Fifty Lounge Restaurant

Fifty Lounge Restaurant 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 lounge 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.

I say menu, in fact there are several menus to suit the mood, the time of day, even the day of the week. Let's take a midweek evening, with starters of chilli crab cake with mixed leaves and garlic and coriander mayo, or spicy chicken samosas with lime and cucumber yoghurt.

Centrepiece of the principal dishes might turn out to be char grilled sirloin of beef, with chunky chips, cherry tomatoes and Béarnaise sauce, for which there would be a modest supplement. A spicy Moroccan mixed bean tagine is served with lemon and herb cous cous. Loughborough is within hailing distance of some of the best sausages in Britain, so this might be the moment to enjoy the duo of Chef's choice of same, with mashed potatoes and red onion pan gravy.

Fifty's treacle tart crops up on several of their menus, and rightly so. As an example of this very classic dish it stands well, even with an orange and lemon crème brûlée on the same menu.

For sound value consider taking advantage of their 1999@Fifty offer, when your selection of 3 courses from the evening à la carte is available for, yes - £19.99; please note that this is strictly bookings only for a maximum of six diners from Monday to Friday.

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 tomato and mozzarella stack with basil and black olive oil you might pick up the occasional piece of scholarly gossip, before deciding that for your main course you could not resist the eponymous organic lamb and herb meatballs, with tagliatelle, tomato and bacon 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 sweet and luscious wine Bowen's Folly Noble late harvest should have you purring.

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 up-dates.