IT'S ONE of those days when you've left work late. You're starving, but you don't fancy rustling up something yourself and the cricket world cup semi-final between South Africa and Australia is on Sky TV.

The best place in town on this occasion has to be Walkabout, the new Australian-theme pub that has just opened in Southampton.

I arrived there just in time to catch the end of a thrilling match, which saw Australia go through to the final in dramatic fashion

Now there are big screens in pubs to watch sport - and there's the one at Walkabout. It was about the size of a terraced house, over-hanging the stage, more like a cinema screen and all eyes were glued to it as I walked in.

I managed to find an empty table at the back which could accommodate a cricket XI, no problem. Walkabout is the kind of place best enjoyed with a group but you don't feel out of place if you want a swift couple of pints on your own. The Australian and Kiwi bar staff are very friendly and helpful and the atmosphere early on a mid-week night was easy going.

I ordered a beer and checked out the menu. The fare is certainly different from most other pubs offering what I suppose is typical antipodean food such as kangaroo and crocodile meat, along with burgers and steaks.

At first I ordered a plate of chicken nachos, but was advised by the waitress that unless I was absolutely starving it would be too big a portion for one person.

I'm not really a red-meat person so I chose the Cajun chicken with mushroom sauce.

Wherever you sit in Walkabout your not far from a TV screen, and while I waited for my food to arrive I watched a bit of Aussie rules rugby, which is a bit of a misnomer as the game does not appear to have any rules whatsoever.

After a short wait it was time to tuck in to a Shane Warne-size serving of chicken with fries and a crisp side salad. I ordered another bottle of Steinlager, which is a fine New Zealand beer, and if it's good enough for the All Blacks, it's good enough for me.

The chicken breast was tender and succulent, the sauce perfectly balanced in texture and taste - but the fries looked as though they had been cooked in unchanged oil and were a bit too greasy for my taste.

After a pleasant and relaxing meal, I knew it was time to go as the clientele started to change from those who had nipped in after work to catch the cricket to the serious nightowls - no doubt attracted by the offer to buy-two-for-one bottled lagers.

Walkabout is the kind of place you can drop into any time. The ambience is loud with music or TV blaring out around the clock, but at least it has an atm-poshere, and the place is so big you could literally lose yourself for a couple of hours.

By the way, "the dunnies" are upstairs - and in the men's they even have a TV screen showing the match. Now that's class.

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.