I never eat at hotels as usually I find their restaurants are overpriced and do not offer great food.

So Monty’s Bistro, inside the Abbey Hotel at Minster, on the Isle of Sheppey was a rare occasion for me and somewhere that I would not usually eat.

The new bistro opened at the start of the month and is named after the SS Montgomery – an American cargo ship that sunk off Sheerness in 1944 during the Second World War.

In some ways, the hotel felt like a bit of a throwback itself, with an old-school holiday-by-the-seaside feel.

To get to the restaurant we walked past the bar and lounge that had shaggy carpets, dim lighting a good number of blokes enjoying a Friday evening pint and reached the wooden restaurant podium.

Immediately the waitress greeted us (mum and dad joined me to make it a family outing) and showed us to our table.

The plain grey walls with a few decorations which were oddly spaced did not wow me as a first impression but all 34 seats had bums on them, which is always a good sign.

What the Bistro may lack in flashiness was made up for in effort with a wooden cabinet, pictures and ornaments as well as plants and well-laid-out cutlery on the tables, all combining to spruce the place up.

The waitress let us know that for our drinks we would have to go up to the bar to get them ourselves, which took away from the restaurant experience.

As lazy as this sounds, I could not be bothered to go and get myself a second pint but if I had been asked by a waitress I would have said “Yes please”.

There were no home-brewed concoctions that I could see so I stuck to a trusty pint of Madri.

Kent Online reported at the start of the month that Monty’s would concentrate on “Italian cuisine”.

Whilst there were some Italian dishes, there was more of a pub-grub feel to the menu, with pie, gammon or fish and chips, chicken strips and steak.

There was also pasta and flatbreads but I chose to go for one of the specials: the sausage, ham and mushroom calzone.

When the food came out, brought to our table by Ilana Chalk, who is also the hotel's events manager, I was pretty impressed, with a red tomato sauce and plenty of parmesan grates on top, which when I got inside the calzone was delicious.

Whilst the folded over pizza was brilliant, the side salad was something that I could have knocked up in a matter of minutes at home.

Fortunately, this was not the main attraction for me and the pizza certainly made up for it. However, for £15 I did expect a little bit more even though it was just a salad.

As it was Friday I decided to treat myself and go for a dessert.

The waitress listed the desserts which meant I had to make my mind up straight away rather than look at a menu.

Although it would have been nice to mull over my choices, the chocolate brownie sundae instantly drew my attention and I was not disappointed. At just £6 I would happily pay that again.

Big enough to share, the brownie with chocolate ice cream came in what looked to be a gin glass and was overflowing with whipped cream topped with a drizzle of caramel sauce.

The food was a winner at the Bistro but had it eased my fears of hotel food? I think it might just have done.

As the restaurant had just had 21 days of service experience since it opened I think it is doing well, especially on the food side.

It does need a little work in terms of the appearance of the bistro to draw people away from the big chains when the holiday season comes to an end.

Ratings out of five

Food: Very solid dishes which cater to a varied audience ****

Drink: As the drink was not offered by the restaurant it would be unfair to rank it.

Decor: It feels like a hotel restaurant but with a little work I can imagine they can make more of the ship wreck theme. **

Staff: Cannot fault Ilana Chalk and the other staff as they were very attentive and quick. ****

Price: The three dinners and the dessert set me back £45 which was really rather good value, although that doesn’t include the cost of drinks. ***