THE BIG surprise about the Hotel du Vin is that it isn't massively posh. And, what's more, it's not wallet-bashingly expensive either.

The restaurant is relaxed and intimate, a place where nobody rushes you along or is snobby about the wine list.

The French staff come from a country where food is to be enjoyed at leisure and every meal is an event.

And that spirit comes across in everything they do at this simple, yet effectively decorated, bistro, where there are hops hanging from the wall and flickering candles form the only lighting.

The service is outstanding yet understated.

As a late arrival turned up and stood greeting us a waiter hot-footed it to another table and fetched him a chair so he could join us.

His gin and tonic arrived moments later. It was all seamless.

And so to the food.

The chicken with parmentier potatoes, bacon and mushroom was truly scrummy, Gareth's tuna was so good he stopped talking for a full ten minutes and Kate disappeared behind a pile of Mediterranean vegetables which she devoured with a side order... of Mediterranean veggies.

Oh how we laughed (at her).

But the best was yet to come.

PUDDING.

Gareth, as the name suggests, is a boy, so he had egg custard with cinnamon ice cream.

Kate and I are girls, so we had half a ton of chocolate apiece.

In fact, Kate's chocolate pudding with vanilla ice cream was so packed with cocoa beans, it gave her a migraine.

My marbled chocolate tart resulted in three spots two days later, which were both noticed and commented on by Gareth.

The wine list is extensive and acclaimed.

But we stuck to the house red which was delicious and certainly disappeared from Gareth's glass at a rate of knots.

The next day he looked a little peaky and was to be found shovelling change into the coffee machine on the hour, every hour.

Hotel du Vin. Wonderful place, wonderful food. Terrible morning after.

Reservations: 01962 841414.