Dusted Whitebait £7.25

Beetroot, walnut & goats cheese salad £6.95

Sunday lunch with beef (Thyme Yorkshire pudding, roast shallot, horseradish crème fraiche) £17.95

Sunday lunch with Nut Roast (Butternut squash purée, cherry jus) £14.50

Spiced plum and Orange Mess Plum compote, orange curd, meringue, whipped double cream, toasted almonds £7.25

Glass of rioja x 2 £20

Total: £73.90

WHEN the nights start closing in early and you turn up the collar of your Tec trenchcoat against the biting cold, it’s comfort food you need.

That and a venue that makes you and your best girl feel like a million dollars.

I was in funds after a case came good and I figured the Moll looked in need of cheering up.

She’s still in denial that the sunglasses and sandals need to go back into storage for another year.

So I whisked her of to Brown’s in George Square on a Sunday afternoon, , a place that always gives great kerb appeal. What would we find when we actually pushed at that great big door?

A cavernous space with a huge bar and a quiet humming vibe. Nice. Was that a grand piano over by the window? I was liking this place already.

A friendly face took us straight to a table, quite near the old joanna, actually, but luckily no-one was tickling the ivories just yet, so the calm atmosphere was uninterrupted.

“Let’s treat ourselves, Toots” I said expansively. “We’re worth it”.

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Blondie was thawing visibly, after reluctantly being parted from her fake-fur coat.

Starters had whitebait, one of my all-time favourites, so that was easy.

The Moll went all healthy on me and picked the goat’s cheese salad.

And for mains, we couldn’t resist the Sunday lunch choices, beef pork, chicken, or a nut roast. Big butch Tec here went for the beef but Toots decided to give the veggie choice a go.

We treated ourselves to a hearty big glass of rioja each, to keep out the cold, you understand, and in no time were tucking in to crispy hot whitebait and the beautiful brightly-coloured salad.

Both disappeared in a flash. All that walking in the cold can sure sharpen up your appetite.

Our light starters turned out to be a wise move - the Sunday lunches were as gargantuan as they were delicious.

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Who knew you could get Yorkshire puddings to be that big? Huge slices of really tender beef, a top nut roast, scrummy roast potatoes, beautiful veg and gravy even better than your mother used to make.

I’ve found a good traditional Sunday lunch in the city centre hard to track down lately, but I know where to look now.

How we found room for dessert I’ll never know, but we couldn’t pass on the chance to share the spiced plum and orange mess, like a beautiful autumn day in pudding form.

At some point a nice young man had come to play the piano, but the soft tunes just added to the sense we were getting a real treat.

The bill was hardly bargain basement, but for a meal of that quality in a beautiful spot, it was music to my ears.