A cheery welcome greets us and we’re guided to our seats and wait … and wait. Eventually a waitress appears and takes our wine order. This humourless server puts the ‘wait’ in waitress. We’ll try the Austrian Gruner Veltliner. At its best this can be really good – unoaked, crisp and spicy with apple and white pepper notes. Alas, the bottle that finally appears is a Vinho Verde – not what we ordered.

We put the waiting time for the wine (this tardiness must impact on the proprietors’ sales) to good use by discussing our various aches and pains. It’s now a routine when lunching with old pals to restrict this dreary subject to 15 minutes – it used to be five minutes!

Finally the Gruner Veltliner arrives – the screw-top bottle puts me off and we splash out instead on a good Chablis – a Fourchaume Premier Cru. It arrives promptly with a promising old-style label and is just the job – full- bodied, well-rounded and not overly-acidic.

Being poor pensioners we opt for the set lunch menu – £25 for two courses and £30 for three. The service picks up. My starter of salmon and smoked haddock fishcakes arrives with a side salad and a tangy lemon and chive mayonnaise. This is a hearty portion of two cakes in which the fish dominate and complement each other. Satisfying but very filling.

My chum has opted for the Shetland mussels and a substantial pot of steaming shells is put before him. They look great – large and plump in a classic white wine, cream and garlic soup. They are declared to be as good as they look. These starters are excellent value.

Between courses conversation turns, thankfully briefly, to the state of the world and we conclude that Mark Carney should be next PM.

My main course of linguini with mussels and king prawns is lifted by the heat of chilli flakes and the star of the show is the brown crab butter sauce that bathes the pasta. The mussels and prawns are cooked perfectly and unchallenged by the sauce. I am defeated, though, by the generous portion of pasta and am unable to finish it.

My pal has been a bit more adventurous and chosen the Penang Coley Curry. I’m a stranger to fish curries although I find Gordon Ramsay’s recipe for monkfish and mussel broth with a curry powder coating on the fish delicious and easy to make. It’s all the rage these days for restaurants to offer dishes with fish that was once chucked back over the side. Coley, of the cod and haddock family, falls into that category – it’s cheap too. Nonetheless this mild curry served with basmati rice is a success.

No dessert for me but my companion orders a vanilla creme brûlée with which he is delighted.

This is competent cooking, not quite the fine dining that I have enjoyed à la carte at Fishers in the evening, but real value for a set lunch.

Verdict: 7/10
www.fishersrestaurants.co.uk/fishers-in-the-city