Splitz's immediate neighbours along an unassuming shopping parade in Wantage Road, Didcot, are a supplier of angling equipment and a bookmaker's. Fine food, fishing and a flutter - so there we have three of the greatest pleasures in life, as some would see them, all in a row. Intimations of mortality, however, are supplied by the next shop front - an undertakers, gaudily decorated at present with the Union Flag. "Die for Britain," observed Rosemarie as we stepped from the car. She was right, as it happens, this being a window display acknowledging Remembrance Day.

Splitz was opened in June of last year by partners David King and Sue Crowther. They wanted a decent restaurant within walking distance of their home, Didcot having been hitherto unable to supply such. Now the establishment has received an AA Rosette for culinary excellence, the first restaurant in the town ever to have done so. This is a considerable credit to the young Geordie chef Chris Finnigan, only 22, who previously worked for three years for Raymond Blanc at Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons.

Meeting Chris and his young colleagues Kevin Kraperi and Luke Kenyon was an added pleasure for Rosemarie and me after a most enjoyable - and surprisingly inexpensive - dinner at Splitz last Thursday night. The meal was significantly cheaper than we expected because we qualified for a special November offering which allows two people to eat for the price of one off the à la carte menu from Tuesday to Thursday. We saved £5.95 on a tomato salad and £9.95 on salmon and prawn fish cakes. Not bad, eh?

Likewise the food, which - as might be expected from any chef with Blanc training - was both attractively presented and very good to eat. As for the ambiance in which we were enjoying it, I think Yuri Anderegg's pictures indicate with what success a former motorbike shop has been transformed into a stylish restaurant and bar.

We began our evening sipping wine and making our choices from the menu in comfortable leather chairs (see right) in the bar area at the front of the building. (Manager Keith told us he was not sure this arrangement was entirely right yet, since customers later head off to the restaurant at the rear leaving the place looking unappealingly empty.) Soon we were taken through to our table, and a complimentary amuse bouche of creamy butternut squash soup in small cups with toast and butter. Then came starters. My tomato salad was much more than the simple name implies since (besides marinated slices of tomato) it also included pitted black olives, green leaves, and splashes of balsamic syrup and tapenade. There was also slivers of cheese, not the advertised Roquefort, I think, but Stilton.

Rosemarie had a prettily presented surf & turf - three juicy pan-fried scallops (without coral), with a generous piece of "crispy" (not very) pork belly with bacon crumbs and apple purée.

She continued with a pair of fishcakes, in which the balance between the fishy things (flaked salmon and tiger prawns) and the crushed potato for once leant firmly in favour of the former.

I went for saddle of venison - two sizable chunks served rare - which came on a bed of wilted spinach, with celeriac puree, wild mushrooms, and roast brussels sprouts. The dish was completed by a mini-cottage pie of chopped venison. This was topped with snow-white creamed potato, which looked and tasted rather bland. I would have preferred potato cooked to an appetising brownness.

After a further complimentary delight - apple sorbet - I finished my meal with a double decaffeinated espresso, while Rosemarie made short work of a slice of rich chocolate cake, with chocolate ganache and vanilla ice cream.