Restaurant Review: Aux Delices, Mytholmroyd

If the welcome’s anything to go by, let’s hope not. The joint is jumping at seven, maybe due to the 14 quid for two courses menu that finishes at 6.45pm? But no matter, it means there’s a frisky atmosphere that carries through (and eventually becomes a bit overpowering).

Owner Carole Chaplin (moonlighting from the Hinchliffe Arms in Cragg Vale) is front of house and if such a thing existed she should be in the running for warmest welcome of the year award. Throughout the evening, she’s watchful, engaging and just the right side of chatty.

Her friendly, efficient team has been briefed to within an inch of their lives. When service is as right as this it underscores how unhappy wrong service can make you. The local lasses buzz about dispensing smiles and apologies when one wait between courses starts to feel a bit long. We’re off on the right foot food-wise too with warm home made bread and two types of butter, chilli and lime and olive and tomato. Two bite-size bits of meat on cocktail sticks follow in quick time. I ask what we’ve wolfed down and discover it’s fillet steak marinated in horseradish, garlic, coriander and coffee. “I know – weird, but it works, doesn’t it?’ It certainly does work Carole, just bring another half dozen of those please.

I wrote recently of Kitchen in Sheffield how chuffed I was to find a menu full of things I wanted to eat and how rare that was. Well blow me down, just like buses, here comes another one. It took ages, but choose we must. Braised pig cheek with honey roast parsnip purée and green plantain crisp (£5.75) is a triumph; two beautifully tender, moist chunks of meat sat on a purée so deep in flavour it elicited an involuntary groan of pleasure. Likewise, roasted king scallops and trout gravadlax with celeriac and horseradish purée and lemon grass oil (£8.95); four perfect (huge) orbs cleverly matched with oakey trout and a silky smooth, sweet finish to the puree. A collective sigh of relief goes round the table. This isn’t some fly-by-night eaterie, someone really knows what they’re doing in the kitchen.

That somebody is Michael Downie, who earned his stripes at the Millbank under the tutelage of Glen Futter, himself a graduate of the three star Chez Nico in London. So that’s where the French influence comes from then.

Originally from Jamaica, Michael cooked his way round the states, ending up in Boston, where amongst other things he learned to make “the ultimate chocolate brownie”. Hmm. I make a pretty good one according to some, so we’ll see about that shall we, Michael?

Before we get to puds, there’s the small business of mains. I really like the sound of fillet of gurnard Nicoise with tempura squid but can’t resist the prospect of sea bass with tomato mash, asparagus, smoked trout and pickled onion, duck egg and hollandaise (£15.95). The component parts work really well, particularly the finely-chopped smoked trout and pickled onion that act as a base for all the other bits; the poached egg oozes nicely over the velvety mash.

The only bum note all evening is the fish. Michael’s taken his eye off the ball for a second and the bass is overcooked. Easily done. But it shouldn’t have left the kitchen. Trio of Yorkshire lamb (braised shoulder, rump and belly) arrives with celeriac mash, roasted tomatoes and mint puree (£15.75) and is a more successful plate, with tender, pink meat and more creamy purée – looks great too. The room is all brick walls, stone flags and fireplaces. It’s attractive, especially the mustard leather banquette on one long wall. It’s just there are no textiles to soak up the sound of happy eaters which becomes too loud. All it needs is a carpet somewhere. By the end of the evening we were miming at each other across the table.

Vanilla and raspberry parfait with raspberry sorbet and candy is an intense summer celebration, like sitting on warm grass in the sunshine with all your favourite people. The candy bar is a cheeky, childlike add-on. And so to Downie’s Brownie. Michael serves his with white chocolate sauce and home made ice cream. Hell it’s good. It’s better than mine by a country mile. Warm. Dense. Gooey in the middle with a subtle crunch on the top. And somehow, on a warm summer’s evening and with these plates of food in front of you, its easy to forget you’re on Burnley Road, food transcending geography.

Meal for two with a £15 bottle of wine £73.00. Early bird, Tues-Thurs all evening, Fri & Sat last booking 6.45pm. £13.95 for two courses. Hours Tuesday to Saturday 5.45pm till 9pm. Aux Delices 15, Burnley Road, Mytholmroyd HX7 5LH. Tel: 01422 885564, www.auxdelices.co.uk