GAVIN AITCHISON dines out on some fine and filling pub grub at a country pub south of York.

THEY know how to grill 'em in Hillam.

That's what I learned when I ventured there for lunch.

Nine miles west of Selby lies this lovely little village and a homely and bustling pub - and therein, burgers that have to be seen to be believed.

By all accounts, The Cross Keys is a pub on the up. Laura Charles took over last August and says she is delighted with how it is progressing.

"It had not been doing very well," says Laura. "It was not doing very good food. In terms of spending money, we have not done much, but we are encouraging better service and changed the menu."

Those changes demand attention.

The menu contains plenty of old classics (fish & chips, bangers & mash, gammon & egg, and the like).

There are a handful of more creative alternatives (black pudding, belly pork and chorizo skewers, for example). And then there are the burgers, and it is these imaginative works of art that could put The Cross Keys on the pub-goers' map.

"Burgers from around the world," declares the blackboard, above a selection of eight internationally-inspired creations. The French one comes topped with caramelised onions and melted Brie.

The Chinese one is a chicken breast spiced with salt and pepper, with sweet chilli sauce and spring onion. The British one includes bacon, sausage, hash brown and fried egg. The list goes on.

I suspect, somewhere, there are burger purists who would say a burger isn't a true burger if it needs a wooden skewer running from top to bottom to prevent it collapsing, but I'm not one of them.

My wife chose the Moroccan option, a spinach and falafel burger with feta, salad and mayonnaise; I chose the Greek burger, a lamb slab that came with feta, tzatziki, tomato, lettuce, gherkin, onion rings, and a cherry tomato just to top it off. It's hard to inject the wow factor into a burger, but The Cross Keys manage it.

Just for good measure, they all come with home-made chips and a side-salad, meaning the £10.50 price is decent value.

Most would have stopped at that point, stuffed to the gunwales. My sensible wife did so. But the things I do for you, dear reader....

On a blackboard that also included sticky toffee pudding, vanilla cheesecake, Hillam mess and half a dozen other choices, it was their chocolate orange bread and butter pudding that drew me in. Circles of orange and speckles of chocolate were interspersed with the bread. Happy days indeed.

We were the first diners of the day when we arrived just after noon for an early Saturday lunch, but the place was filling up as we left, with a couple of large family groups and a few couples, suggesting a good flow of local custom.

"When we first took over, the village really got behind us quickly," says Laura. "They realised we cared and they started local coffee mornings here on Mondays. They also did a fashion show, wreath making and carol singing here before Christmas, so we have had a lot of support."

Whatever its past has been, as a first time visitor to The Cross Keys, I was certainly impressed.

York Press:

A "pub is the hub" poster just inside the door, promoting those coffee mornings, was an immediate good sign, suggesting some vibrancy about the place.

The hearty greeting from behind the bar was another. And the presence of three real ales was a third, indicating not only that they cared but that they were getting through enough beer to make three handpulls possible.

York Brewery's Guzzler, Timothy Taylor's Golden Best and Thwaites's Lancaster Bomber competed for attention alongside the usual selection of big-name lagers on the bar, and Laura says they have invited regulars to request beers they would like to see as well.

York Press:

When they do so, it will likely be via Mel, the day-to-day manager whose warm welcome greeted us. He has been in the industry for nearly 40 years, having started out in 1977 at The Crown, near the old Tetley's Brewery in Leeds before running pubs in Garforth and Mirfield.

He thought he had retired but was tempted back by Laura, his daughter, and is loving it. "It's a lovely village, with nice people," he says - and not just because they put him on the front of their newsletter for proposing in the pub on New Year's Eve.

"He's new to the village and has become quite a character," says Laura, who splits her time between The Cross Keys and her other pub, The Crooked Billet in Saxton, near Towton. There, apparently, they specialise not in burgers but in giant Yorkshire puddings. Another day out beckons, methinks. Watch this space.

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