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This handsome house dating from the time of George II, contains a fine panelled dining room, an ideal setting for the excellent food that is essentially up-dated traditional in style. From say 7 starters, 3 will be vegetarian. Others include red salmon mousse with salad and herb oil dressing, or a fan of avocado pear with prawns, salad and marie rose sauce. Or there are the intriguing savoury filled "moneybags" with red onion marmalade. Does their accountant know about this? No, I'm going to leave it to you, but disappointed you will not be. Think porcine.

Further little mysteries appear amongst the main courses, such as swaddled roast quail in Yorkshire pudding with a black cherry sauce. I know what they mean but what a wonderful picture this brings to mind. Then there is fillet of haddock with a "Bloody Mary" salsa and - wait for it - O'Brian potatoes. Is this the full BM, complete with celery salt, and who is/was O'Brian? Yes, I know, but what really caught my eye was the traditional homemade steak and kidney suet pudding with rich gravy; my word these chaps up in Yorkshire know how to live, no wonder they sometimes talk about declaring UDI.

Burythorpe is a place where the inner man is replenished in style, and for the less hearty there is plenty of choice, but the trouble is almost every dish on the menu appeals, surely the hallmark of a successful Head Honcho in the kitchen. Keep up the good work, boys.

In 1999 the present owners of the Stone Trough embarked upon the embellishment of this historic inn, a progress that has been marked by a number of Awards and a reputation for quality and use of local produce.

The setting is superb, looking over Kirkham Abbey and the River Derwent, and not far away is Castle Howard, that epitome of stately home elegance in Yorkshire.

Bar meals are served, and a traditional restaurant offers elegance on a plate, with starters of seared king scallops with a fine herb salad and foie gras, or fillet of smoked haddock with a leek and potato sauce.

Roast breast of guinea fowl with confit leg and a chanterelle sauce, or roast monkfish topped with parma ham on a lobster sauce could be followed by apple and raisin pancakes or a chocolate pyramid filled with chocolate and black cherry mousse.

In the bar a typical meal could consist of rustic salad of smoked chicken, goat's cheese and black olives with croutons and pinenuts, braised oxtail served with creamed potatoes, mashed turnip and a rich red wine sauce, and to finish, an iced banana parfait served with butterscotch sauce.

Their specials board is a constant source of delight taking as just one example the pan fried fillet of sea bass with a truffle ravioli on a bed of sauté Jerusalem artichokes and chanterelle mushrooms.

Only 12 miles from York this is a place well worth making a detour to savour.

In the true spirit of Victorian philanthropy, Sir William Worsley, the local Squire at Hovingham, decided to repackage the hitherto quiet, Yorkshire village as a Spa. On the face of it a good idea, insufficient thought had been given to access, with the result that the project quickly crumbled. The Hotel, however, did not and remains to this day as a monument to Sir William's good intentions. If the good old English tradition of Sunday lunch has a spiritual home it could perhaps be said to be in Yorkshire, so let's look at the Worsley Arms from the point of view of that splendid meal.

Start with a ham hock terrine or a confit of local duck with pickled red cabbage and port wine dressing before moving on to the main event, a roast sirloin of a Yorkshire beef, only slightly overshadowed by the presence of roast local turkey, both very much complete with all the trimmings peculiar to their traditions, and well rounded off with raspberry and elderflower crème brulee and homemade shortbread, as only a Yorkshire housewife can make it.

As to the wine list they are currently working on an arrangement where customers will be invited to descend to the cellars and select their wine straight from the rack, a truly novel and clever piece of presentation somewhat akin to those French chateaux where on a day trip to France you enjoy a bibulous lunch, afterwards touring the cellars with your cheque book prior to returning to Blighty, to be confronted by the stony faces of the Customs and Excise.