Plough Inn, Fadmoor

IT MUST be North Yorkshire's golden triangle of food. In more than a decade of eating out for the Evening Press, I think three of my best four meals have been served up in villages within a few miles of each other in the Helmsley area.

First the Star Inn at Harome, then the Abbey Inn at Byland - and now the Plough Inn at Fadmoor.

Unlike the Star and Abbey, I had never heard of the Plough until a friend recommended it as somewhere to celebrate my wife's birthday. Nice atmosphere, good food, she said. It certainly needed to be good to travel all that distance from York on a damp and dark November evening.

It was only mid-week, but there were still a fair number of diners in the bar when we arrived, many of whom had presumably also travelled some distance to eat there: always a good sign.

The interior was pleasant and interesting: an historic village inn which had been well refurbished, with beams exposed on the ceiling, an open fire and lots of little rooms and alcoves.

We had a warm welcome at the bar and chose a table for two that was still unoccupied in a cosy corner.

And then we turned to the menu. One thing was immediately clear: this might be the Plough Inn but the food was anything but a traditional Ploughman's lunch. In fact, I doubt whether a traditional ploughman coming in muddy from the fields ever ate a meal like this.

A host of mouth-watering dishes screamed out to be chosen, the table menu competing for attention with the specials on the blackboard.

I selected a starter of pan-fried goat's cheese, wrapped in filo pastry and served with a cranberry dressing, for £5.95. It proved a taste bud-tingling starter. My wife's starter for £6.95 was steamed fresh Shetland mussels in a white wine and cream sauce. We pondered briefly on how mussels from Shetland were fresh but they certainly tasted fresh enough, and the massive bowl gave us no complaints about quantity. Meanwhile, the sauce was bursting with flavour. "It's fantastic," was my wife's verdict.

For our main meal, I dithered and then opted for griddled medallion of fillet beef in grain mustard, white wine and cream, for £13.95, while my wife chose slow honey-roasted Gressingham duck, in a fresh orange and Cointreau sauce for £12.95. The meals were served by friendly and polite staff.

As we tucked in, we concluded that this chef knew how to cook. The beef medallions were beautifully tender, and the sauce sublimely creamy and tasty, with just enough mustard to give it an "edge". The duck meat was tender and plentiful, and the sauce tasty if a little sweet. My wife had an acceptable house red wine to accompany the meal, while I, mindful of the drive home, stuck to soft drinks.

I popped to the loo and found this one of the few disappointments of the pub. The gents, situated just off the porch, were cold and featured a couple of slightly bizarre and unappetising posters telling me more than I really wanted to know about nose-picking.

Back in the bar, I had little room left for any more food, but I felt I could just manage a light pudding, and found just the thing: a strawberry meringue triangle, topped with vanilla cream and chocolate for £4.25. With fresh strawberries, presumably not from Shetland, it was a delicious end to the meal.

We were impressed, but wondered what other people thought about the Plough. We found out as we got chatting to three diners at a nearby table. They were from Helmsley and loved the food so much that they were regular diners.

The bill came to £49, including drinks, and we felt that for top quality food in a nice country inn, that represented reasonable value.

Plough Inn, Fadmoor,

Tel 01751 431515.

Mike visited on Wednesday, November 26, 2003.

Fact file:

Food: delicious

Service: good

Value: reasonable

Ambience: pleasant

Disabled facilities: Yes

Restaurant reviewers aim to be fair and accurate. Any comments on this review should be addressed to Chris Titley, Features Content Editor, Evening Press, 76-86 Walmgate, York, YO1 9YN or e-mail features@ycp.co.uk

Updated: 16:00 Friday, December 05, 2003