Old Fire Engine House, The

A year ago I had to write with less than enthusiasm about the Old Engine House, thereby incurring a wigging from the lady wife, who had been there on another occasion and took a different view to mine.

It is pleasing therefore to record that I am now in a position to agree with her, though I am still unsure about the balance between the gallery and the restaurant but let's not be churlish. The traditional English food with specialist items and frissons of public school fare is back in business. There are not many places where lovage soup, pike in season and those mouth-watering smoked eels can be found, nor jugged hare with its overtones of strength. Pigeon in game sauce always goes down well.

Cambridge burnt cream and sherry trifle are only to be expected and I was surprised not to find Eton Mess as an extension of the idea. House wines from Germany at £7.50 and Chilean at £9 seem to follow the pattern, though the bulk of the reasonably priced list is from France.