IF YOU were thinking of a night out, the bright lights of Wallasey might not be the first to sparkle into the conscience.
Like so many other centres in Wirral, Wallasey seems to have succumbed to hamburgers, pizzas and chips. Fast food tends to rule, finding fine foods is not so easy.
What joy, then, to find somewhere where burger seems to be a dirty word.
Am I being over the top? Slight-ly, perhaps. But look around the place. The Hotel Victoria in New Brighton, which once had a fantastic reputation around the North West, has boarded up windows. Many eateries in Victoria Road are long gone.
The hotels which once graced the front facing Harrison Drive were a thing of the past even in the 70s. Without sounding harsh, Wallasey really is no gourmet paradise.
Then we find Rendezvous in Wallasey Village, merely steps - staggers, even - from Grove Road station.
And what a find. It has the air of a Parisian brasserie somewhere near Montmartre. It is alluringly dark. It has sanded bare floorboards - though we are spared the sawdust and there are no accordions within hearing distance. It has enticingly subdued lighting.
Tables are not cluttered together yet there's an air of intimacy. The service is welcoming. The waiting-on is prompt and thoughtful. And, as if it needs to be said, the menu is excellent.
Need I say more? Well, yes, since there's a lot to explain on the menu. For a start, the guys running the restaurant devised the supremely thoughtful idea of presenting a dish in memory of a young visitor to the restaurant called Chris Hardman who always ordered chicken a la creme.
He died as a result of osteosarcoma, a rare disease killing around 200 teenagers each year, but research into the disease is not funded by the government. For every Chicken a la CHORF (the charity name) ordered, the restaurant donates £1 to the charity.
