Monster Mash

This review appears in the The List's Eating & Drinking Guide 2008 – in the shops now or buy online.

With its black and white décor, tomato-shaped ketchup bottles and 'happy days are here again', catchphrase, stepping into Monster Mash feels like going back to the 1950s. It's popular with pub-goers, university students and families, and there's a cheerful buzz to the place even on a weekday night. Bangers and mash is the restaurant's main specialty, and varieties of sausages include classic pork, beef and tomato, pork with leek or cheese, or country herb for vegetarians. Mash also ranges from plain to mustard or champ. Two chubby pork and cheese sausages, split at the seams and releasing a delicious smoky scent, arrive on a bed of silky champ mash, accompanied by a dark gravy, floating with bits of sweet onion. A moist chicken and ham pie, stuffed with herby carrots and potatoes, features a crisp puff pastry top. The desserts are mostly creamy concoctions: a split banana, hiding under a bed of whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles, is a good dessert to share. The deep-fried ice-cream features vanilla ice-cream rolled in crushed cornflakes, deep-fried, then doused in nutty syrup. To wash all this down, a variety of milkshakes and floats are available, as are the reasonably priced bottles of Heineken and Sweetheart Stout. Fast service and reliable meals makes this diner a long-term favourite.

• High point: Sausages as you've always wanted them
• Low point: Specials on blackboard too faint to read