Terrace Restaurant at The Old Bridge Hotel, The

The Old Bridge Hotel, owned by John Hoskins, Master of Wine, and run by General Manager Nina Beamond, is a highly successful establishment where failure to book may cost you dear. Buzzing with life and bonhomie, the place is a living example of the fact that it is not necessary to pay the earth to enjoy excellence. Nina takes great pride in the fact that The Old Bridge is one of only 30 hotels in the UK to be given the Tourist Board's Gold Award, their highest quality rating.

The Old Bridge is a 24 bedroomed hotel. Each room has been individually designed by Julia Hoskins, all with air-conditioning, top quality audio system and satellite TV, many with integral Bang and Olufsen DVD players, modem point, power showers. For those who love them, there are three four-posters to introduce a note of romance and history into proceedings. And talking of beds these are the really comfortable variety.

A Business Centre brings an ideal location for the smaller conference or meeting into the equation, supplemented with a conference room for 50. The whole area is a wi-fi zone and a free of charge broadband connected PC is to hand for use when required.

Head Chef Alexy Tyndall is very concise about his aims for the culinary reputation of this attractive hotel, and says, 'My style of food is direct, simple, full of flavour and un-pretentious. I have cherry picked ideas from restaurants I have been to all around the world, but ingredients I try to buy as close to Huntingdon as possible. The quality of the home-made bread (from organic local flour) is indicative of our focus,'

You could start with Uig Lodge smoked salmon from the Isle of Lewis, with lemon and capers, pea and mint soup with crème fraîche, crostini and pancetta, salad of Dorset crab - that's generally the big brown fellas - with chilli, fennel, radish, lemon and bruschetta, or the famous boudin noir, black pudding with mashed potato, truffled leeks and mustard sauce.

Saddle of venison from the not so far away Denham Estate is served with celeriac and potato mash, spinach and red wine sauce, whilst another dish involves Denham's pork sausages properly presented with mashed potato and onion gravy. Amongst the fish look for grilled lemon sole with runner beans, fresh peas and sautéed new potatoes, or a whole grilled rainbow trout rubbed with harissa and accompanied by green beans in spiced tomato sauce and saute potatoes with almonds.

Follow with caramelised banana bavarois with rum-soaked bananas, or some Colton Bassett Stilton from nearby Nottinghamshire, with biscuits, chutney and grapes.

The wine list has won every award that UK guide books can offer. The eclectic short choice is a list of popular wine that includes 20 available by the glass from £3.80, and not for nothing is John Hoskins not only the owner, but very much the Patron when it comes to matters of wine.

For more details and pictures, do visit their Website which also carries access to the full and splendid wine list.