THE OYSTER CATCHER

I've never had any desire to be a restaurant critic, not least because I've really not got the most discerning of palates nor the most adventurous of tastes. It took me years to discover pizza and even then it was only by accident when I ate one at a party and said that oh-so-fateful phrase "This is nice, what is it...?"

Occasionally I can still fail to order certain things because I'm not sure about how to eat them and I'd rather not show myself up in public, although thankfully, the days of the snotty maitre'd - at least in the places I can afford to eat in - seem to have passed. I can still remember, unfortunately and with a certain amount of embarrassment, wondering about which bits of the broccoli you were supposed to eat when they were first presented to me upon a plate. That was during the times when I was hanging around with a lot of vegetarians who would introduce me to all sorts of exotic foodstuffs of the kind that seldom made it into my mother's weekly shop when I was growing up.

Far out of my way foodstuffs with strange sounding names like couscous, or humous, or feta, or guacamole, would be served up and I would regard them with a certain amount of suspicion before deciding that I actually quite liked most of them. Even now, of course, they're seldom my first choice, but they aren't half tasty if you're getting hungry.

Similarly, only last week I found myself eating - and enjoying - noodles for the first time despite having shunned their apparent blandness for many a long year.

Generally speaking, however, if I am going to have a meal in a restaurant, for me it's usually a "special occasion" and I tend to fall back upon choices that I know that I'm going to like, otherwise it seems a bit of a waste to fork out significant quantities of hard-earned pennies for something that I'm really not sure that I'll actually enjoy.

That's why we've taken to attending the occasional "taster menu" evening lately, so we can try new things without heading home feeling both hungry and vaguely disappointed.

So what, you may ask, has this all got to do with "The Oyster Catcher"...?

Well, the thing is, when we arrived at our holiday destination on Anglesey a few weeks ago, we had tickets booked for "Macbeth" over on the other side of the island and so, having dropped off our luggage, it seemed only reasonable to ask our hosts whether they could recommend anywhere to eat in that general area, and they suggested that very restaurant, over in Rhosneigr, and, when looking at their watch, thought that we'd be okay to go there at that time of the afternoon without making reservations, because it is a pretty popular place.

It turns out that we couldn't get a table inside, but we could sit anywhere on the upstairs decking area, with its little beach huts, if there was a table available which, luckily, there was.

Anyway the food was good, and so far, so blah, but the real reason I want to mention this place to you is because it is another of the Timpson family's fine efforts to do some good works in the community. 

You see, the "Oyster Catcher" is one of those projects designed to give youngsters a leg up into the restaurant trade, and, much like Jamie Oliver's "Fifteen" projects, gives a group of them a years placement and training before they go off and work in some of the best restaurants in the country and the world and, as projects go, it really is to be applauded and, more importantly perhaps, supported.

Interestingly, this meant that your service was done by quite a large number of different people over the course of the meal which can be quite disconcerting when you're trying to catch a particular eye and ask for the bill, but that's just a personal thing.

I like to know who it is I'm dealing with.

However, this approach did mean that we enjoyed the company of a wide range of very friendly and helpful staff, which is no bad thing. We especially appreciated the efforts of one lad who was obviously very, very shy, but who had obviously practiced hard at having a useful conversational gambit to try out on people so that he could engage with them more effectively, and really felt that we should applaud and acknowledge his efforts.

Furthermore, as we made our way downstairs through the restaurant as we were heading off for the evening (to the equally impressive Ucheldre Arts Centre), we noticed an eclectic mix of rather impressive artworks hanging on the walls. These were from another project supported by the Timpson Foundation, which is to encourage and display the artwork created by convicted prisoners which, whilst as an idea might be distasteful to some, I found to be a very laudable concept and also worthy of mention.

All-in-all, it was a very impressive meal, in a very impressive set-up and, if you ever find yourself passing by on your way to Holyhead or wherever, it's definitely a restaurant worth supporting.