Ego at the Fox Cub: Little Hoole restaurant provides a tasty ray of Mediterranean sunshine as we slide into winter

There is nothing wrong with comfort food of course – who doesn’t enjoy a homemade hotpot, sausage and mash or a hearty stew.

But if you are still longing for the heat of that holiday in the Med, Ego at the Fox Cub might be the place to rekindle those memories before we get out the torches and candles.

The menu conjures up long, lazy days by the sea and is an eclectic mix of influences, spanning Italy, France, Spain, Greece and Morocco.

We opted for a sharing dish of warm pitta bread with dips of avocado hummus, tzatziki and spicy moho roho to nibble at while we perused the rest of the menu.

It was a great choice. Plenty of pitta and a good variety of dips to choose from. In fact this would easily make a starter for two on another occasion.

However, making sure we tried a fair few dishes on your behalf, we opted for a couple of starters to share – calamari and pate.

The calamari was delicious. A light, paprika-sprinkled covering wrapped around the just-cooked fish, ensuring it wasn’t chewy but melt-in-the-mouth. Alongside it came an aioli garlic and lemon dip – the perfect accompaniment.

Our other starter was a homemade pate of chicken liver and rosemary. It was served with chilli marmalade (very good) and some crusty, toasted bread. A more conventional offering, but tasty nonetheless.

All of this was washed down with a pint of very good draft ale for husband Bob and a wine spritzer for me.

This being a Thursday, we were taking advantage of the evening offer of ‘Kebab night’ when all kebabs are a couple of pounds cheaper than normal.

And they weren’t just great value for money, when they arrived it was almost a piece of theatre, with the huge kebabs dangling from their own towers, threatening to over-topple at any moment.

Bob had opted for the mixed kebab – pieces of chicken, chorizo, lamb rump and sirloin steak – while I went for just chicken and chorizo. Both were accompanied by red onion, courgette and peppers, plus a mixed salad, sour cream and warm tortillas.

It was a feast for the eyes as well as the bellies and we had fun sliding the meat and veg off the skewers onto the plates beneath!

We had optimistically ordered some skin-on fried between us, but good as they were, they really weren’t needed.

In fact, the portions were so generous, we asked for some of the kebabs and tortillas to be wrapped so we could take them home for lunch the next day – a request which was completed quickly and a little box delivered to our table within minutes.

Another couple of drinks, including another excellent pint of draft beer, were all we could manage and there was certainly no room for pudding, although on another occasion, I may be tempted by the Sicilian lemon tart or the triple chocolate brownie!

The bill came to just over £60 for the two of us – great value considering it provided a lunch too. We will certainly be back – perhaps for Tuesday steak night or Wednesday tapas – although those kebabs are pretty difficult to resist.

So, if over the next few dark, winter months, you need a bit of sunshine to get you through the gloom, Ego at the Fox Cub might just be worth a trip.

Gillian Parkinson