Black Bull Hotel, Rimington (From Craven Herald)

Black Bull Hotel, Rimington

10:24am Friday 15th February 2008 in

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Craven may boast a high number of great eateries, but there's a district just over the Lancashire border that can surely lay an equal claim.

Head west along the A59 from Skipton and you soon come into the borough of Ribble Valley. The outskirts, which border Craven, were part of Yorkshire until the boundary changes of 1974 plunged the residents into another county.

The Ribble Valley is a gem of a district, with rolling hills, verdant pastures and tiny quaint villages you would miss if you blinked.

The village of Rimington is no exception. Surrounded by greenery and lying in the shadow of Pendle Hill, it is situated on a narrow back road between Gisburn and Downham.

Sitting at its heart is the Black Bull Hotel. This is a traditional village hostelry where locals converge to enjoy a pint and a chat in the bar, surrounded by railway and aviation memorabilia, including a model of a steam locomotive, scores of name plates and model aircraft.

However, the Black Bull has another string to its bow - that of fine food.

We had booked our table for Saturday evening and on arrival were shown to our table by an efficient and friendly hostess. On offer was a good choice of starters ranging from soup to mussels and smoked salmon to haggis. Main dishes ranged from under £10 to almost £20, with choices including guinea fowl, wild boar sausages, steaks, salads, a variety of fish dishes including sea bass and hake, and three vegetarian options.

To begin, I chose Scottish haggis in a horseradish and orange sauce while my partner had organic pork belly with baby black puddings in a hot mustard sauce. The plates were hot and the food really lovely and beautifully presented.

For our main dishes my partner went for the rack of Bowland lamb in a minted stock gravy, while I chose the oven roasted Rimington pork fillet with a Stilton, port and Bramley apple sauce.

Both meat dishes were outstandingly tasty and melt-in-the-mouth tender, and cost £13.95 each. They were served on extremely hot plates with savoy cabbage, new potatoes, mashed carrot and a potato of the day. In this case French "boulangere"-style potatoes cooked in a stock.

There were a number of tempting sweets to chose from, but I had little problem in picking out the rose petal ice cream which came in a tuille basket accompanied by a wedge of chocolate torte and sauce and a pretty arrangement of fresh fruit decorating the side. It was delicious. My partner managed to find a bit more room after his main course and chose the alliterative steamed spotted spiced syrup sponge and custard. His choice was unusual as he isn't normally a "sweet" person - in the tastebud sense of the word - so I wasn't surprised when he couldn't finish all the syrup.

Not being a drinker, I only glanced at the wine list. It detailed a lot of wine I had never heard of, but the list did contain words like red, white and house! The whole meal for two came to £48.10 which we regarded as excellent value given the high standard of the food.