In the cold air as we walked up to The Queensbury, the decorative lights and laughs from within welcomed and warmed us inside where we were led to the back of the pub to the separate and more formal dining area.

As we were seated, in my head, I kept saying ‘mirror, mirror on the wall’ as one side was wholly decorated with retro mirrors while the back of the room featured wallpaper with rows upon rows of faces. The interior was homely and relaxing and the guests kept coming in throughout the evening to be wined and dined.

I started off with the crispy butternut squash and ricotta risotto balls with pine nuts and sage butter (£6.50). They were beautifully presented as a trio on the plate, and the individual bundles were surrounded by the sage butter and the flecks of pine nuts.

Perfectly brown and crispy on the outside, inside the risotto rice was sticky and was speckled with a whisper of butternut squash that added a hint of fleshy sweetness.

My fiancé went for the gin cured salmon with cucumber relish, caper berries and lemon dressing (£7.45). The dish was beautifully smoked and the deep-orange slithers had a tangy, moist texture which complemented well against the bitter taste of the capers.

He then plumped for the slow cooked lamb and vegetable stew with colcannon mash (£12.95) from the specials menu. It was a hearty meal delicately spiced and the lamb was very tender. The distinctive smell of the meat was masked by the herbs and spices and the colcannon mash, an old Irish recipe, was sweet, smooth and sour all at the same time.

Hoping to be a bit more adventurous, I ordered the seared pheasant breast and confit leg with spiced cabbage sweet potato rosti and a juniper jus (£13.95). The pheasant, a slightly darker, gamier meat to its competitor, the chicken, was again presented perfectly. The deep red of the tangy, soft cabbage against the deep green crispy kale was both pleasant on the eye and on the palette.

For dessert, we ordered the pear bakewell cheesecake with a mulled berry compote (£6.50) and a sticky toffee pudding with butterscotch sauce and vanilla ice cream (£6.50). Every mouthful of the sticky toffee pudding was deliciously wicked and sweet and the blueberries added little bursts of sharpness cutting the sugary rush. The cheesecake was a refreshing twist to the cold American classic and you could really taste the grainy flavour of the pears.

Throughout our three courses, Saul, the assistant manager and our waiter for the evening, was polite, friendly and knowledgeable.

We don’t venture out much to north London as we live in the south east, but we had a lovely evening at The Queensbury. The voices and laugher remained as we made our way back to the station heading for home.