WHEN you visit the George and Dragon at Rowde, near Devizes you are never quite sure who you might have dining with you.

For landlord Chippy Day has a host of celebrity friends from his days as a hot shot with the Soho House group.

Among those who popped in to say hello recently was Eddie Redmayne when he was shooting one of the Harry Potter spin off films at nearby Lacock.

But if the food is as good as it was when we visited on a Thursday evening it doesn’t matter who else is there as it is the star of the show.

The pub is known for its fish and has won an array of awards so it seemed only right that my husband and I both chose fishy offerings for both our starters and main course.

I was delighted that the set menu, which is well priced at £24.50 for three courses, included two of my favourites - crab and skate.

The evening was made even more pleasant by the cheerful and efficient staff who worked as a team to keep the evening flowing at a steady pace.

We arrived early for our 7.30pm booking so we could have a drink in the bar and there is a good choice of beer which pleased Ron who ordered a pint of Butcombe (£3.90)

I decided to start the evening at least by being sensible and had a Becks non alcoholic beer (£3.50).

While we were drinking friends turned up with their young daughter and new puppy which they had taken to classes down the road.

This showed off the pub’s credentials for being both child and dog friendly but after a bit of a chat they sojourned to the recently upgraded garden which is now beautifully set up for alfresco dining.

We were shown to the dining area which has a homely feel in keeping with the pub’s heritage.

We ordered a bottle of rose wine (£18.50) to accompany the meal and it was well chilled and light. Complimentary bread and oil with balsamic was brought to the table along with a carafe water, which would have been improved by a few ice cubes on a warm evening.

My dressed crab was full of flavour but was slightly outplayed by my husband’s choice of chilli salt and pepper squid (£12) which had a tangy sauce that set it apart from the many dishes of calamaris we have tried at countless restaurants here and abroad.

We thought £12 for a starter was a bit high but you could not fault the quality or the cooking.

My skate which came with capers was again beautifully cooked and fell off the bone and my husband’s lemon sole (£27) was equally good if again not the sort of price you would want to pay too often for a main course.

People at tables around us seemed to be equally enjoying their food and the meat options appeared to be going down as well as the fish.

A good thing about eating fish is that you have a bit of space for pudding so we decided to share a platter of cheese. The price of this came within my set menu and was plenty for two making it particularly good value.

Overall both the food and the drink were excellent and one to remember for a special occasion.