The New Ellington, Leeds

Last autumn, after 18 months "dark", it reopened under the ownership of Bespoke Hotels – their first in Yorkshire. The jazz dcor has been retained and there is now a Gin Bar. The kitchen is run by James Cooper, with Middlethorpe Hall (York) and Crathorne Hall Hotel on his CV. The publicity spotlight was on it the night we visited, viz a crew from Emmerdale on location.

Duke Ellington was a familiar visitor to Britain. He played at the 1958 festival in Leeds, they say. I met him in the 1970s, a genial genius. The New Ellington's walls are full of portraits of the jazz greats. My knowledge is scanty but you would think the staff would have been briefed on who's who. The reception desk chap was nice but sketchy.

The pace was just a shade Take Five rather than Tiger Rag. We seemed forgotten after the first welcome. Hey, over here... The staff are young and friendly and informed in their fields: the young man on the gin counter has a Mastermind knowledge of the drink. They don't stock Bols so I had an Aviator. It came in a glass overflowing with ice. The explanation was that lots of ice takes longer to melt than a single lump. Well, yes, but it was minus something on the street, I was not wishing to spend all night with the drink, and the lumps of ice were chilling my lips and my nose every time I upended the tumbler. Daft. Nice gin, though.

There are lots of easy chairs and sofas, all but two unoccupied this Thursday night. The dcor deserves seeing. It is a good, expensively-furnished place. The basement restaurant also works well as a room, with button back velour in dark brown. We had the place to ourselves, apart from a brawny man reading a tabloid. In contrast with the lazy pace upstairs, here it happened almost too quickly. A tiered cake stand was presented, decked with almost enough food to make a "starter" course superfluous. There was crusty bread and a sort of focaccia with dried tomatoes and cheese embedded, a bowl of toasted pumpkin seeds, another of anchovy mayonnaise and a third of olives.

We were still munching through this mini feast when the starters arrived – poor timing to say the least and a more conventional amuse-bouche taster would have been a better fit than the breads. The seven starter options included a vegetarian dish of globe artichoke, deep fried egg, mushroom and Hollandaise truffle and another of white bean velout, with chestnut and Parmesan, carrying a nut warning. Prices: from 5.50. The kitchen cooks "local" food where possible. A mini fish and chips in a toy-sized wrapper of newspaper used Scarborough-landed plaice. At 6.50, of course, you could have had a full-sized portion at a fish caf. Also on the plate – a spoonful of haddock mousse and cockle fritter, the latter a miserable scrunch of the shellfish on a blini with no sign of a fritter.

The other starter was fried baby squid and langoustine (source not revealed) with "cauliflower textures" and "beetroot dressing". This looked too much of a jumble, overcrowded by diced beet. The cauliflower was in light batter pouches. The squid was tender. The langoustine was so small as to be a non-speaking part.

The menu V main course was cep risotto, with cheese crisp, truffle oil and baby spinach salad – 12.95. My dietician recommends low fat food like this but my gym trainer says I need animal and fish protein to build muscle. It was cold outside. So, bring on the fried Mathison Farm duck with braised cabbage, roasted turnips, thyme juice and orange reduction with a brace of lemony potato croquettes.

The duck is free range, produced in East Yorkshire, and ate very well, cooked pink and tender, and served with skewered liver. Braised cabbage? I had expected a gorgeous green Savoy. But got what I know as red cabbage, piquantly spiced and irritating. The turnips were pleasant little things. The croquettes were lovely.

Across the table there was a less happy picture, to wit, a dish of "lasagne of Whitby crab and smoked haddock" served in a mini tupina, too small to extract an adequate forkful. The mixture was wet, more stew than a bake, and salty. I couldn't have finished eating this, even in a waterfront joint in Monterey looking at the sunny Pacific. It was accompanied by an erect soft shell crab in tempura which was pricey at 15.95. The size of the meals is adequate: chips, roasted veg, mash, spinach or Caesar salad are an extra 3.50.

We shared an ice cream, "home made" and the most enjoyable bit of the meal. Three roundels of lemon curd, chocolate and peanut flavours with a berry sauce – lovely at 4.95. The bill including the gin, two glasses of wine and a coffee was 63.

Verdict: stylish, relaxed, warm ambience. Some of the food was disappointing after the promise of the menu.

The New Ellington, 23-25 York Place, Leeds LS21 2EY. Tel: 0113 204 2150. Dinner every day except Sunday; brunch every day. Pay and display street parking. Rail: 10 minutes. Disabled access: ring first.

YP MAG 22/1/11