THE Gallery has been one of Llangollen’s most popular eateries for many a year.

It built up its reputation on simple Italian dishes and became a regular stop-off for locals and tourists alike.

These days, however, there’s far more to The Gallery than just pizza and pasta.

Their grills are well-known, in particular their steaks, and the restaurant offers a wide range of staple dishes and mouth-watering daily specials.

We arrived early on what would turn out to be a very busy Wednesday night.

Having been shown to our table by a very friendly waiter, we ordered our drinks and began to peruse the menu.

Feeling particularly hungry we decided to aim for a full three courses, my girlfriend opting for deep fried brie wedges to start, while I went for the warm black pudding salad.

For mains I ordered the typically Italian pasta and meatballs from the specials board, while the good lady chose a rump steak with stilton sauce on the side.

The starters were certainly ample. The brie wedges, oozing from their case of crisp breadcrumb, were accompanied by a sweet cranberry dip and the black pudding was complemented nicely by a cranberry and port sauce.

Despite the generous portions, both were polished off in no time.

Shortly after our starter plates were cleared, the mains arrived.

Again the portions were generous, to put it mildly.

The steak was nicely coloured and cooked medium-rare as per the order and was accompanied by a mountain of tomatoes, mushrooms, onion rings and chips.

The meatballs were delicious, served in a rich tomato sauce with a warming hint of chilli.

We took our time over the meals, feeling very relaxed in the pleasant surroundings of the upstairs restaurant.

Deciding to share a dessert, we went for what sounded like the lighter option – a strawberry meringue. However, while it may have sounded light, the addition of cream and ice cream actually made it a very indulgent pudding.

We stayed for some time after finishing the sweet, nursing a coffee and the remainder of our wine and gearing ourselves up for the daunting task of getting out of our chairs.

It had been an excellent meal, unusually combining both quantity and quality.