IN the bleak midwinter there are few treats more welcome and cheering than a good lunch. So on a particularly grey and raw Saturday we wrapped up warmly and set off on foot for the Hotel du Vin, just off Poole Quay.

A half-hour walk in the cold is just the thing to make you feel you’ve earned what’s to come.

The hotel is a perfect, modern mix of smart and casual with superb, relaxed service and wonderfully comfortable surroundings. We warmed up with a drink in the cosy bar – there’s an even cosier cellar-type off-shoot with comfy sofas and real fire, but someone else had got there first – while looking at the menu.

There’s a good variety of meat, fish and vegetarian dishes, which constantly changes according to what’s best and the menu also lists the mainly local suppliers who provide the kitchen’s ingredients. There’s also a daily plat du jour.

But the menu that caught our eye seemed like too good a deal to refuse – two courses and coffee for £12.50. We concentrated on the first two sections of the menu and chose the salmon bavarois and blue cheese mushrooms to start.

The bavarois, a light mousse-like terrine with pieces of salmon, came with warm rye toast, a lemon dressing and dressed leaves – beautifully presented and tasty.

My mushrooms were plentiful, coated in a creamily delicious blue cheese sauce and served with crunchy croutes and salad leaves.

We both chose the same main course, which was also the plat du jour – roast pollock with razor clams and mussels. We also ordered a side dish of potato Dauphinois – well, being greedy potato fans we tried to order one each but our helpful waitress persuaded us that one would almost certainly be enough. She was right.

In fact, when our main course arrived we were surprised at the generosity of all of it – we’d imagined that the menu deal would feature smaller portions but that’s not the case. A large fillet of perfectly cooked fish was served with a light buttery sauce and the promised shellfish made an appealing clattering in the bowl.

I’d always wanted to try a razor clam but thought my chance would probably come at a harbourside restaurant in Brittany rather than at home in Poole. There were four on my plate and they were interesting rather than delicious – a bit chewy and not tasting of all that much. But it was good to tick them off my ‘must try’ list. The dauphinois was simply potato perfection – creamy, soft and delicious.

A glass of wine each set our lunch off nicely and the coffee to finish – in a silver cafetiere – is a welcome addition to the fixed-price menu.

Hotel du Vin gets everything right – quality, smiling service and a great value lunch. Very cheering indeed. And good to know that such an experience is available to more than just the very well-heeled.

This is an independent review by a reporter without the cooperation of the establishment.