This is Burythorpe House, a former gentleman's residence that's been the subject of a "major upgrade into 14-bedroom boutique hotel and restaurant". The stone exterior and the hallway certainly look thoroughly upgraded, so I ask the sole waitress when they plan to get round to refurbishing the dining room. "We just have," she says.

The welcome has been sound enough. A man with round face and ruby cheeks, who has walked straight out of Blandings Castle, offers a hearty greeting at the door and shows the way to a large double drawing room. We never see him again. Four other guests are there, having finished their lunch. Logs blaze in the hearth, thick drapes frame the windows, deep rugs sit on deeper carpet and equestrian prints canter across the walls. The air of "classic opulence" that the owners are striving for is only compromised by the arrangement of the sofas which gives it the air of a waiting room.

The menu is offered in this room and, for a Sunday lunchtime, it reads very well. The chef is Dan Farrell who apparently is seldom happier than when burying himself in hedgerows foraging for wild and rare ingredients.

Raiding nature's larder, a revival of an age-old practice, was brought to its peak in France by chef Marc Veyrat and to Michelin star status in England by Simon Rogan of L'Enclume in Cartmel, each of whom demonstrates just how expensive free food can be.

Dan, who came to Burythorpe from its sister pub in the village, is quoted as saying: "It is a pastime which really appeals to me and offers inspiration for my menus." It's not immediately apparent which woods or hedgerows he's been inspecting for this particular menu; perhaps the wild mushrooms for the risotto were locally found. And maybe local earth yields the truffle for the white onion soup with deep-fried truffled duck egg. But what of the Scottish langoustine and slow-cooked pig cheek with pumpkin purée, or the foie gras terrine with honeyed ginger cake? What of the loin of Yorkshire venison with truffle mash potato, sprouts and parsnip crisp? Or the Scarborough woof with garlic mash, bacon crisp and parsley sauce?

No matter, he is a talented chef in the presence of conventional ingredients, as he quickly proves with the foie gras terrine. It's not a dish readily found on Sunday lunch menus, even those at £19.95 a head, and it is carefully crafted.

This is no bulked-out paté; the flavour of the liver in the silky-textured terrine shines through and the honeyed ginger cake turns out to be a wafer-thin construction, almost a tuile.

There's evidence of bright thinking here and we see it again in the pig cheek's starter. On paper, it looks a busy dish and a slightly strange one, though I suppose pig cheek with langoustine is no odder than fish wrapped in parma. It works chiefly because the meat from the Gloucester Old Spot porker is so good and because the cooking brings out all its rich sweetness. The pumpkin purée echoes this well and a little pea shoot salad adds a sharp edge. The kitchen wisely restricts itself to four each of starters and puddings and five main courses for the lunch menu. There's good reason to mistrust long menus in small establishments and it's encouraging to find one chef confident enough to sacrifice choice for quality. Well, most of the time. The roast sirloin of Pickering longhorn beef is a first-rate cut and it arrives pink and plashy, with what tastes like a stock-based gravy and poor Yorkshire puddings. Yes, they look home-made but sitting under a heat lamp is no life for risen batter, and desiccation is the outcome. Roast breast of duck with fondant potato, parsnip cream, pickled apples, roast salsify and hazelnut veloute, however, brought a better match of intent and execution, with fine rosy meat, a copybook fondant potato and a veloute whizzed to a subtle foam.

If I can make a wish for restaurants in 2008 it's that foams are restricted to shaving canisters and shampoo. The craze for whipping sauces into frogspawn is losing its froth. Which brings us to the dining room at Burythorpe. Perhaps the people who run this civilised place – Sir Ian Botham opened it a few weeks ago – might consider calling in further designers so that the dining room can be brought up to the level of the food. The panelled oak has been finished in a flat, light-absorbing brown and the floorboards are matt brown. Puddings, incidentally, maintain the kitchen's momentum. Normally I want to take an axe to a chef who deconstructs anything so simple as an apple crumble, but Dan Farrell gets away with it. Just about. The pastry is arranged like a medieval barrow in a neat row to the left with some lovely diced apple to the right. Also in attendance: vanilla ice cream and granny smith sherbet crisps. A sharp, refreshing clementine jelly with ginger crunch also shows an enterprise that's not always present on lunchtime pudding menus. This chef is one to watch.

Burythorpe House, Burythorpe, Malton, North Yorkshire, YO17 9LB. 01653 658200. reception@burythorpehouse.co.uk. Restaurant open for dinner seven nights a weeks and Sunday lunch. Table d'h'te dinner, £33.95. Accommodation, swimming pool, good walks. Good wine list.