I had walked past Ziggy's a million times, but I've always been suspicious of restaurants with curtains you can't see through. It was therefore a pleasant surprise to find a welcoming and warm atmosphere on entering the brasserie in the heart of Bingley on Main Street.

As soon as my husband and I opened the door, we were ushered to comfortable seats by the bar to peruse the extensive menu described as English continental cuisine.

As a particularly fussy eater, it's not often I have difficulty choosing my meals but this time I was stumped. There's an impressive choice, with an early bird menu offering two courses for £11.50 with seafood, vegetarian and meat dishes. And I counted at least eight different types of steak on the a la carte list.

In the end I plumped for the early bird menu with a melon and prawn starter followed by Cajun chicken with banana and lime salsa on pan-fried noodles - more through curiosity than judgement. And my husband went for one of the juicy steaks (£10.95) and a mushroom epinard (£4.75) to start.

The food was beautifully presented, quickly served and tasted delicious. My melon starter with a Marie Rose sauce was fresh with a good combination of flavours and the unusual chicken dish was worth a try.

As a steak fanatic, my husband was impressed with his main course, which was served with a choice of vegetables or salad, and the bacon and mushroom starter.

To finish the evening, there was a good combination of home-made desserts on offer which we eagerly took up on the recommendation from the waitress who had polished some off the previous day.

And by that time, an Irish coffee also seemed a good idea.

The only disagreement we had during the evening was whether to have red or white wine and even then, there's a solution. Ziggy's is the only restaurant I know of which is licensed, but still allows you to take your own wine. You could take a bottle of each if you were desperate, but there is a £2 corkage fee.

The whole bill came to just under £70 - a hefty sum we're only likely to part with on special occasions - for pre-dinner drinks, three courses, wine and coffee.

Suzy Poole

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