and although ostensibly a pub, the place now has a restaurant feel to it. A cursory glance at the menu and you're awash with flavour combinations and decadent ingredients.

As we were there on a blazingly hot afternoon, a light lunch was the order of the day. The Monk has a dedicated lunch menu, but also runs its regular a la carte menu alongside, and we decided to pick and choose between the two - not a problem at the Monk, where informality is the aim of the game. It seems that a combination of flip-flops and tablecloths, unusual in any other setting, works perfectly here.

The Monk makes much of its claim to craft everything on the menu by hand. The unexpected arrival of a chilled pea soup with a sesame bread stick confirmed this, but the real star of the show was our first course - a large bowl of Rock Samphire, merely steamed and tossed in butter and black pepper. Simplicity personified, and so it should be because with ingredients as phenomenal as these, very little should be done with them. The dish could have lived without a dated pile of deep-fried leeks that added nothing to the Samphire itself except an over-crispy texture.

We were cock-a-hoop with enthusiasm for our next dish, the homemade-claim-testing chicken, black pudding and bacon terrine. Seasoned perfectly and served with dinky piles of micro-herbs it was perfectly imperfect ? a far cry from precisely formed manufactured terrine. There was more black pudding than chicken, but why quibble? The composite ingredients both complimented each other and held their own individually.

This is more than could be said for the melon, pepper, feta and tomato salad we decided to finish with. The skill with which the first two dishes had been produced, coupled with the respect for ingredients shown was non-existent here. I was expecting slow-roasted tomatoes, roasted peppers, ripe juicy melon and crumbly feta bound on a plate with a simple vinaigrette. Instead we were presented with raw pepper, flavourless tomatoes, hard melon mixed with non-descript green leaves, and no dressing. It was a disappointment, but only because the standards of the first two dishes were astronomically high.

That hiccup certainly wouldn't put me off recommending the Merry Monk. The place has a welcoming atmosphere, an owner who knows his food and chefs who are highly competent; just ask about the salads before you order them!