Rumour, 30 High St, Totnes, Devon

Rumour was recommended by one of the posters over at the spiffy egullet forums and turned out to be well worth trying. Apparently the chef used to be at John Burton Race's cookery school - as teacher one assumes rather than a pupil given the quality of the food at Rumour.

The place is pretty unprepossessing - frankly it looks more of a bar than a restaurant and I'd passed it over on previous visits to Totnes for that reason. The printed menus just contain a selection of pizzas and sides -- the real action is on the boards, where the daily menu is updated.

We had two starters shared amongst three people - vegetable tempura and pork rillette. The tempura was excellent, dry and visually stimulating. The rillette was not bad by any means, but could have done with rather more fat for my taste. However in health conscious Totnes it was probably right on the money for the locals.

My main course was a flavoursome steak with fries; Kate had a sea bream curry, of which the mouthful I tried had great feel and taste. All the produce is local and I could have happily chosen any one of the half dozen options for main course.

I was the only one with room for a dessert which was a shame because I'd have loved to see if the others were as spectacular as mine. I had a jelly of strawberries and balsamic vinegar with basil ice-cream served on the side in a filo shell. Kate and my mom both agreed it was very special indeed. I had half a mind to immediately order peach melba as well since they hogged so much of my pudding, but the afternoon was wearing on. Next time I'll make sure they order their own!

The meal (two starters, three main and one dessert), including two bottles of Devonshire water, was ~£45. Good value from a place I'll be revisiting.