It's so compact, in fact, that the terminally unobservant can walk round the square twice without spying it. An assistant in a wine store came to the rescue on our second tour. She pointed it out, with the encouraging words that it was "her favourite restaurant, the best in Ripon".

Her enthusiasm is not misplaced, though the initial experience is more quirky than perky. Approaching its large windows, the first sight is of a small number of tables abutting an open-plan kitchen in which two chefs are working. One looks absurdly young, though he seems a natural at the stove; the other has the manner of a congenial Latin don who has suddenly found himself dressed in whites. Absit invidia. The young woman who meets us by the restaurant door in the narrow alley to the left of the building guides us away from the dining room and farther down the ginnel. The choice, she explains, is of a drink on the terrace or in the lounge. The planted, flagged terrace is undeniably handsome but as the temperature is strolling towards zero, this being a British summer evening, she advises us to head for the toilets. Well, this is going to be cosy. Happily, but not without eccentricity, a whitewashed cellar lounge lies just past them and round a corner in this ancient warren. It's a delightful space, resembling a simple Italian chapel with a bar in place of the altar.

The intelligence of the operation manifests itself here in the design, the literature, the menu and an unusually discriminating wine list of interesting producers, years and bottles. The menu is a model of brevity: five each of starters and main courses, four puddings, one cheese. Long menus in small restaurants hint at short cuts. The short menus and on-view kitchen here suggest that care is taken over the ingredients and cooking, and so it proves. The menu is brief enough to relate, but it's best not to memorise it, for it changes with the markets.

Starters this evening comprise leek and potato soup; salad of rare roast beef and piquillo peppers; broad beans, feta, parsley and mixed leaves; caesar salad; scallops, parma ham and avocado. Main courses: loin of pork, black pudding and sweet potato, carrots and mustard; grilled rump of beef, béarnaise, salad, chips; silver mullet, mash, broad beans, peas and samphire; breast of duck, dauphinois potato, cabbage, red wine; seared mackerel, salad niçoise, saffron aioli.

In other words, there's nothing here to put the Ripon hornblower off his note each evening across the way. The kitchen understands the key basics of simplicity, harmony and balance and capitalises on them in almost every dish. Consider the freshness of the broad beans, peas, feta, mint, parsley and mixed leaves, an admirable essay in perky flavours and unforced presentation. This, perhaps, should be no surprise, for the Latin don at the stove is Hugh Carruthers who worked for five years in the kitchens of the Michelin-starred Yorke Arms at Ramsgill before arriving at this café.

His pedigree shows in the lovely dish of scallops, whose vanilla tones are achieved through near-perfect searing. They find ready companions in the crunchy textures of an avocado salsa and slices of crisp-baked Parma ham. The interest continues in a slick of coriander-flavoured olive oil, into which has been chopped parsley and tarragon. The enterprise began as a café when its owner Annette Lyons arrived in the city and despaired of finding good fresh coffee. It developed into a sandwich outlet, then a fully-fledged café and Mr Carruthers developed the four-nights-a-week,
18-cover restaurant. Although there's a seriousness of purpose to it, the tone is anything but and the chef's cheerful expeditions from the stove to deliver a dish, welcome a regular or regret that the duck breast will be six minutes late, serves only to promote the sense of informality. The tardy duck, precisely timed and sliced, is worth
the wait.

It's pink and juicy and sits on some deep red cabbage, another happy marriage. It's a pity that the pommes dauphinois tend to coarseness but, in all, a good dish. Fine ingredients lift the loin of pork with black pudding, sweet potato and carrots from the potentially workaday to the special. The black pudding maker is not identified on the menu, a neglect that should be remedied with a credit for its flavour and texture.

It's good to note that puddings maintain the brio and the simplicity. The choice could be from Victoria plum crumble with clotted cream or summer berry and Champagne trifle. In this context, cold rice pudding, peach and toasted coconut may seem unpromising partners, yet they sing well together in conclusion to an enjoyable dinner.

Egon Ronay recently criticised money-hungry tycoon chefs. "The mindset of chefs has changed", he said in an online article. Not here. On the face of it, this is a model little enterprise: here's the menu, here's the chef and here's your food, inside or out. There should be more like it.

Perk-Up, 43 Market Place South, Ripon, North Yorkshire HG4 1BZ. 01765 698888. www.perkup.co.uk
Open Tuesday-Sunday for breakfast, brunch, lunch. Dinner: Wednesday to Saturday. Early bird menu: Two courses, £12.50. A la carte: dinner for two with wine: about £55. Dining terrace. Parking in the square. Disabled access. Music.