George Bergier is the sommelier of all time and space across this impermanent universe. He's that good. From Poland, but working in Manchester for forty years, he's perfected the art of customer service, making it a thing of grace, good manners and knowledge.

But perhaps the only quality you need to know about George is that he can be trusted. So forget going with a particular wine in mind, forget the list, describe a few wine characters to George, give him a price and let him work his magic.

Thus on this visit he supplied us with a fabulous Saint Emillion Grande Cru 2006 Clos de Cure, a sexy, full bodied, dark fruity number with a long finish, and a gorgeous sweet and honeyed Sepp Moser 2003 Chardonnay Beerenauslese from Austria. Neither of these I'd had before but by some sixth sense George worked out what we wanted.

Sam's Chop House, like its famous sommelier, is all about trust as well.

The restaurant might have had its ups and downs on the food front, particularly as chefs changeover, but generally the place feels...well... right: as comfy and reasurring as a well-polished pair of brogues. Many basement venues struggle to capture this element especially during the day, but Sam's is as snug as Mole's house in the Wind of the Willows.

On this occasion Confidential was in to try the Express Menu and generally the cooking of fairly recent arrival head chef Ian Leadbetter. You get three courses for £13.95 or two for £11.95.

I had sweet-cured salmon, the faggots and the Eccles cakes, my friend had brown onion soup, ham hock and potato stew and parsnip cake. Five out of these worked a treat, the sixth simply needs more work. Sam's have been doing a classic brown onion soup probably since the day it opened its doors in 1872 and this was as darkly rich and rugged as ever with a fine mature Lancashire cheese crouton giving extra edge.

The sweet-cured salmon was perhaps the show-stopper dish, perfectly balanced and absolutely entrancing, coming with a beautiful horseradish potato salad and a gorgeous sweet beetroot puree. A piece of salmon elegantly brushed with a coating of herb and citrus flavours then pushed on to a fork with some of the potato salad and the beetroot is a real delight. Go to Sam's just to get this burst of joy.

The lamb faggots were the sort of dish that has traditionally defined Sam's. My mum, an expert Lancashire cook, used to make these. My biggest compliment is to say these were almost as good, or maybe even as good. They were composed of 'lamb’s heart, kidney, liver and diced mince seasoned with thyme'. The lamb gravy they came with was good, the crispy shallot rings atop them more cosmetic than effective.

Proper pudds of Eccles cake and parsnip sponge finished things off very nicely. The Earl Grey tea syrup was a pleasant curiosity on the Eccles cake, but the best of the pair was the parsnip sponge, dense and moist, with the main ingredient clearly present and with a sweet coconut custard.

The dish I've missed out is the ham hock and potato stew. This is described on the menu as 'a hearty stew of braised ham hock, potato, carrot, celery, leeks, finished with grain mustard and soft herbs'. The word 'messy' should be substituted for hearty. This was a dish where the solid values of Sam's Chop House became clumsy, with the ham disappearing in a blither of heavy veg.

But that was just one irk in a river of goodness flowing from the kitchen. The new lad seems to know what he's about. He's come with the right spirit for Sam's, providing British labour-intensive comfort food, then adding a spoonful of creativity and a sprinkling of innovation.

He has to be careful not to go too far though, a sample of his homemade brown sauce proved too sweet and yet bland. With some basics there's no need to waste the pioneering spirit, we're so used to HP in the UK then there's no need to re-invent it: not that this precludes having a bit of fun with the way it's presented.

The only problem was the nature of our Express Menu. We abused the very idea of an Express Menu. Yes we ate the thing, top to bottom. But my dining companion and I got carried away and drank about three bottles of wine, which meant we had to get carried out three hours later. Still in these austere times it's good to let your hair and reputation down occasionally. Weimar Republic, Fin de Siecle and all that. It's even good to leave your notes in a taxi so you have to write everything up from memory.

I blame George. We kept on trusting him too much

Rating:	15/20
Breakdown:	7/10 food 4/5 service 4/5 ambience
Address:	Sam's Chop House Chapel 0161 834 3210