I had eaten (obviously some time ago) at Harveys, MPW’s home for many years which occupied the same space. I have eaten at La Trompette many times and a few times at The Glasshouse but never seemed to make it to Chez Bruce. Birthday dinner seemd to be a good time to pop my Chez Bruce cherry.

I did probably have above average expectations, I know the quality of the sister restaurants (and Nigel Platts-Martin’s pedigree – I love the Ledbury – The Square not as much but appreciate it!), and the problem with such high expectations is that you can get very disappointed – very quickly.

The dining room is small. Too small. It does pack ‘em in. On the upside it has a front room kind of feel, warm and inviting. A low, cheery buzz of diners chatting. This does however make the service a tad bumpy and possibly why it was a little slow.

Then the menu – it is safe to say that I could have eaten nearly all the dishes on the menu. They all called out to me in some way. Game Sausage with cotechino, Smoked Eel and Salmon Terrine and Jerusalem artichoke soup (one of my favourite things) – but the winner was the Capocollo with Celeriac Remoulade, Rocket and Grissini.

I like to know what I am going to eat, but I feel that the menu really does waste quite a lot of ink. What with the world melting and toner cartridge prices going up surely the dish should have been named Capocolla and Celeriac Remoulade. Aside from the name and the printing, this was lovely. I prefer this to the ubiquitous Parma ham, altogether more smoky and tasty. Celeriac remoulade was perfectly executed, kick of mustard – check, creamy consistency – check. A simple dish but exactly what I wanted on a cold evening.

Next up – Confit of Pork Belly with caramelised apple, black pudding, savoy cabbage, mustard and crackling – my fingers are really getting tired typing out all these names…So – So – So Soft and crispy on top. I have never thought of confit-ing pork belly before, but it is now on the list. The menu description… More