For many people 153 High Road in Loughton will always be where Nu Bar was.

A club best known for offering a glitzy slice of this portion of Essex, replete with regular visits from the cast of TOWIE, became increasingly mired in controversy as the 2000 and tens went on.

In September 2011 a man from Grays ended up in Princess Alexandra Hospital after being stabbed outside the club.

An even more grotesque scene unfolded in November 2015 when three masked men jumped out of a stolen car parked outside the club and set about almost severing off the hand of 24-year-old Edward Dooley.

With search engines refusing to detach the place from such violent scenes even the sparkle of celebrity endorsement proved too little to save the club.

In 2017 it had its licence revoked twice before eventually closing.

Now the building once at the heart of Loughton's nightlife has been given a new purpose, and with it a new beginning.

Tom, Dick and Harry's was opened five months ago by Lee Newton, who owns Media 10 upstairs.

Although almost certainly much less likely to become the scene of violent street crime, the restaurant has retained some of the decorative charm of its predecessor.

As well as two real geese and one real peacock (both now sadly stuffed), the restaurant boasts a set of art deco urinals and palm tree wallpaper.

Across from the open fronted kitchen and bar stand two child-size puppets dressed in 1950s gangster clothing, which a table including two slightly perturbed looking girls asked Rebecca the waitress to move to the other side of the room.

While the overall affect of these slightly odd props is good, the food is excellent.

For starters we began with three dishes.

Mustard glazed pork spare ribs were tender not merely to the point of gently falling off the bone, my meat eating companion told me, but fully and dramatically vacated the rib as soon as his teeth touched it.

This high standard was easily bested by the creamy outer shell of the burrata, which perfectly accompanied and hid the salsa verde and pine nuts.

If a third plate of heritage beetroot, goats curd and hazelnuts seemed slightly underwhelming, it was only because the first two so hit the spot.

After five or so minutes spent dwelling on starters and drinking glasses of the Igrexario de Saiar well recommended by the bar manager Gaby, the main courses arrived.

For me, tender-stem broccoli beside a truffle and mushroom lasagne almost proved too much, both in portion size and its ability to take me back to my first proper truffle encounter in Rome earlier this Autumn.

For my companion, only the thinnest piece of a 340g rib-eye remained after ten minutes, without a morsel of Béarnaise sauce and watercress in sight.

It was all finished off with a inverted, made and dropped in-house ice cream cone and an affogato.

Both were rich and delicious.

The quality of food and service we received during our visit was undoubtedly high, and yet the restaurant remained sparsely populated throughout.

It is unclear whether this is because word about Tom, Dick and Harry's is yet to get out, or if because the ghosts of Nu Bar still populate 153 High Road.

What seems more clear is that time to enjoy the restaurant and its excellent offering - as the stopped hands of the enormous novelty clock mounted on its wall perhaps suggest - might run out if not taken.