GORDON Bennett! What a fabulous meal! Having heard of the recent revamp of the former Gresham Court Hotel we headed there for the Sunday lunch menu of three courses for £20.

The hotel is a beautiful Grade II listed Victorian building. Inside there is a green ethos where everything is ethically sourced without harm to the environment – even the sofa covers are recycled.

The result is neither drab nor earnest but sleek, tranquil and stylish.

On hearing that we were vegetarians the chef, Gordon Jones, formerly of the five-star Royal Crescent Hotel in Bath, far from impaling us on steak knives, cooked us a sumptuous meal.

Our charming Polish waiter, who had never tasted lamb until he came to Dorset, brought us three kinds of bread, including apple and cider, all freshly cooked on the premises every day.

This was followed by a Pea Spumata – a delicate and delicious savoury eau-de-nil foam. Our main course, laid out like an artist’s palette with baby vegetables, asparagus, turnip, carrot, onion, fennel and peas, and crowned with a fleshy chicken-of-the-woods mushroom (captured from the New Forest) was full of flavour.

The pudding, photographed by my husband to taunt a friend, was almost too pretty to eat: strawberry mousse with strawberry puree beneath, accompanied by a home-made brandy snap and strawberries and cherries on the side.

We wiped all our plates clean with the lovely bread. The meal was exceptionally good and all the nicer for knowing that it was locally sourced with high animal welfare standards.

The staff were unusually helpful. And the chef Gordon Jones – well, his nickname must be Flash Gordon because his cooking is so inventive.

Our bill for two including two soft drinks and coffee came to £45.