I MADE a right pig's ear of ordering at Piri-Piri . . . not to mention the trotters! "If you're going to try somewhere new, you might as well go the whole hog," I told my friend.

Unfortunately for her, I meant it literally.

How often do you come across a menu which offers something completely out of the ordinary?

Although the new Portuguese restaurant and tapas bar in Havelock Street, Swindon, has plenty of safe choices, I felt it was my duty to order some of the more unusual dishes.

Which is how we came to be tucking in to orelha de vinagrete (£2.95) and pezinhos de coentrada (£3.95).

Well, not exactly tucking in, more poking dubiously with a fork and taking the tiniest of nibbles of pig's ear and trotters.

I'm not sure what I thought the dishes would be like - possibly roasted and crispy - but they turned out to have a consistency which made taste almost irrelevant.

As popular as these traditional tapas may be in Portugal, we just simply couldn't handle the general gloopiness and floppy skin of the trotters, which were flavoured by coriander and olive oil, or the crunchy cartilage feel of the ears marinated in garlic, herbs and white wine vinegar.

After my bravado in ordering, I was feeling rather glad that my pal had talked me out of the pipis (£3.65) - chicken giblets in tomato sauce - and moelas (£3.65) - chicken gizzards in tomato sauce.

Thankfully, we had ordered some dishes which were better suited to our namby-pamby tastes.

Gambas fritas (£4.25) were tasty prawns sauteed in olive oil and garlic and the salada de grao (£2.65) of chick peas with onions, parsley and olive oil went down a treat too.

The special of the day offers a great deal - at £5.95 it includes a main course, soft drink and an espresso.

On the day we visited, it was a light stew, packed with fish chunks, prawns and other seafood - not dissimilar to a dish we'd paid four times as much for in an upmarket restaurant in Bristol, and just as good.

We also sampled the piri-piri chicken (£4.95 for a quarter served with chips, rice and salad). Piri-piri is an African word for chilli and the crispy skin-on chicken came with a delicious fiery coating.

One tiny gripe was that our server didn't write down our order, so we never got our petinga frita (£4.25) - deep fried baby sardines with lemon.

On the plus side, not only are the prices keen - bagettes with chips are £2.95 and there's no meal more expensive than £7.95 on the menu - but the welcome is warm and friendly, the food is fresh and it all appears to be home-cooked.

Despite it being totally our own fault that we didn't like the trotters and pigs' ears - there was nothing wrong with them, they just weren't to our taste - their price was knocked off the bill.

We'll definitely be paying a return visit, or using the restaurant's takeaway service, but may order a little more conservatively next time.

On the other hand, the suckling pig bread roll (£2.80) does sound rather intriguing . . .

Piri-Piri

29 Havelock Street, Swindon

Tel: 01793 522171

Opening times: 9am to 11pm daily