TUCKED away down an alleyway near Southampton’s Bargate lies a quaint, cosy little restaurant called Bouzy Rouge.

Like a lot of people in the city I must have walked past the family run business hundreds of times and not even noticed it was there. This is despite it being there for around 25 years. And although it has a French sounding name the menu is an eclectic mix of influences.

But on the recommendation of friends I took my girlfriend there for a meal to find out why everyone was raving about this hitherto unheard of restaurant.

So descending down the stairs into the unknown we were pleased to be greeted by very friendly staff and a warm, snug little restaurant full of content looking diners.

Sitting down at our table one of the first things we noticed was the walls were decorated with numerous sketches from Alice in Wonderland.

But with a mighty hunger we diverted our eyes from the delightful décor to the intriguing and similarly themed menu that contained meals including Cheshire cat, Mad Hatter’s platter and mock pig and pepper.

For starters I ordered the stilton mushrooms which were dipped in breadcrumbs and fried. They were so good I almost ordered them again.

On to the main course the waitress recommended the steak Jabberwocky. What is that I hear you cry? A 200g fillet steak sautéed with mushrooms, onions, garlic and tomatoes, lavished with port wine and finished with fresh cream.

My girlfriend on the other hand tried her luck with the pork rumba, which intriguingly is pork fillet wrapped around a banana. Both were very tasty.

With the main meals we ordered separate plates of potatoes and vegetables and had several glasses of a delicious Merlot that went down very nicely.

We then moved onto the desserts and ordered a gorgeous baked chocolate marble cheesecake and a very moorish chocolate mint mousse.

The whole meal came to a reasonable £64, which also included coffee. One of the best restaurants I have been to in Southampton. A lovely, warm, atmosphere with genuinely friendly staff and not an ounce of pretentiousness.

Definitely worth a visit.