The Blue Lion, East Witton

Standing on the only corner in lovely East Witton, Wensleydale, the Blue Lion has a long reputation as a country inn with outstanding food. Neighbouring communities include Masham, Middleham and Leyburn. There is plenty of old and new money here, and lots more driving through.

The Blue Lion is a fine and hearty place: lots of stone floors and well-aged furniture, reprints of old auctions, and an affluent hum. Right now it is in the shooting season, with the heather and trees providing grouse and pheasant and hotel trade from the gunmen. At six o'clock on a Friday evening in September, the place was empty except for some honest sons and daughters of the soil having an early-doors end to the week, or start to the weekend. George, a Portuguese barman dressed in the BL's white shirt and black pants formality, served a half pint of Theakston's, just so delicious and maybe shaded by the new Golden Sheep bitter, a pale ale from Black Sheep Brewery.

At the Blue Lion you'll pay an alarming 1.90 for a half but a pint is 3.40 – still rather over the odds. It also happens at the White Swan, same owner, in Middleham but the beer is 40p a pint cheaper and the levy for a half is just 10p. Is that because there are rival pubs in Middleham? The Blue Lion has East Witton to itself.

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Could we eat later? George looked a little uncertain and got out a yellow sheet. Nothing left... wait a mo... he took us through to the other bar and offered a choice from two tables. I chose and said we'd be back.

As we left, Craig Turner, the long-time manager whom I would describe as precise, natty, informed, drily amusing in the manner of Scotsmen, was lighting the fire in the main bar. George was placing "Reserved" cards on all the tables. I went to the cottage and had a deep, soapy bath. I had, after all, cycled the gruelling Leyburn Etape only a few hours earlier.

Back at 8pm. The last of the early crowd was off to his motor. The Blue Lion was in its next phase. Paunchy moneyed men at the bar, at the tables. Women to hand. Free snacks were replenished: onion bhaji here, porky two-bite sausages in another bowl. This gratis grazing marks the Blue Lion out from the majority of gastro pubs. Otherwise the hale, well-met ambience is familiar in joints like this. Chaps and their female companions arriving for a weekend in the country, care-free, cash-happy, glowing with, well, a glow.

What to eat is chalked up over the bar and over the fire. You have to look up, and probably across fellow diners. Good for the memory, or mildly annoying. There is a lot to take in and the layout flows from one to the next so you have to deduce what goes with what and where the next one starts. This choosing rigmarole is more irksome for those in the secondary bar without any food info on the wall, but how nice and quiet that was. Just one mummy-daddy-young daughters finishing up.

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I am by inclination vegetarian but thought that a review of, say Waldorf salad and then pressed potato terrine may not prove too interesting. Food chosen included a roasted grouse and a bottle of Rioja. Good choice? Craig said the grouse was young and not long-hung and would be cooked rare because to cook it longer would make it tough. Okay? Yes. Then he returned and advised that the Rioja may not stand up to the strong taste of bird so the Cabernet Sauvignon would be advised.

Craig said if we didn't mind, he'd move us to another table. He had a party of five booked adjacent to the other and they may be a bit noisy, or polite words to that effect. They came, they were noisy, they later expanded into another table which would have been ours, chattering all the time about their journeys up, some wedding in the offing, shotguns as an investment, the A1, mutual friends, introductions, laundering shirts for the nuptials, leaving en bloc for nicotine boosters. Lovely people. Craig apologised for the disruption as he shifted furniture.

The food? A first course of wood pigeon featured tender, seared breast, with neither a sinew or tough bite to spoil the sacrifice of the fleet-winged crop raider. The accompanying black pudding was too cool. The Norton red was gorgeous.

My main course was cassoulet of duck, Toulouse sausage and belly pork with mashed potatoes. Excellent. There was a large bowl of haricot, a curly green leaf (kale?) and batons of carrot. More excellence, tasting like it should, crisp but not raw, strong colours.

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Puddings: a tale of two. Victoria plum crumble (with custard in its own jug) was far too hot for far too long and the top had no crumble but was soggy. A selection of three cheeses was another dud for me. The flavours were almost gone, bland, dry, maybe immature, outshone by the lavish accompaniments of kitchen-made biscuit, bread, pickled grapes, slender discs of baby radish, slices of fig and apple. Almost a meal in itself and good value.

Prices: Three courses for two with the wine (24.50) and the two halfs of bitter came to 105.65. The pigeon was 8.50 and another first course of soft shell crab in batter was 10.25. The grouse was 26.50 (with a fine cake of potato, sage and bacon and fretted "game" chips). Cassoulet: 14.25; crumble 6.50; cheeses 6.50. A pot of coffee added 2.50 and a Bombay Char was 2.30 (glass of hot water, open your own tea bag: this was for two cups and so should have been served in a pot).

Verdict: Prices raise the hackles but it is one of my favourites and I went back three days later for more.

The Blue Lion, East Witton, Leyburn, North Yorkshire. DL8 4SN. Tel: 01969 62427. Open everyday for lunch and dinner. Disabled access: Yes. Car Parking: Yes. Accommodation: Yes.

YP MAG 23/10/10

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