Restaurants: Open arms

A new chef brings sophistication to a Yorkshire setting

I'd had about as much of the tourist trail as I could stomach. En route to our friends in the north, we embarked on the relay of car park, sight, gift shop and tea room that comprises a motoring holiday in the east Midlands. Following the Rambouts coffee signs that lead the B-road motorist from one source of dated refreshment to the next, we'd put away jelly babies, the stately home's Byron cream tea, chips in a basket from the canalside pub, a full English breakfast and the abbott's flapjack from the cathedral refectory. If the tea room next to DH Lawrence's birthplace hadn't closed at 4pm, we might have had a Chatterley sausage to add to this collection.

The last thing I wanted was another heritage eating experience. We were, nevertheless, steered straight to Bardsey (birthplace of William Congreve; Norman church with Saxon tower), a Yorkshire village where the Bingley Arms claims to be one of the oldest inns in England. A plaque describes it as a Tetley Heritage Inn, though it has recently been bought by a father and son. If we hadn't trusted our guides, our hearts might have sunk. But our friends had heard what tourists don't yet know: the Bingley Arms has a chef, Nick Male, hot from the classy Leodis brasserie in Leeds.

Already, his cooking seems to have found an appreciative local audience, and, unlike anachronistic pub food, only the bread comes in a basket.

The first-floor restaurant looks like the ancient pubs and tea rooms we'd worked our way through to get there. There are beams and bare stone walls and wheelback chairs and iron implements, one of which I nearly impaled myself on getting to the table. Wine glasses sparkling on white table cloths promised more than rustic hospitality, however, and the room was full and jovial, with groups of people coming up from the bar with pints and Camparis.

Though not as sturdy or rural as the building, the cooking is admirably sound, especially on the meat front. A solid, not too fatty, slice of duck rillette was only let down by a rather ketchupy onion marmalade. Chicken livers, chorizo sausage and Lyonnaise potatoes, or warm salad of bacon, black pudding and poached egg were two other typically substantial- sounding starters it was just as well we resisted. When the next piece of duck hoved into view, this time as a confit with bubble and squeak containing carrots and bacon, it was massive. "Wondrous," murmured my Yorkshire companion, as he dispatched it all with surprising ease.

Another tremendous meat and potato variation was venison on rosti. The meat had the strength of character to withstand the heat of the chargrill, and was uncharacteristically tender.

Distance from the sea might account for the fact that scallops - wrapped in bacon and arranged around pea puree - and halibut with chived potato pancake and crunchy asparagus tasted comparatively dull, though they were accurately cooked.

Some devices got in the way of otherwise well-structured dishes. A green salad lost its simple appeal by having fried onion wisps sprinkled over it. And a vegetarian starter of roast avocado and charred pears, warm walnut pate, Stilton and tomato sauce, was at least one ingredient too far - each was rather good if you ignored the others.

Handsome puddings: a parfait, slightly overcautious on the amaretto; commendable lemon tart; squidgy summer pudding; and a top-notch creme brulee were only surmountable because we'd waited some time before ordering them.

The pub has the prerequisite for any historic site worth its admission fee: a large car park. If we'd dined a couple of days later, we could have left the hatchback behind, the proprietor explained. Weekend groups of four or more can be picked up from Leeds and dropped home.

We'd had quite enough wine from a good and reasonably priced list as it was, and by then had spent four very happy, comfortable hours and pounds 30 each quite forgetting we were in a heritage inn - until coffee arrived with that inescapable Rambouts coat of arms emblazoned on the biscuits

The Bingley Arms, Church Lane, Bardsey, Leeds LS17 9DR (01937 572462). Open Tue-Thur 5.30-10pm, Fri, Sat 5.30-11pm, Sun noon-3.30pm. Average pounds 20-pounds 25. Set-price dinner pounds 8.95 two courses. Sun lunch pounds 11.95 three courses. All credit cards accepted