Bar Solo

In all honesty, we’re not expecting the food at Bar Solo to be much cop. It’s a bar with a daily happy hour, so it seems more likely that people flock here to get pished rather than feast on gourmet food. Tables are arranged facing a stage, jazz club style, so you can sit and watch live bands; in this instance a covers band that prevents us from hearing ourselves or the waitress. As they launch into ‘Wonderwall’ we reach for the drinks list, to find there are only four choices of wine, none of them particularly exciting.

But then the food arrives: chicken liver pate, homemade and served at room temperature, rich and delicious with a chunky spiced apricot chutney reminiscent of marmalade. Sticky barbecued ribs are flavoursome and meaty, with a sweet glaze that coats the juicy pork without masking it.

The lamb steak, served medium rare, is very good, with dollops of tzatziki and a Greek salad with creamy hunks of feta cheese. A generous mixed meat platter has well-seasoned beef kofta, a chicken breast covered in a deliciously piquant Cajun rub, more pork ribs, and fat hand-cut chips. The various meats have been optimally cooked; the kofta is lightly crispy on the outside, the chicken and ribs are tender, all sharing the aroma of the chargrill.

Dessert doesn’t disappoint either, a baked lemon cheesecake with walnuts in the biscuit base is fantastic.

Bar Solo has a savvy kitchen, serving hearty booze-soaking grub, skilfully prepared and very keenly priced; starters are around a fiver and the most expensive main is a rib eye steak at £12.50. And well, the happy hour is just a bonus.