Franklins

A restaurant of two halves, Franklins divides into a pubby front bar of stripped wood and leather sofas, and a bustling brick-walled bistro out the back. It's an easygoing place with a glass screen opening up the kitchen, where the chefs turn out food from the gutsier end of the modern British spectrum. Sparse menu descriptions list full-on, muscular dishes fashioned from unpretentious, honest-to-goodness ingredients with an edge of retro-British fashionability. Pig's head terrine and piccalilli is a typically forthright starter, ahead of ox cheeks with barley and buttered leeks, or there might be a whole rainbow trout served with chicory, cucumber, olives and sea purslane. Puddings such as butterscotch tart or prune and Armagnac ice cream pursue the no-nonsense theme. The daily set lunch menu offers top value with three choices at each course.