The imposing building that is Steeton Hall seems to have been a hotel and restaurant forever but it was originally a manor house.

You get a snapshot of its former glory with the splendour of the high ceilings and plasterwork in the dining room.

A more recent addition is a conservatory, now tarted up to look like the inside of a circus tent and this is where we discovered what must be one of the best deals around. Arrive before 8pm six nights a week and you can have two courses from a table d'hote menu of five starters and five main meals for only £8.

Our evening got off to a Basil Fawltyesque start when, after choosing our food, the waiter, a pleasant enough lad dressed like a Pop Idol contestant, came back to tell us that the original menu was off and gave us a brand new menu. When our choices were served, the generous portions and the high quality of the food delighted us.

Starters included soup, melon, mushrooms and our choices of a marvellously smooth chicken liver pate and a very good warm goat's cheese salad.

It was amusing to see the paté described as being served with "warm" toast: I suppose you have to order the usual cold and bendy stuff as a special, and I'm not sure when strawberries and grapes became salad vegetables.

The main courses disproved the old adage about only getting what you pay for by offering a choice of sausages, pasta, gammon, a 10oz rump steak and haddock fillet with a leek sauce.

The steak, which was accompanied by mushrooms, onion rings and tomato was as good as many at twice the price and the piece of fish was big enough to give cause for concern to anyone worried about the preservation of North Sea fishing stock.

Plenty of vegetables, chips and potatoes made sure the plates were filled to overflowing.

The choice of puddings at £3.95 was limited to apple pie, chocolate fudge cake and a nicely tangy lemon tart. All in all it was very satisfying on both the palate and the pocket at less than £20 the lot.

My earlier review of mine was less than complimentary about the Blue Bell in Kettlewell. At the time I suggested the immediate aftermath of the Christmas holiday was a difficult time for the catering trade and promised to revisit the place.

I returned on a recent Sunday lunchtime with three generations of females for company and found the atmosphere and food as chalk(y) and cheese to the earlier visit.

Roast beef was up to the mark, grey mullet first class and salmon succulent and even my granddaughter's cheese sandwich, which had to be grated to suit her peculiar taste, passed muster. Pleasantries were exchanged with the management and I'm pleased to join the Blue Bell's fan club.

Andrew Clark