IF the idea of a restaurant called The Canteen serving British food conjures up visions of dubious meat pies and chips with everything, think again.

While the name may be a nod to common preconceptions, the experience is guaranteed to challenge them and prove that, when it comes to food, British can be great.

Mike and Thamar Wilson’s intimate 30-cover restaurant on Poole’s lower High Street is built around a vision of home-grown excellence.

It’s not often you see shepherds pie and bangers and mash alongside chicken liver parfait and sirloin steak with chasseur sauce. But then these are no ordinary bangers, being home made by Mike.

Another distinctive feature is the regular, locally sourced venison dish of the day which, the menu warns, is dependent on seasonal and anatomical availability!

While we chewed over what was on offer complimentary appetisers and homemade bread arrived – a nice touch.

I chose slow roast belly pork with bubble and squeak and a tamarind and red wine sauce to start while my companion picked fennel risotto with Bramley apple sorbet.

For me, the pork dish neatly summed up what The Canteen is about – traditional favourites taken to the next level, in this case by the addition of a distinctive sauce. The aniseed flavour of the fennel meanwhile complemented the apple perfectly.

I had tried the venison on a previous visit and can vouch for its quality, so for the main I went for fillet steak on black pudding, red wine and wild mushroom while my companion opted for the fish of the day – it varies according to what has been landed on the South Coast – whole plaice with a lemon and caper sauce. Both came with vegetables on the side, including top-notch mash.

The steak was succulent and cooked precisely to order. Rich black pudding soaked with red wine sauce made it a real once-in-a-while treat. The fish was fresh, simply cooked, and delicious.

Dessert followed in the form of the house special vanilla crème brulee for my companion, and poached pear on marzipan ice cream with raspberry sauce for me.

We both knew we had had a meal by this stage, but fortunately both delivered plenty of flavour, along with a rich velvety texture in the case of the brulee, while the pear dish again provided a nice balance between sweetness and acidity.

On this visit we were too full to round off our meal with coffee and the homemade petit fours (another house speciality) but take it from me, they are worth leaving room for if you can!

Our bill came to £63.60 including a bottle of wine – hard to beat for food of this quality.