THE opening hours advertised on the menu and windows showed marginally different times. No matter, our visit coincided with lunchtime when food is available every day.

Up to 11am you could have a Wacker Flyer breakfast (£2.95) or a Wacker Full (£4.25) which appeared to be double quantities.

Tomato, chicken or vegetable were soups of the day (£2.05). This could be followed by braised lamb on the bone in mint gravy (£5.76) or tagliatelle, mushroom and ham (£4.46). Jacket potatoes, eggs, fishcakes and traditionally cooked sausages were also on offer.

But we were visiting to sample the fish and chips. Cod, haddock and plaice appeared on the menu but so did the 'senior citizens specials'.

Not having been here before and not sure of the helping size we both selected a small haddock, chips and tea for a reasonably priced £3.55. Peas and bread and butter could have been added for 70p.

This is a spacious caf seating about 200. Smokers and non-smokers are segregated. The centre section of the caf has free-standing round tables, otherwise accommodation is in mini booths with fixed tables and green leather bench seats. Smoked glass windows reduce the intensity of daylight, but this is not to say the place is dingy.

On entry you are faced with a servery and a comprehensive wall-mounted menu. Each table also has its own menu. The idea is to order food, take with you drinks and cutlery and then wait at your table.

'To maintain our high quality and standard of food, all dishes are freshly prepared and cooked to order, so there may be a delay'. I could see the activity in the cooking area while Ann looked over the caf and told me what was going on there.

The venue was about one third occupied with a steady turnover of customers. As far as we could tell every one was into fish and chips.

When our meal arrived it was still sizzling. The chips were irregular in shape, suggesting they were prepared on the premises. The fish was fresh and cooked to perfection. On reflection we would probably not have been outfaced with a larger piece of fish. But this was the "special" offering good value.

To round off our snack Ann had a cream cake and I had a good sized blackcurrant tart with cream. All sweets were priced at £1.25.

Wheelchair access was good with ground-floor toilets for the disabled. The able-bodied are expected to go upstairs.

Updated: 09:50 Saturday, March 27, 2004