Perched alongside the Sandford road not far from Wareham, The Gurkha, a single storied structure looks remarkably like a tea planter's bungalow in the foothills of Nepal. Look closer and you will discover that it is a very competent restaurant under the command of Captain QGO Asbahadur Gurung, formerly of the Brigade of Gurkhas, and run by Jennie.

In my experience there is little to beat Gurkha cooking for good honest, healthy and satisfying food. They work from a buffet menu with some 20 to 30 choices and helpings as big or small as you like. Spend £20 and you get 2 bottles of Gurkha beer free, spend £30 and a free bottle of house wine is yours. On Sundays they serve pukkha sahib English breakfasts until 11am, then it's on to the English carvery lunch and eat till you grind to a halt.

Dishes are drawn from Chinese, Indian, Thai, Malaysian, Singaporean, Nepali and English cuisines, some of them impromptu, many of them redolent of the wonderful food we enjoyed years ago when we were the guests of the Brigade for lunch on a pleasant sun-soaked site overlooking the Firth of Clyde.