month for both lunch and dinner, a visit to their Website will yield regular updates.