The Bay Horse Inn, Main Street, Terrington, York

Just half an hour's drive north from York, it is a perfect stop for anyone visiting Castle Howard or the Yorkshire Lavender farm.

And if you are looking for a lunch stop, a handy place would be the village pub, the Bay Horse Inn on Main Street.

The pub looks like a charming country watering hole, with a white-washed front, a cosy bar inside and oak beams that reek tradition.

But all is not as it seems.

Inside an explosion of colour reveals the pub's alternative identity as a Thai restaurant. Two wooden statues of Thai women stand at the gateway to the Easterninspired dining room, where elaborately designed parasols in pastel shades hang from the ceiling, and brightly-coloured mats dress the tables.

On the menus, Thai delights such as chicken sateh and aromatic curries appear alongside standard pub fare such as scampi and sarnies.

The Bay Horse really does offer all things to all people - besides traditional English dinners and Thai delicacies, it also hosts a carvery every Sunday lunchtime (£7.95 per adult, £5.95 for children).

Run by husband and wife team Stewart and A Marr, the Bay Horse claims of offer an authentic taste of Thailand in Terrington.

Stewart is half Scottish/half Thai, while A is 100 per cent Thai.

We booked for Saturday lunch and there were another half a dozen tables occupied, reassuringly, most diners were ordering from the Thai menu.

The special Thai lunch menu runs from Tuesday to Saturday and offers two courses for £8.95, or three for £10.95 - not bad value.

My daughter, Eva, loves chicken and peanut butter, so she was chuffed with her chicken sateh. We ordered a starter portion for her and asked for plain rice too. It came promptly: four honeycoloured fingers of chicken, skewered on long wooden sticks, and nestled next to two small dishes, one with the peanut sateh sauce, the other with a sweet, chilli dip. Eva loved nibbling on the chicken pieces and dipping them in the sauces.

Husband Nick and I shared spring rolls which were small and crisp and took the edge off our appetite.

We were glad we hadn't filled up on the first course, because our mains arrived soon afterwards and were decent-sized portions.

Nick had chosen the pork and soy sauce dish from the set lunch menu. It was set on a large oval plate with a mound of brilliantwhite rice and an ocean of pork pieces swimming in a dark gravy.

He found the pork slightly chewy, but the sauce tasty. He was disappointed not to find any vegetables in the dish, which would have added colour and made it less of a two-horse affair.

I chose the duck special (£8.95), and, for once, I'd picked the better dish. The duck was a generous serving - two breasts, lovingly cooked to just-tender perfection.

The dark sauce was thick enough to give a good coating and sweet enough to counter the saltiness of the soy. Again, some vegetables would have been welcome.

We had to order and pay at the bar, but service was attentive, and we were regularly asked if we wanted more drinks.

We were impressed by the speedy service and friendliness of the staff, but didn't feel rushed with our lunch. There were a pile of magazines and newspapers available, and we took our time to enjoy our drinks and catch up on the latest happenings in the lives of Jordan and Pete and other colourful 'celebs'.

With two pints of lager for Nick, a half lager shandy for me and an orange juice for Eva, our bill came to £29.45.

We passed on desserts, but only because we were saving ourselves for our next stop: Yorkshire Lavender, just minutes away on the road back to York.

After a lovely walk around the flower beds and lavender maze, and stopping to feed the fallow deer, we took a pew in the farm's award-winning tearooms, EJ's, for delicious home-made scones, cakes and biscuits, all flavoured with lavender.

The Bay Horse Inn, Main Street, Terrington, York. Telephone: 01653 648416 Open for lunch from Tuesday to Saturday. Carvery lunch served on Sunday. Closed Monday.

For more information, visit the www.bayhorsethairestaurant.co.uk

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Food: TastyService: FriendlyValue: GoodAmbience: ColourfulDisabled loos: YES