Santanda Pub, The Market Place, Derby

I met a friend (her suggestion) at Santanda before an event at a nearby venue, with a due sense of dread, as I knew the food would be awful having been for drinks there many times. Although I'd never eaten at Santanda, there are some places where you just know it's not going to be a good experience! This place is really a location more suited to having a nice drink outside on a summer's eve and watching the world pass by.

Having said that, Santanda's young staff were personable, polite, attentive and way too good to be obliged to serve up slop of the level I was unfortunate enough to encounter.

The food was beyond appalling. My reluctant choice was described on the menu as a 'Chicken, bacon, cheese and bbq melt'. The inevitable dry-as-dust, stringy chicken breast arrived, smeared with a mercifully tiny splat of brown slime masquerading as barbeque sauce, this being topped by a slice of bacon of jaw-grinding chewiness, the whole enveloped in a droopy, colourless and utterly repugnant overcoat of sweaty, half-microwaved industrial cheese.

This delightful ensemble was accompanied by about fourteen pallid, tasteless oven chips and a couple of insipid leaves from a packet with some unpleasant, vinegary white liquid dripped on them.

This abysmal offering cost almost £8.00 and when you consider that Le Bistrot Pierre, a ten minute walk away, charges £8.95 for an exquisitely cooked and presented two-course lunch, you could get very cross indeed. Obviously this place wasn't my choice and since my companion was happy with her food and was paying the bill, I had no choice but to lie back and think of England.

I would wholeheartedly recommend Santanda for a drink with friends and as I said earlier, it's a nice place to sit outside when the weather is good. However, if you appreciate food of a decent standard, don't ever eat here - you'll be seriously disappointed.