Nomis, Bridgnorth; 28 Jun 12

Getting over heel problems seems to take for ever. The experts tell me that it’s because the flow of blood is limited and, I guess, that the injured party never really rests it enough. I’ve had my tendonitis problem for weeks and this was aggravated by my Achilles adventure 6 weeks ago (click here for that story). It’s been getting better but it has seemed so much a case of 3 steps forward and 2 steps back. I’ve had one session with the osteopath just before my Asian trip and another last week. Would this finally be the breakthrough, the light at the end of the tunnel moment?

A big test came that evening. Dinner at Nomis in Bridgnorth. I stayed at a hotel in the low town. Nomis is high town so that gave me a nice Achilles stretching climb. No problem and since then a little stiffness but no limping and definitely a light.

I’ve been to Nomis once before and I’ve been to the restaurant that preceded it and featured on a TV restaurant make over program. It’s probably the kiss of death to go through such a make over but suffice it to say that it was strange when I visited it and it was strange on the TV. There was an over sized chef who seemed uninterested in his customers. Mind you the TV guru wasn’t overly empathetic and seemed obsessed with enforcing Ludlow foodie pretension. Anyway it did not survive. So now it’s Nomis.

Nomis is Simon in reverse which doesn’t say much for the imagination of the owner but that was the only negative of the evening. I went with long time business colleague, Colin Onions, and we were delighted: by the food and its presentation, by the service and by the choice of wines and beers. Difficult to fault the evening.

In reverse order: there’s a choice of 3 decent bottled beers, I had an Asahi Super Dry, and 3 wines of each colour in 125, 175, and 250 ml glasses and a 500 ml carafe. I had a splendid small glass of a Languedoc Sauvignon Blanc/Viognier followed by an equally good but larger Chilean Merlot.

The service was exemplary but, fair does, it wasn’t busy. Ian runs the front of house with humour. He needed it because Colin and I like to engage.

And the food is what you want if you simply want good food and are more concerned with quality than quantity. We both had cured sea trout to start. Then I had duck breast and Colin had pork filet. The portions were small and expertly presented. There wasn’t too much ‘cooking’ so it was all natural flavours from excellent raw materials. Then there was room for a desert which was just right: chocolate based but light and fruity. And of course there’s a proper coffee machine so I had an espresso as the signal for the stomach to shut down.

We’d been giving Ian such a hard time that Simon came out to check up on us. He’s doing a great job he deserves to have a few more paying customers on a Thursday evening. Our bill only just topped £70 which makes it excellent value.