I had thought that themed restaurants - where you can eat off a vampire’s coffin, beneath a man on the flying trapeze or seated between Alice in Wonderland’s Mad Hatter and March Hare – were a thing from that there London or more eccentric cities in Japan and the US.

Except for a Wild West or Pirate themed eatery in Blackpool, I hadn’t expected to find a themed restaurant in the North West.

So, I was more than surprised to learn of a café dedicated to Ellesmere Port life prisoner and “Britain’s most dangerous convict” Charles Bronson in, of all places, Salford.

But this isn’t a hipster venue where you drink over-priced coffee from a jam jar or fish and chips out of a roller skate. Rather it’s a community café – a ‘greasy spoon’ if you will – dedicated to a man who has spent just four months and nine days out of custody since he was jailed for seven years for armed robbery at the age of 22 in 1974.

So, during a trip to Salford Quays, I decided to take a look at this most quirky of cafes for myself.

There is a small car park at the back of a row of shops on busy Broughton Road in Salford.

After walking around to the front of the shops, there is no mistaking the Official Bronson’s Café. In striking red, black and white, familiar colours throughout Salford, is the man’s famous face, with spectacles, handle-bar moustache and shaved head.

65-year-old Bronson, now jailed at HMP Frankland and known as Charlese Salvador in honour of the surrealist painter, is a keen cook and has sent his best wishes to the team at the café.

His wife Paula had cut the ribbon at the grand opening just six days earlier, but when I arrived it was a much quieter atmosphere.

On entering, it is noticeable how bright and spotlessly clean the café is. But what grabs your attention is the Bronson artwork and memorabilia that lines the walls. One wall is crammed with the man’s own artwork while opposite is a stark black and white mural of a prison corridor.

Chester and District Standard:

A signed photograph wishing the cafe well.

Above the counter is a signed photograph from the man himself, who was born Michael Gordon Peterson in Aberystwyth in 1952 and was raised in Ellesmere Port, and next to it is a prison-style door that leads to the spotlessly clean customer toilets.

Chester and District Standard:

The menu.

The menu is small and includes “The Bronson Belly Buster” and straight-jacket potatoes.

But the two ladies behind the counter had just prepared a Sunday roast – with a choice of beef of chicken – so I went with this option.

Moments later I had a plate piled high with food – two types of potatoes, Yorkshire puddings, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, chicken and stuffing all coated in a generous helping of gravy – with more available on request.

For £6.80, including a can of Fanta, it was definitely value for money.

It’s these generous Sunday dinners, just like mum or nan used to make, that could be the key to this café’s longevity after the Bronson buzz has died down.

Already popular with builders working on the many construction sites in Salford during the week, the café could be a goldmine on Sundays.

As one retired teacher who has come in for Sunday lunch and a read of the newspapers said, there are no other local cafes that offer Sunday dinners. Once word gets out they could be queuing out the door.

As one young man said before tucking into his roast: “It’s mint in here”.

Despite the somewhat unusual theme of the café, there is a real community spirit here.

All the food remaining at the end of the day is donated to a nearby homeless shelter and, as one member of staff joked, "the homeless round here have never been so well fed".