Fox & Hounds Inn, The

On the face of it there is a certain strangeness about one of the best dining pubs in the country being located in the middle of nowhere, having no website, and doing very little in the way of advertising, yet being fully booked as a matter of course.

Until you realise that it is overlooked by the spectral Whitby Abbey from its storm swept headland, where folklore has it that Dracula came ashore, at which point more or less anything becomes possible.

Having negotiated the winding lane and found the pub, you will also find ex-Ivy chef Jason Davies, ably backed by his wife Sue, who has London restaurant experience at Odettes, dispensing between them the sort of quality cooking that wowed them in London for long enough.

In Whitby you will often have to join a long queue to buy their fabled fish and chips. At the Fox and Hounds you can enjoy seared haddock fillet with puy lentils and grilled fennel, served with a rosemary and anchovy sauce, or superb linguine made with crab, chilli and lemon. Boar sausages are a speciality.

With 34 covers life can be quite, shall we say, friendly, but that's part of the charm and it goes well with the unreconstructed décor and concentration on the food.

No shadow of doubt this is one for the little black book, two pages after D for Dracula.