IT was 33 years ago that Robert Colley founded the first of his supper rooms in Swaythling with the aim of allowing customers to experience a dinner party atmosphere which was unrushed and which served good food.

The Colleys name has expanded to outlets in Bristol, Reading and Gloucestershire, but still the original supper rooms remain in High Road, Swaythling. The restaurant chain has been put up for sale by Mr Colley, but he hopes the business will continue.

Colleys offers what has to be the ultimate dining experience.

That's not a flippant remark. Go to Colleys and you will never dine like it again. It is a sumptuous six-course feast of gorgeous home-made food and an atmosphere unlike anywhere else. Before each course the waiters and waitresses bring the different dishes to your table for you to choose.

Fast food this is not. The evening starts at 7.30pm, and if you've finished by 11.30pm you've done well. But you leave feeling well satisfied.

So what about the food? The menu I had on this Friday night is just a sample, but a measure of what you can expect.

Well for starters there are the hors d'oeuvres - a table-full of delights such as smoked mackerel and chicken liver pates, lettuce with croutons and dressing, orange beetroot, egg mayonnaise with a curry dressing, a pineapple pasta salad. The trick is to pace yourself and not pile your plate too high.

Chick pea and potato soup followed, accompanied by a sizeable hunk of home-made bread, and then it was the risotto, a prawn and asparagus risotto - or you could plump for macaroni cheese instead.

A lemon sorbet helped to rest a palate coping with the explosion of flavours before an array of main dishes were paraded before you - tuna steaks with a black olive and mango dressing, beef and Guinness sausages with a horse radish mash, a Charnwood cheese filo pastry tartlet, and my choice, a succulent roast pork served with fondant potatoes and veg.

In the back of your mind was the fact that dessert is Colleys' piece de resistance, and on this occasion we weren't disappointed. The two mainstays, treacle pudding with custard, or marzipan bread and butter pudding were there, mingled with other delights such as double chocolate sundae, and for me, a fabulous upside down pineapple slice with home-made vanilla ice cream.

You can have as many desserts as you can eat. "What's the record?" I asked the waitress. "Five!" she replied.

Whoever managed that had some appetite. Colleys is a culinary experience, a wonderful place to eat in a very relaxed setting. Visit, and you won't be disappointed.

Colleys Supper Rooms, 51 High Road, Swaythling, Southampton. 023 8055 1404