Havelock Restaurant Blackwell Grange Hotel Darlington (from Darlington and Stockton Times)

HOTEL dining rooms can be strange places, inhabited by people who look as if they mostly don't want to be there - or at least didn't choose to be there.

Business folk attending meetings or conferences, haunted sales reps on their lonely nationwide odyssey for deals that will deliver their bonus, or parties of pensioners on those merrily-titled coach tours.

Then there is also the couple who really want to be there but shouldn't - the dirty weekenders, surreptitiously holding hands across the table and keeping a weather eye open for the aunt from Bognor (probably on the coach tour to the Western Isles) who is going to blow the whistle on the scurrilous goings on.

It often makes for an odd mix and is perhaps why most people selecting an eating place for an evening out would normally avoid a hotel. We didn't think Darlington's Blackwell Grange would be markedly different but nevertheless felt the grand pile on the edge of the town deserved a visit since it changed hands a couple of years ago.

The approach to the hotel has always been impressive - a driveway sweeps through the grounds bordering the golf club to the porticoed entranceway - but the effect was nullified by the group of desperate smokers huddled round the front door. Even though they were drawing their last drags and stubbing out as we walked to the door, the residual smoke cloud was not very welcoming. What's more, the presence of receptacles confirmed this was the hotel's approved spot for the nicotine dependent. I know they have to go somewhere but surely a better place can be found?

Inside, matters improved. The Havelock Restaurant was refurbished just over a year ago and the designers have done a good job in modernising it while paying due respect to the period features of the original building. Tables are well spaced out and good quality napery and cutlery helps.

We were pleased to see lots of other people, all of whom looked as if they happy to be present.

There was even a couple who looked as they shouldn't be there but were very pleased they were - and they needn't worry because we didn't know them.

The Havelock does a fixed threecourses- and-coffee menu (£21 per head) plus an a la carte. Diners can mix and match from both, which we did, choosing a plate of antipasti and Nicoise salad for our starters. The anti-pasti was tremendous value for £4.50, huge lumps of buffalo mozzarella, artichoke and parma ham with some very good quality braesola and less-so salami.

Sylvia thought her Nicoise salad (£4) a pretty good example of the genre, notable for a tangily-sweet dressing and plenty of tuna.

Her main course choice of roasted breast of chicken stuffed with brie and served with a mashed potatoes and chive and grape sauce (£14.95) was of similar standard, the sauce being a lightly creamy counter to the richness of the cheese and chicken.

My fillet of salmon and scallop with an herby orange sauce (£14) was not quite as good. Again there was a lightness of touch notable in the sauce but the fish and seafood were simply overcooked, the scallop to the point of near-chewiness.

Vegetables included some nicely garlic-ky dauphnoise potatoes but watery broccoli and carrots.

I finished with a rather heavy orange and almond tart which came with a sultana puree but whipped cream rather than the billed vanilla ice cream. I couldn't finish the huge portion.

Service was a comfortable blend of informality and formality delivered with cherry competence.

After settling our £45 bill, we departed, leaving the couple who perhaps shouldn't have been there looking lovingly into each other's eyes. Tut, tut.

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