I picked Tiberio because I fancied a nice Italian meal but I was in for a big disappointment.

The florid interior decor resembles a suburban Indian restaurant in, say, 1983. The vast menu includes no pizza (which is what I had been hoping for).

You will, however, find such Italian staples as Toad in the Hole, steaks, omelettes and pancakes. Pasta, yes - but nearly all the dishes contained meat (not much good to us two veggies.) It also seems to be big on veal.

The wine list is astounding (260 choices!) but I must have chosen badly, because our £11.50 bottle of South African white was very nondescript. The food, I'm afraid to say, was very average.

I went for the good-value early-bird menu (available until 8pm) which got me two courses for £8.50. I enjoyed the starter of filled pasta parcels in a creamy/garlicky mushroom sauce - but not the bland sole fillets stuffed with crab in greying seafood 'sauce' which followed.

They came with badly out-of-place brussels sprouts which had been boiled to within an inch of their lives, roast potatoes and carrots. More Surbiton than Siena.

Simon picked two things off the more expensive a la carte menu - a starter of mozzarella in tomato sauce (£4.95) which was nothing to write home about, and a peculiar pasty stuffed with sweetcorn in cream sauce (£7.50), which was rather sickly. Manfully, he ate it all.

Our bill was a not inconsiderable £32.45 for one of the most underwhelming dining-out experiences I have ever had in the service of Telegraph & Argus readers.

Tiberio bills itself as a 'high class' restaurant in its little glossy promotional card, but I was craving fresh ingredients and authentic Italian flavours and I left disappointed.

Perhaps they were having an off night (it was a fairly quiet, post Millennium Monday) but at those prices, I'm not inclined to go back for seconds.

Sarah Walsh

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.