SIMON RITCHIE entertains an uninvited guest at his table during an enjoyable night out in Bishopthorpe, York.

The restaurant at The Marcia in Bishopthorpe was buzzing. Not with people, as we were the only diners on a wet Bank Holiday Monday night, but with a tiny fly which wouldn't leave us alone.

Our uninvited guest arrived with a half-bottle of extremely palatable Piesporter wine. The fly buzzed us for some time, obviously tantalised by our delicious meals, until he (I presume he was a he) promptly disappeared. Had we eaten it by mistake? No. Our little friend had ventured too close to the bottle of wine and had fallen in. He reappeared when I poured a glass for my partner Jayne. He looked dead, but after a while he started to do the breast-stroke in the glass.

Being an animal lover, I felt sorry for our new-found friend so I decided to rescue him. He climbed aboard my finger, staggered a bit (he was quite legless, and with six of them that was some feat) and subsequently came to rest on a wooden cat ornament. He dried out after a while but continued to sit and stare at his rescuer for the remainder of the evening.

We had arrived at The Marcia at about 8pm just as the heavens opened. We hadn't telephoned to check whether meals were available on a Bank Holiday, and when we pulled into the car park to find the 40-seat restaurant, located in the pub's conservatory, in darkness, we feared the worst.

But after ordering a couple of drinks in the bar, we were informed that we could eat either in the lounge or the restaurant.

We chose the latter and were ushered to the conservatory at the rear of the pub by a friendly waitress. We were greeted to the sound of an extended version of a Spice Girls song, which seemed to go on for at least 15 minutes.

We had hoped to eat from the A La Carte menu but we were told this was only available on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The bar meal menu it had to be then. We both declined the only starter, home-made soup, and went for the main course. I chose one of the day's special - crispy chicken in a barbecue sauce - while Jayne, picked the only vegetarian option - stuffed capsicums (£4.95).

From our spot in the conservatory we could see the chef, Robert Muscroft, beavering away in his kitchen. And in no time at all our meals arrived.

My dish was huge. There were four quite large pieces of tender chicken wrapped in very light batter. Poured over them was a very tasty, tangy barbecue sauce, which contained mushrooms.

The chicken was accompanied by a large portion of fluffy chips and a salad. It was delicious, and great value for money at only £5.

Jayne, too, was impressed with her dish. It made a refreshing change to see something for vegetarians other than vegetable lasagne on the menu. It consisted of two fair-sized peppers, one green the other yellow, stuffed full of rice, mushrooms, nuts and cheese. It came with a crisp salad which included chunks of pineapple. If it wasn't for the fact not all the seeds had been scooped out, Jayne would have given it full marks.

For dessert we were treated to two huge portions of chocolate fudge cake and passion cake, which were very reasonably priced at £2.50 each.

The whole meal, including drinks, came to just under £20. We went home content, extremely full and wondering what would become of our friend the fly.

Restaurant:The Marcia

Address:Main Street,Bishopthorpe,York

Telephone:01904 706185

Reviewed:6/9/98

PICTURE:Chef Robert Muscroft at The Marcia, Bishopthorpe

Food:

Tasty

Value:

Very good

Service:

Friendly and efficient

Ambience:

Country pub (very quiet at times