SIMON RITCHIE indulges his love affair with Italian food at a village restaurant near Selby

I couldn't recall ever visiting Riccall, near Selby, before, never mind eating there. So the visit to the village's new Italian restaurant, Valentino's, was a bit of a first for me.

The Silver Street restaurant, which opened last October but had a management change about a month ago, has a classic Italian bistro feel to it.

The open-plan room, which has about 15 tables, is very fresh looking with light walls, stencilled with vines, dragonflies and balustrades.

There were flowers on the tables, but they were plastic - what's wrong with fresh! And, when we dined, there were no serviettes, we had to ask.

It's a non-smoking restaurant and at present it's not licensed, so bring your own booze!

We sat by one of the windows, with me facing out. After a while I began to feel like a goldfish, as everyone out for their evening walk felt obliged to stare in!

For starters I went for the bruschetta (£2.50) - Italian bread with garlic, tomato, mozzarella, then sprinkled with olive oil and grilled.

It was delicious and quite filling, which as it turned out, proved to be a good thing.

Jayne picked Insalata Tricolour (£2.90), a salad of mozzarella, avocado, tomato slices, with olive oil and basil. It sounded a lot better than it actually was.

There was only two slivers of avocado, and less than half a dozen thin strips of mozzarella. These came on a huge pile of lettuce. Rabbits would have been in heaven, but Jayne wasn't.

There was quite a wide variety of main courses to chose from, including about two dozen pizzas, a selection of traditional pasta dishes, such as spaghetti bolognese and lasagne, and a number of fish specialities.

But in the end I went for the rather tempting Risotto alle Verdure (£7) - Italian mixed vegetables cooked with rice, chicken and ham, well that's what it said on our menu.

Unfortunately, our menu and the chef's menu didn't quite tally. It did look quite appetising - a mountain of rice with fresh vegetables, courgettes, peppers, onions and peas, blended together by a tomato sauce.

This was accompanied by a bowl of vegetables, which included broccoli, carrots, courgettes, capers and peas, all dressed in olive oil.

But as I tucked in, I began to realise something was missing - meat!

"I can't find any chicken or ham," I said to Jayne, as I rummaged through the veg and rice on my carnivorous quest.

After several unsuccessful sorties with my fork, I finally gave up. Our waitress went to investigate and returned apologetic, saying that unfortunately the chef had referred to an old menu where meat was not included.

She offered to make me my chosen dish, but Jayne had already started her pizza and I didn't fancy eating on my own - all dishes are freshly prepared so I thought that would mean a wait of at least another ten to 15 minutes.

I later found out that I wasn't the only one to get the vegetarian risotto. A lady on the next table was given the wrong dish as well.

Without the chicken and ham the risotto was rather bland, and there was too much tomato sauce for my liking. Jayne was rather disappointed with her vegetarian pizza (£5.50) which, according to the menu, was topped with mushrooms, peppers, onions, sweetcorn and fresh tomatoes.

It was a good size with a thin crust and was, as you would expect from an Italian restaurant, freshly baked.

The problem was the toppings, or lack of them. One small thinly-chopped mushroom, a handful of sweetcorn, several pieces of green pepper and some onions were not enough.

It wasn't a patch on Pizza Hut pizzas or even some of the fresh supermarket ones.

For dessert we both went for a rather creamy toffee and pecan gateau (£2.20), which was quite tasty.

With a few soft drinks the bill came to just over £25. They knocked a £1 off for my non-meat dish. We left rather disappointed. Valentino's had been recommended by a reader who could not praise it enough.

Maybe we were just unlucky on the night we dined.

Open every day from 5.30pm to 11.30pm for Italian cuisine and from 9am to 3pm, Monday to Saturday, for British food.

Traditional Sunday lunches available from noon to 3pm. Childrens' portions are available. Be prepared - Valentino's only accepts cash and cheques at present.

Restaurant: Valentino's

Address: Silver Street, Riccall

Telephone: 01757 248535

Reviewed: 1 May 1999

Food: Disappointing

Value: Not bad

Service: Friendly

Ambience: Continental bistro