Borthwick cooks with confidence, utilising luxury ingredients with accomplishment.  The popular house fish soup (£7.50) was a veritable wonder: thick chunks of Sea Bass, Salmon, cooked Oyster and Scallops in a frothy cream which was as light on the tongue as a snowflake, with a dollop of caviar adding a superb zing.

My chilled ballotine of Duck Foie Gras, encased in a bold Muscat-spiked calves’-foot jelly and encircled by a pretty arrangement of booze-marinated raisins, was exceptional, the soft, intense, buttery texture of the Foie Gras blending superbly with the smooth jelly.

A crisp fillet of Sea Bream with sautéed Scallops (£15.95) on a stock-saturated herb and black olive couscous settled on a pool of red pepper butter sauce was difficult to fault, while my partner enjoyed a generous heap of beautifully cooked slices of breast of Gressingham Duck (16.95) with a funky Samosa stuffed with confit leg meat and Foie Gras on a very contemporary bed of crispy noodles in a plum vinegar sauce.

The desserts maintained the theme of excellence: an unusual, sultry Prune and Armagnac Parfait and a very comforting Bread and Butter Pudding.

The food was sensational.