MANY people will count themselves lucky to have a good takeaway within walking distance of home.

But it’s an even greater treat to have a friendly, good quality restaurant a short stroll from your doorstep.

The Royal Phoenix has a comprehensive menu, but we bypassed that for the special banquets and went for option A, £18, which ticked all the boxes of what we most enjoy.

Starting with chicken and sweetcorn soup and prawn crackers really got the taste buds going.

And we tucked in heartily to a starter platter of barbecued spare ribs, sesame prawn on toast, spring rolls and crispy seaweed.

The ribs were really well cooked, and topped off with a sticky honey-like glaze, a real treat, and the spring rolls were crispy, tasty morsels — although I do prefer a single large crisp roll where you get a proper bite of the filling.

Our main courses were beef with green pepper and black bean sauce, sweet and sour chicken and egg fried rice.

There was a good amount of fresh vegetables in both dishes, with crisp mange tout a nice addition to the black bean and generous fresh pineapple pieces zinging through the sweet chicken sauce.

The beef was really tender, and the small, battered chicken pieces had stayed crisp in their sauce.

We had left-over rice and beef, and were offered a carton to take it home with us.

There was a happily chatty atmosphere, as couple and groups of friends enjoyed their meals in cosy dining room.

With two large glasses of wine and a pint of beer, the bill was not far short of £50, so it’s not a cheap treat.

But the food and service more than made it worth the price.