A midweek dinner on January 2. After all that protein heavy, rich food at Christmas, something, light, sharp, spicy would be ideal, no? Something like Thai food, with all those zingy, crunchy vegetables and that hot, sour thing going on.

That’s what I thought anyway until I found the Thai place I’d been planning to go to shut. But Helen Browning’s Chop House was open and had a table for three available straight away.

So let me try that again.

Swindon Advertiser:

Dinner on January 2. After all that rich protein-heavy Christmas food, some hearty meat dishes would be ideal, no?

We’ll pass over whether the chop house was necessarily my first choice, because it will certainly be high on my list in future, even in early January.

Swindon Advertiser:

Give the place its due, it’s not all meat - it has all sorts of seafood and vegetarian dishes for those wanting something less carnivorous.

For starters we chose a carnivore board and a vegetarian board to share. These are biggish planks with lots of little bits - designed for one person, but two between three works fine.

The vegetarian board features falafel-like fritters, a beautiful creamy mozzarella, feta, olives and bits like that. Over on the meaty board there were sausages and tiny meatballs, a small pile of an excellent corned beef hash, spicy mustards.

Frankly I could have had both to myself.

Swindon Advertiser:

But I’m glad I didn’t. For main I had the ribs. One companion chose the belly pork and the other couldn’t choose. ‘Surprise me’ she said: So, given it’s a chop house, she got the the signature pork chop.

Lets just say the portions are substantial. And that chop looked amazing.

The reports from my indecisive companion were good; it was tender, and very tasty, on a bed of mash and I think wilted spinach or some other greenery.

Mr pork belly was also pretty pleased with his choice. He was very keen on the sweetness of the cut, especially where the fat had charred.

Now, let’s talk about ribs. I’ve eaten a lot of ribs in my time. (Look, I work indoors, my hands are butter soft. I need the sense of masculinity caused by a plate full of bones after I’ve eaten, like I’m a caveman or something.)

There are two sorts, the ones where you have to gnaw on a bone for slim, but tasty, morsels of meat, and ones where the bones just pull out clean leaving a pile of tender flesh.

These were the latter sort. You can choose your sauce, and obvs barbecue is the right one, but being new year, new me and all, I asked our cheery and sparky waitress for her recommendation: “currywurst” she said immediately. I went with it. Surprisingly delicious, and it worked well. But I’ll try the barbecue next time.

They weren’t the best ribs I’d ever had. But the best ones were in a roadside restaurant just outside Augusta, Georgia in the deep South USA, so tricky for a Thursday dinner in January.

Helen Browning’s will have to do.

Swindon Advertiser:

We shared a couple of scoops of ice cream, purely for completeness’ sake, we take our responsibility to our readers seriously. Better than fine, but heavily dusted with chocolate powder - too heavily.

And it’s not cheap, three people with two alcoholic drinks and two non-alcoholic (alcohol free prosecco, surprisingly worth it) came out at £97.

So a special occasion perhaps, and go hungry. But so worth it.

Try the ribs. (I’m here all week)

FACT FILE

Helen Browning’s Chop House

19-21 Wood Street, Old Town

Monday, Tuesday: 5.30 – 11pm

Wednesday - Friday: noon – 3pm, 5.30– 11pm

Saturday: – 10am - 11pm

Sunday10am – 3pm

Our rating:

Food 9/10

Service 9/10

Ambience 7/10

Disabled access: Yes

Parking: No