Ceno’s Bar and Restaurant, Southampton (From Daily Echo)

Ceno’s Bar and Restaurant, Southampton

11:45am Wednesday 2nd December 2009 in Restaurant Reviews By Andrew White

IT’S easy to feel smug, living in Highfield. It is, after all, Southampton’s loveliest suburb, a villagey enclave bordered by the Common on one side – just the ticket if you’re in one of those Call of the Wild moods – and the mile-long cultural melting pot of Portswood Road – all international delis, independent bookshops and roaming herds of students (Highfield is home to the main campus of the University of Southampton) – on the other. It’s urban, but not too urban.

The city centre is a brisk walk away, but not so close that you’ve got it breathing down your neck. You come back to Highfield after an afternoon’s shopping or a night out with a feeling of relief and escape. And, of course, with somewhere to park your car.

As in so many other respects, Highfield is blessed in the culinary department. Admittedly we’re not exactly over-burdened with restaurants – there’s no equivalent of Oxford Street, Southampton’s primary dining district – in downtown Highfield.

But what there is – and, hands up, we’re really just talking one restaurant here – can easily hold its own against any city centre establishment you care to mention.

Ceno Bar & Restaurant sits at the Portswood end of Highfield Lane, fronted by a Mediterranean-style area of decking and tables.

The sense of style and relaxed atmosphere continue past Ceno’s glass double doors. The slate-floored bar area is cool and comfortable with plenty of invitingly squashy leather sofas to sink into. Opening up from the bar is the main dining area, where the pale walls, bamboo floor and red glass decorations give a feeling of lightness and warmth.

Ceno prides itself on its innovative dishes made from the freshest ingredients, with meat and poultry supplied by the award-winning Upton’s of Bassett, fish from Cooper’s of Andover and fruit and veg from P&R Produce of Southampton – so you can indulge yourself without fretting over your food miles.

We had ham hock and Swiss cheese fritters and a pan-fried salmon fishcake for starters. My fishcake came with a pea pesto – a sort of posh mushy peas – and a cucumber and mint salad, whose zing nicely offset the delicacy of the fish. The fritters were light and fluffy, the ham and cheese filling wrapped in a breadcrumb coating of just the right thickness.

We followed these up with roasted chicken with a spinach, feta and potato salad, and roast cod with fried potatoes and marinated courgettes in a Provencal sauce. The cod was cooked to perfection, its rich sauce providing an effective Mediterranean setting for this midly flavoured Atlantic inhabitant.

My roasted chicken came in succulent, finger-thick strips with a warm salad, the latter’s flavours enhanced with the addition of red onion, tomato and basil. It was lipsmackingly good – but fortunately not too heavy to make a dessert out of the question.

Speaking of which, you can’t go wrong with a sticky toffee pudding, and I’m glad to report Ceno’s is a perfect specimen of this sweet sensation – and very generously proportioned to boot. My companion made short work of the crème brulee.

Our three-course meal for two, with drinks, came to just under £60. And no – there’s no extra charge for eating in Highfield.