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The tide of chic sweeps steadily northwards and has arrived at Huddersfield, where reference to the relevant web pages reveals a desert in which it is confidently expected Lounge 68 will locate like the proverbial oasis on overtime. A split-level restaurant and lounge bar offers the latest in contemporary food, drink and music except at the weekends when the restaurant yields to the sounds of jazz, funk and soul-folk.

During the week it serves a wide range of European and Asian dishes - expect herb-crusted rack of lamb with mint pesto and pan gravy, chargrilled fillet steak with balsamic red onions and field mushrooms or Thai green curry with coconut basmati rice.

Cocktails are de rigeur and match the compelling décor which derives from the moors and hills surrounding Huddersfield in the nicest possible way. This is a first for Joe Cookson and it augurs well for both restaurant and him.

Sometimes one comes across a place that really is entirely off the wall, in the best possible way I hurry to add, and of such an ilk is The Weaver's Shed. Until comparatively recent times a vital part of the textile industry in these parts, it was taken over in the 1970s by one, Derek Wade, and converted into a restaurant, since when it has grown in stature, collecting a fistful of awards and gongs along the route.

The present owner, Stephen Jackson, arrived in 1993 and a concerted drive towards local produce, a herb garden, and rooms commenced. Starters of home-cured salmon come hot and cold with cauliflower cream and oyster caramel, a creamy carrot and herb risotto or seared duck foie gras with red potato 'matafan', roast black fig, toasted almonds and glass of ratafia set the scene, all served with perfect timing.

Main courses could be drawn from chargrilled calf's liver, mash, home-cured ham served crispy, unusual vegetables from their own garden and veal reduction scented with Vin Santo, or roast monkfish with butter-roast salad potatoes, kohl-rabi, fish-cream sauce, a trace of shellfish oil-scented with Madagascan vanilla.

Finish with a warm Eccles cake served with Ashes Farm Wensleydale cheese. The food here is quite superb and should you be overtaken by events the rooms, the care and the service are all of a similar standard. Truly a haven amidst the dark satanic mills that were.

Do note their excellent value at lunch time, £12.95 for two courses, and only £15.95 for three; how could you resist it?