Saint.Urban

Named after a former Roman pope Saint Urban who is often depicted holding a bunch of grapes, there's an obvious link to this cute little wine bar and bistro in a former chapel on Swan Street.

Our table for 6 is tucked in a corner and a little awkward in terms of sliding in and out but we're comfortable enough most of the time.

Cocktails and beers are ordered and I enjoy my Tom Collins which is zesty and sharp tempered with sugar resulting in good balance.

Food order is taken efficiently and we find the service personable but not intrusive. It's pretty busy with lots of activity and a couple of tables close by are pretty loud. What is it with the need to screech and shout? Whilst it's a cosy and almost romantic setting, the noise levels this Saturday night and the fact that most tables were groups of four or more pretty much would eliminate this place as a great date venue. Maybe it's better when it's quieter so mid week might be more intimate.

Steve and I share:

• Sticky lamb ribs (unpictured)
• Sheep’s haloumi with peppered wild figs

Tim has the:

• Octopus, chick pea puree, chorizo, wild oregano

I think this dish is attractively presented which is hard to do with octopus.

The food is quite classic really but executed well. The haloumi and figs combo is as tasty as expected - salty, chewy cheese and then sweet, sticky fig and warming pepper notes. The lamb ribs were less sticky and more well roasted but tasty enough. I had lamb ribs on Thursday night at MeatMaiden and found them to be a little more generous is size and a touch tastier but this was still good.

Others round the table had steak tartare which was a generous portion and enough for two to share and some oysters appeared too.

The entrees did their job of gently expanding the tummies and whetting the appetite so we were ready for main courses which took a little time to come out but the chit chat and wine helped us while away the time.

Steve and I shared our main courses so we could get a taste of both:

• Lamb loin with eggplant puree and roasted tomato
• John Dee Flat rump cap, garlic puree, charred cucumber, café de Paris butter

Both cuts of meat were perfectly pink and blushing. The lamb was flavoursome and I thought the eggplant and tomato would make it a bit Mediterraneany but it didn't quite have that summery feel. It wasn't quite what I thought it would be and was more classical French than passionate Italian but still very enjoyable.

The steak was tender and I did enjoy the rareness of it although that did mean it wasn't quite warm enough to melt the butter into liquid droplets of gold and instead it remained thick and spread like.

We share all the side dishes on offer and particularly enjoyed the chargrilled zucchini. Not quite enough chips for the six of us and I think I ended up with one so might have been nice for the waiter to recommend another serve. But I made up for the lack of chips with dessert!

I enjoyed the lemon pudding with lemon ice cream and blueberries. Previous dishes had been technical and classical and surprisingly this one was a lot more "home made" in appearance and feel. Not a bad thing to be rustic when it comes to dessert. Light and fresh this was very enjoyable.

Others shared a cheeseboard; there's a good choice of international cheeses and there was also a creme brulee further down the table that I understand went down well.

Given we'd chowed through three courses, cocktails, several bottles of wine and a couple of post dinner digestifs we felt that when the bill came it represented good value for good, classic, solidly executed food.