IT was a balmy evening as we sat in the fading sunshine sipping cocktails, mosquitos buzzing around our ears and the sound of water lapping beneath us. We could almost have been in a Greek taverna . . . almost.

In reality, we were on the riverbank in Bath, a fact all too evident as the dying rays of sunshine slipped beyond the horizon and we began shivering. Never in Kos or Kefalonia have I needed to dash indoors to warm up, but at least the food waiting for us was typically Greek, if not the temperature outside.

Opa is a Greek meze restaurant just five minutes’ walk from the train station, where on Friday and Saturday nights the tables are cleared after dinner and the traditional dancing and plate-smashing begins.

Thursday nights are a classier affair, which is just as well as the girlfriends I was with are a classy bunch and I’m not sure they’d have appreciated being dragged up to dance to Zorba.

Meze, like Spanish tapas, comprises a selection of small dishes placed in the middle of the table for everyone to share. The emphasis is on good food, good wine and good conversation (something we’ve never been short of). In other words, you should take your time and savour the atmosphere.

And atmosphere is something Opa has in abundance. The exterior of the place gives nothing away – a sign and some steep stone steps are the only indications that the basement restaurant is there at all. But down the stairs you encounter a sheet of cascading water and then a large cavern decorated with stylish wooden slats and draped fabric. It looks good before you’ve tasted anything at all, and that all adds to the ambience.

Starters, main courses and a large selection of grilled dishes are all available, but we took no time at all to choose the set meze menus – two of the meat meze (£28.50 a head), two of the fish meze (£26.50 a head) and a vegetarian platter at £20.

Space won’t allow me to list every one of the dishes laid before us – there was barely an inch of white tablecloth left uncovered by the time they’d all arrived – but some especially stand out: soutzoukakia (really tender meatballs in a rich tomato sauce), spetzofi (spicy pieces of Greek sausage in peppers and tomatoes) and bekry meze (slow-cooked pork in brandy) among the meat dishes; and garides skordates (king prawns in a wine and garlic sauce) and kalamari (fried squid) among the fish. The only thing I wasn’t keen on was the xtapodi (octopus), which was cold and felt like... well, an octopus ... on my tongue, but others on the table loved it.

The vegetarian platter featured, among other things, gigantes (butter beans in tomato sauce), spanakopitakia (spinach wrapped in a triangular parcel) and dolmades (stuffed vine leaves), all of which were fantastic, but one of the biggest hits of all was the simple tzatziki (yogurt, cucumber and garlic), which we all dipped our pittas into with delight.

A shot of ouzo (aniseed liqueur) rounded off our night, warming us up nicely for our re-emergence into the chilly, 100 per cent British, evening.

Opa is as close to Greece as you can get without hopping on a plane. So if you can’t get away to the Med this summer, just head for Bath and pretend.