I HAD heard good things about the Wife Of Bath restaurant and so decided to go along and check it out for myself. But after a very disappointing meal I am afraid I can't see what all the fuss is about.

The Wife Of Bath, named after Chaucer's character from The Canterbury Tales, has been in business for over 30 years and is one of Bath's older, more established restaurants. It has built up an excellent reputation over the years and so I am not quite sure what happened on the Sunday night when we visited.

After an exhausting day of Christmas shopping I was looking forward to a nice, relaxing meal but I left feeling hugely disappointed.

When we arrived the restaurant wasn't too busy and we were seated straightaway.

We were shown to a booth which is usually quite nice as it gives you a bit of privacy but there was only room for two people to sit side-by-side and it felt like we were sitting on a bench waiting for a bus or something. There was also very little room to get in and out. I don't understand why we were put there as the restaurant was fairly quiet so they could have found us a better table.

The Wife Of Bath is very nice inside with a cosy and inviting feel and it is split into different sections, there is also an outside courtyard area for the summer months. The staff were very polite and friendly and the music was playing at a low volume so was not at all intrusive.

We perused the menu and while there were lots of choices I liked the sound of for a starter nothing really tempted me in the main course section.

I am not a big meat eater and Martin does not touch meat at all and so there weren't many options available to us, with only two fish dishes and two vegetarian options on the menu.

For the more adventurous you can try medallions of kangaroo but neither of us fancied that.

In the end I opted for the stilton stuffed mushrooms to start and Martin had the warm goat's cheese which was served on mixed leaves with a redcurrant and balsamic vinegar dressing.

My mushrooms were very nice but nothing to get excited about and certainly not 'big' as it had said on the menu.

Martin had quite a large piece of cheese which was very tasty too and soon disappeared.

For our main courses I had the fresh tuna steak which was served with a Provenale sauce of tomatoes, onions, garlic, white wine and herbs and Martin had the fillet of salmon which came in a sweet pepper, cream and white wine sauce.

Most restaurants tend to sear tuna now rather than grill it but this was cooked the latter way and was so tough I had to give up after a few mouthfuls and was nowhere near finishing the great big chunk of fish on my plate.

Martin's salmon was also quite chewy and we found the sauces on both dishes drowned out the flavour of the fish rather than complementing it.

The vegetables we got to accompany our meals brocolli, carrots, mushrooms and potatoes also had a sweet flavour to them and didn't taste particularly nice, apart from the mushrooms which were delicious.

After the disappointment of our main courses we ordered a dessert to try and make up for it.

The white chocolate and brownie sundae we got to share looked spectacular when it arrived. The Belgian white chocolate ice-cream was gorgeous, with chocolate chips but the brownies, which supposedly were chocolate, tasted like bits of dough not at all sweet.

To top it all off we then had to wait ages for the bill. We heard the waitress tell someone this was a new menu which had only been introduced the night before. This might explain things, as the chef obviously hasn't got the hang of how to cook the new dishes yet.

By Sarah Seamarks

Wife Of Bath

12 Pierrepont Street

Bath

Tel: (01225) 461745

Fact File

Open Monday to Saturday 12noon-2pm and 5.50pm-11pm; Sunday 5pm-10pm.

Starters from £3.80; main courses from £9.80; desserts from £4.40.

Children welcome. Half portions of most dishes available and high chairs.

Party bookings welcome, private rooms available.