a cut above the norm

Nowadays, it seems, every other village has one. The informal uniform usually consists of flagged floors and stripped back beams, roaring fires and mismatched tables, hand-pulled Timothy Taylor’s Landlord and/or Black Sheep.

The old pub sign has been taken down for something hinting at chic sophistication. Farrow and Ball stocks must have soared on the strength of all the repainting in shades of Dead Salmon and Mouse’s Back.

Similarly, the menu or, more likely, the blackboard displays the new conformity with the likes of confit of duck, beer-battered cod and sticky toffee pudding.

Of course, it’s all light years of improvement on the bad old days of the village pub with keg beer and ham sandwiches but there was a twinge of Groundhog Day on arrival at the Crown with its timber floor and beams etc, its sturdy tables etc to pick up a menu dotted with fishcakes, belly pork, crème brulée etc. Have we been here before?

Not quite. There were enticing clues that this operation is a cut above. The fishcakes come with kecap manis, and the chicken liver parfait with port jelly and homemade piccalilli. There’s homemade tartare sauce with the fish and chips and the crème brulée includes lemon and is served with homemade shortbread.

The freshly exposed beams are genuinely splendid, the toilets would suit a boutique hotel and although there was just one elderly gentleman dining in splendid isolation when we arrived the fires were lit and the welcome as warm. And the elderly gentleman’s delicious looking steak and ale pie (£8.25), one of the lunchtime light bites, was another encouraging sign.

The people behind the revamp are the Jacksons, Paul in the kitchen and Liz, energetic and efficient front of house. They took over the Crown at the end of 2009 and have been steadily upgrading it ever since.

As well as the clean cut bar area where we ate, and a separate dining room, there is a self-contained snug which engagingly lives up to its name.

In a village and district full of mellow and moneyed old brick property, it should prosper and they’re surely working on it. An appeal for Ouseburn’s oldest married couple was being made for a special do on Valentine’s Day, then there were adverts for quiz nights and wine buff nights as well as keenly priced lunch and early bird menus at £16.95 for three courses.

We tried starters from both the lunch menu and the a la carte: smoked haddock and prawn fishcakes, and a black pudding scotch egg. Both arrived beautifully presented. The fishcakes were four small crisp parcels on a cheffy drizzle of kecap manis (Indonesian soy sauce) and a drop of sweet chilli sauce, an effective and tasty match.

The scotch egg was even better: soft black pudding with a crisp coating sitting on apple compôte with a serving of spinach purée and a jug of gravy. When the black pudding was cut into, a beautifully soft boiled egg oozed out. It takes skill and a delicate hand to make a dish so seemingly simple and irresistibly good.

Mains were enjoyable, too, if not quite as perfectly accomplished as the starters. Plum tomato and caramelised red onion tart tatin was a lovely idea consisting of slow-cooked tomatoes, red onion cooked to a soft sweetness, a creamy Yorkshire blue cheese sauce and crushed new potatoes with a pot of creamed spinach on the side.

Another great combination and a treat for vegetarians, except that the star turn, the tart bit of the tart tatin, was soggy beyond any misunderstanding. A shame because everything else was spot on.

Fountains Abbey game three ways (all the meat is locally sourced) – proved the superior dish. Tender venison loin was cooked pink, there was an extremely clever little pheasant pasty, and a game shepherd’s pie in its own pan – a little heavy on the potato perhaps.

Damson sauce was served in a miniature kilner jar. Best of the accompanying vegetables were seasonal: creamed leeks, carrots and celeriac.

We were on familiar territory again at pudding: ice cream, chocolate brownie, lemon crème brulée and rum and raisin cheesecake. We went for the more unusual ginger parkin with spiced cider syrup served with blackcurrant compote and custard – in another trendy little kilner jar.

A similar dessert is a signature dish at the Star at Harome where it is served with rhubarb ripple ice cream which being cold and less sweet, works better with the warm parkin.

Here the ratio of compote to parkin was slightly unbalancing and the spiced syrup lost out in the mix – a minor point in what was still a lovely pud.

So, with a couple of minor blemishes we had a most satisfactory and excellent value meal. The extra effort to add homemade sauces, pickles and compotes to prime ingredients – and on a monthly changing menu – was the critical difference between this and your average paint-by-numbers gastropub.

In fact, there are times you have to pinch yourself that this quality of food is available in a gentle backwater village in the Vale of York. Who would want to turn the clock back on that?

• The Crown Inn, Main Street, Great Ouseburn, York YO26 9RF Tel: 01423 330013. www.thecrown-inn.com Open: Monday, 5pm-9.30pm. Closed Tuesday. Wednesday-Saturday, noon-2.30pm and 5pm-9.30pm. Sunday, noon-8.30pm. Price: a meal for two including wine, coffee and service, about £80.