Happy Valley, 70 Goodramgate, York

THE choice of restaurants in York seems to be growing by the week. Newest arrival is the Happy Valley Chinese restaurant in Goodramgate.

But this is no ordinary Chinese.

Firstly, it classes itself as a caf and bistro. Secondly, it is Taiwanese - thought to be the only one in town - contrasting with the more usual Cantonese variety, and prides itself on offering a different kind of Chinese experience.

And thirdly, its premises are former tea rooms - and the listed building, with its low beams, ye olde York character and enduring tea-room atmosphere did not seem to be the conventional setting for such traditional Far Eastern fare. Indeed, it felt a little strange to sit there waiting for Taiwanese food rather than a cream tea.

Nevertheless, it all added to the uniqueness. But be warned. The fact Happy Valley used to be a tea room meant it did not have a licence to sell alcohol. We were told, though, they were applying for one so that should not prove a problem for too long.

In the meantime, they are happy to let customers bring their own bottles - which scores points with the wallet-watchers - but rather than nip to the offy, we settled for coke (£1.20 a glass).

It seems Happy Valley prides itself on traditional Taiwanese fare, but it also makes a point of providing friendly and helpful service.

Perhaps due to it being family run, the staff were all considerate and amiable, including a young lad, the son of one member of staff, who tried to help his mum as much as he could - if hanging on to her coattails could be classed as helpful.

Notably, the chef, who also runs the establishment, took time out to check everything was okay. Indeed it was.

Being a caf/bistro, Happy Valley caters for the lunchtime crowd as much as the evening diner, and has many well-priced light meal choices, including teacakes and scones along with Chinese dishes like Peking ribs and dim sum.

They also do traditional Taiwanese dumplings, boiled or grilled, and these are home made and apparently their most popular dish - it's like a little bit of Taipei in York.

Nevertheless, we were there on an evening so concentrated on the main meals.

I really wanted to try the oriental steam hot pot, which had been recommended. Costing £12.50 per person, it is crammed with different meats, and you could choose from a variety of bases and flavours, but they are for a minimum of two people and I was unable to persuade Louise to give up, or at least suspend, her vegetarian ways.

Undeterred, my carnivorous needs were more than met by the Taiwanese teppen yaki fillet steak.

It was a superbly tender medium steak cooked in garlic, onion, wine and a distinctive black pepper sauce. It was the most expensive dish on the menu, other than the hot pot, but at only £9 you hardly needed to up your overdraft.

Above it on the menu was a little slogan saying 'Taste the Difference' - and you can.

Louise went for vegetables with the popular Chinese sauce, sweet and sour (£4.50). This was one of several 'normal' Chinese meals on the menu, along with other old favourites such as chow mein and black bean and garlic.

There were also several house specials which are presumably native to Taiwan, such as mapu tofu (stir fried bean curd with garlic, ginger, minced pork and a spicy sauce), king prawn in hoi sin sauce, and Taiwanese satay.

In addition, there were a few cold dishes to have on the side, and we tried the Chinese pickle vegetables (£1.50), preserved cabbage in chilli oil (£1.50), and stewed eggs (£1.20). All were new to us, especially the eggs, which came out brown and wrinkled, but all had nice if crazy tastes. Go easy on the cabbage, though, as the chilli oil is so hot it sets off the sprinkler system in your eyes.

As I hadn't gone easy, I was glad to have ice cream for dessert, and I chose chocolate to go with apple fritter (£2.70). It was mighty fine, the fritter being not too sweet, while Lou had lychee and vanilla ice cream (£1.80) and was also impressed.

To round things off we sampled some green tea and oolong tea (£1.30 each), and altogether, including three glasses of coke, it came to a more than reasonable £29.45.

As we were leaving, the owner and his wife again checked everything had been okay. Granted, this may have been for marketing purposes to find out where their customers came from and how we had heard of the place, but it all added to the welcome in albeit novel surroundings.

Fact file:

Food: tasty

Service: personable

Value: good

Ambience: different

Disabled facilities: No

Peter visited Happy Valley on Friday, September 26

Happy Valley, 70 Goodramgate, York, tel: 01904 654745.

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: 08:39 Saturday, October 18, 2003