Samuel's, Swinton Park

His kinsman, Mark Culiffe-Lister, and Mark's wife Felicity (formally, Lord and Lady Masham) and family members took the place back into Cunliffe-Lister ownership in 2000, opening in spring of 2001, and today run it as an elegant country house hotel, restaurant, plus various other revenue-gathering enterprises. There is well-established cookery school, horse trekking and game shooting for the deeper pockets.

The rooms are stately, with impossibly high ceilings, 20-foot (6m) windows, ancient paintings to scale, chandeliers and decorative exotica befitting a 19th century textile baron as he strode into gentrification.

The family named their restaurant in his honour. Swinton Park is a fabulous place, reached through a gateway (watch the edges of your limo) and a drive to the mock fortified entrance. Statuesque deer stand motionless in the shadow under a lime tree. Dummies: a nice welcome.

We'd been advised to arrive early for pre-dinner drinks. We did and were led through halls and along to a drawing room so large it has two doors. Apart from the portraits it was empty. Then a couple arrived. Then another. The atmosphere was like a public library with a ban on speaking. After a quarter of an hour a man entered and took drinks orders from one couple, returning after a suitable interval with their drinks. Then he repeated the orders for the other couple. I was beginning to feel invisible. Ah, here he comes.

This being a swell joint I requested a Kir Royale and, a bit racy, a mojito. He came back: sorry, no mint. I have mint in leaf at home so what about the kitchen garden behind the hall? Not a sprig, he said. I changed to a Margarita. Wowee, though at the price it needs to be. A waiter brought some charming nibbles. Things were looking up as we sampled pea guacamole with bespoke bread sticks and chunks of a hammy terrine covered with piccalilli.

The 45 set Signature menu with six choices of first and main courses, another six of desserts, coffee/teas and choccies. Some dishes carry supplements, for instance 3 each for the estate pheasant or the "North Coast" halibut or a couple of quid if you care for foie gras or 5 to 10 for cheeses. Gourmets may also like the Tasting Menu, a 57 offering which, on this visit, brought rocket jelly, local rabbit (pressed leg with foie gras and a slaw of parsnip, celeriac and fennel); then halibut with kale and other veg from the kitchen garden, woodland fungi with essence of morel.

Pause, for the estate venison (braised haunch and roasted loin), pickled salsify, violet infused potato, with "jus" of juniper and orange. Then a pre-desert cleanser (maybe "exotic" jelly and banana mousse), and finally a plate of dark chocolate, espresso mousse and amaretto ice cream.

Residents, who can have a dinner, bed and breakfast deal, outnumber casual callers. This was a Tuesday. The dining room became full but how serenely quiet because tables are well-spaced and with that 30-foot high ceiling your voice must soar away, high above the tall and fragrant lilies on each table.

The only real noise, and then some, came from the sommelier with a witty and informed dissertation for anyone with time to listen. He arrived at the table and announced he was going to decant the wine. Classy, I mused, for a sub 30 bottle of Ctes du Rhne. Some mistake. His bottle had a label glittering with red and gold and the words St Emilion. Sorry, he said. A mix-up with the numbering, plus the information that St Emilion was nowhere near the Rhne.

Anyway, it is all mostly wonderful at Swinton Park. The menu price at first seems daunting but with inter-course surprises (familiar in stately homes) such as a small cup of leek and potato velout with truffle foam, plus a regular offering of a selection of breads and the assurance that if the Cunliffe-Listers haven't grown, hooked or shot what you are eating on their 20,000 acres, then the rest is properly sourced. Mark's mother, Susan Cunliffe-Lister, of Burton Agnes Hall, and a Lord Lieutenant of East Yorkshire, supervises the vegetable and fruit gardens.

At first, one might suspect walking out with a few hunger pangs. In reality the set menu add up to a substantial feast. Main courses, for example, are decorated with fragments of vegetables and edible accessories, rather than presented with side servings of greens, reds and spuds. There is more substance than at first evident.

A first-course dish of local wood pigeon breast found meat cooked through, rather than purple, and only a hint of toughness in part threatened the enjoyment. It was served with celeriac, salty grapes, wood mushrooms and traces of black treacle.

Having veered so far off the good ship Vegetarian on this long weekend in Wensleydale, there seemed no reason to avoid the estate's grouse, the breast meat cooked beyond pink and this time flawless. With it a decorative melange of brambles, immature beetroot, small pieces of apple, port sauce (exquisite) and squash puree. This was first rate but there is a case for a good bowl of, say, leafy greens.

Puddings? Small but delicious. Hot drinks and sweets complete the meal.

Verdict: Fine dining and at 45 remarkable value, not allowing for the small mistake on the bill.

Samuel's Restaurant at Swinton Park, Masham, North Yorkshire HG4 4JH. Tel: 01765 680900. Open every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. No jeans or trainers. Disabled access. Booking advised. Wine from 19.95 to 195. Set dinner 45. However, a less formal "Castle" lunch and dinner menu is served in the bar, drawing room or on the terrace. Just launched: the estate's own Chef's Kitchen, a range of stocks and sauces and venison casserole to use at home.

YP MAG 20/11/10