IF you are fussy over the way your meat is cooked, Gloucester's newest city centre restaurant has the perfect answer – cook it yourself.

The Tiger's Eye restaurant has opened at The Old Bell pub in Southgate Street.

The restaurant has a modern feel, slightly at odds with the more traditional pub itself.

It works perfectly to create a unique atmosphere in both elements of the business.

The Tiger's Eye offers a range of Pan-Asian cuisine, including steamed dumpling starters, and deliciously fresh sushi.

However, it also offers customers the Black Rock Grill experience.

The choice is simple – choose either one, two, three or four items from a menu, a choice of chips or wok-fried potatoes, and that's that.

The ingredients include lamb cutlets, fillet steak, scallops, duck breast, tuna steak and king prawns.

A range of side dishes can also be ordered, including mushrooms, aubergine, asparagus and red onions.

They arrive with sauces alongside a lump of volcanic rock, heated to around 440C.

You can then cook your own dinner at your own leisure.

Despite how simple it may sound, it truly is a dining experience unlike any other in the city.

For starters, it creates an instant talking point at the table as the food sizzles on the rock in front of you.

Secondly, it creates one of the nicest aromas to be found in any restaurant, with the cooking smells emanating from every table.

On our visit, my partner ordered a starter of pork and tiger prawn dumplings (£4.95), while I ordered the seared beef fillet sashimi with watercress, fresh ginger and spring onion oil (£6.95).

Both were fresh and light, but packed with flavour.

For our main, we each ordered four items for the Black Rock Grill (£16.95 each), and enjoyed a mini banquet including duck breast, lamb fillet, scallops and sirloin steak.

Each was of the highest quality and tasted beautifully fresh.

For dessert, we shared the wonderful caramelised banana with maple syrup and green tea ice-cream (£4.45), which tasted as good as it sounded on the menu.

The Tiger's Eye is something completely different in Gloucester, with fresh ingredients cooked exactly how you like them by both yourself and the chef.

Add to the mix some of the friendliest and most attentive staff to be found in Gloucester, and you are on to a winner. Dave Thomas