our choices: the wide-ranging menu offers sharer platters, pizza, sandwiches and jacket potatoes in addition to a range of burgers, main courses, and daily specials.

After resisting the retro appeal of ordering fish finger sandwiches, we settled for two dishes from the main courses and salads sections of the menu, which would qualify for the Portland's weekday lunchtime buy-one-get-one-free offer. Despite the staff's polite warning that the food would take twenty-five minutes to serve, it was at our table in eighteen.

In the interim, we amused ourselves by watching other diners being served challengingly tall burgers, their heights extended with bacon, cheese, hash browns and onion rings, only held together by the insertion of a steak-knife through their centres. The fact that these gravity-defying platefuls were also available on the buy-one-get-one-free offer meant a very reasonably priced lunch for some happy-looking diners.

We were soon served our order, and noted the generosity of the portions. The salad of mixed leaves, with creamy, slightly tart houmous, falafel and its flavours of coriander, cumin and garlic, served with a well made balsamic dressing, was a highly interesting mixture. It was also filling in a way most salads aren't. It was served with lightly toasted garlic bread, and despite being the lighter of the two meals on the table, was slightly too large for my companion to finish.

The chilli beef enchiladas were a hearty meal, featuring two large tortillas, filled with a mixture of chilli con carne and rice, topped with a layer of melted cheese. Served with salsa, sour cream and salad, it offered plenty of flavour, but somewhat erred on the side of caution. The addition of a side dish of jalepeño peppers would have improved the dish for those with a taste for spicier food.

Thankfully, we'd reserved a small degree of appetite for what proved to be exquisite desserts. A caramel parfait, a rich chocolate-covered concoction of caramel pieces, ice-cream and sauce, and a gooey yet crispy lemon brulée rounded off a pleasant lunch.

The service had been polite and friendly, without the indiscreet intrusion of any unnecessary visits to our table. There was a good choice of well-kept beer, wines and spirits. A meal at the Portland may be marginally more expensive than in some pubs, but this is reflected in the portion size and quality of the food. If you take advantage of the weekday lunchtime offer, the Portland offers an exceptionally good value meal.