Pubs don't come much more traditional than the Bull, situated at the gateway to the Yorkshire Dales, two miles from the popular market town of Skipton.
If beams, aged furniture, cosy nooks and crannies and good cask ale is your idea of the perfect retreat, then this pub is for you.
It's owned by the nearby 3,000 acre Broughton Hall estate, ancestral home of the Tempest family over the past 900 years or so. Resident chef Neil Butterworth and his wife, Jane, have presided over a new lease of life for the pub, where simplicity appears to be the watchword of the menu, with good honest dishes rather than advanced gastro-style food making up the bulk of the offering.
The à la carte menu offers an interesting selection but dishes using locally-sourced produce predominate. A smoked haddock, salmon and pollock fishcake starter (£4.99), smoked haddock risotto with a light curry sauce (£9.99), and Goosnargh Duck Breast with chorizo sausage, home-made baked beans and baby spinach (£12.75) were just three of the choices.
Our starters of risotto (£4.99) and fishcakes were both good, although some might have found the fishcakes a touch heavy on the potato.
The main courses of cassoulet (£7.10) and shepherd's pie (£10.30), which was served in an individual pot alongside sweet red cabbage and buttered peas, were also excellent. But the price of the pie was perhaps a tad on the expensive side for what is traditionally viewed as one of the more frugal concepts of British cooking,
The dessert of vanilla crème brûlée (£4.10) was, however, unquestionably out of the top drawer - rich, creamy and a divine taste!
PubChef Rating (out of 10)
Ambience 6, Value for money 7, Flavour factor 8, Overall impression 7.5
BEERS: Copper Dragon IPA, Copper Dragon Pippin, Bull Bitter (all on handpump)
MAIN COURSES: £9.95 to £15.85.
WINES: Extensive list, by the bottle or the glass. Encheverria Sauvignon Blanc, Molina (Chile) £12.95.
ANOTHER THING: The Bull and its sister pub, the Shibden Mill Inn near Halifax, are both listed in Michelin's Eating Out In Pubs guide. Chef Neil Butterworth took over the Bull after winning Yorkshire Life's Dining Pub of the Year award at the Shibden Mill.