IT HAD without doubt changed a great deal since the last time I was there.

I can’t recall what the food was like, the noise and smell were usually not that appealing. As for the décor, well let’s just say it was early- 30s functional.

But then again the last time I had been in The Print Room, Bournemouth’s award-winning restaurant, it had actually been a real print room.

That was almost 15 years ago, and boy has the place changed.

Missing, of course, were the huge print presses themselves, monster machines that churned out the Daily Echo, Bournemouth where I worked as a journalist for some ten years.

There’s only a dwindling number of us now in the regional press who can recall the sense of excitement when the press started to roll; their vibrations gently rocking the whole news building. At Richmond Hill, still the home of the Daily Echo, Bournemouth – sister paper to this paper – the press hall adjoined the editorial, sales and advertising departments in what is still one of the country’s most iconic art deco buildings.

But with the advance of modern printing methods the old presses died away, leaving at Bournemouth a somewhat cavernous hole to fill.

So I was intrigued and a little apprehensive what I would find when Mrs M and I arrived for a Saturday evening dinner appointment.

The question was, could any restaurant successful fill the void left by all that machinery?

The answer is that it could. The Print Room – and its accompanying bar The Ink Room created from the former reception to the newspaper – has not attempted to hide from the size and scale of the historic building it now occupies. The towering ceiling and sheer size of the space have been utilised to create a stunning atmosphere.

Giant chandeliers hang from where there were once stark strip lights, floor space has been broken into a mixture of booths and cosy seating areas, very much along the lines of large restaurants often found in American cities.

But if the scale is large, the service we found to be very personal and attentive. And the menu turned out to be just as much a blend of the extravagant (sirloin steak, egg and chips on the breakfast menu – £10; dinner whole lobster thermidor at £40) and the sensible (eggs Benedict served from breakfast until 3pm at £6; dinner delight of organic pork sausages with onion mash at £8.75).

As it was dinner and we had missed the eggs Benedict – one of Mrs M’s favourites – she plumped for flambe of wild mushrooms on toasted brioche with a poached egg (£7.50) to start and I the roasted crottin of goats cheese wrapped in leek with red onion marmalade (£6). If anything Mrs M’s mushroom brioche was a little too much and mine was a little on the small side, but both were presented delightfully and tasted gorgeous.

For mains I chose the pan seared slices of calves liver, smoked bacon and char-grilled asparagus (£15) and Mrs M the seared fillet of beef with pommes fondant, king oyster mushroom, crisp celeriac and a red wine jus (£24.75). Now I like calves liver but it can all too often be served as a slab.This was superb. Mrs M is also a picky person to please with steak – and was delighted. Result all round then.

For puds we devoured treacle tart and crème brulee with fresh raspberry millefeuille (both at £6). Divine.

Final verdict: head chef, Simon Trepess and general manager Paul Fudge have without doubt created a masterpiece with the Print Room – and looks like a story that will run and run.

01202 789 669 – theprintroom-bournemouth.co.uk