Oldfields Restaurant Claypath Durham City (from Darlington and Stockton Times)

WE had better come clean straightaway. Bill Oldfield, owner of Oldfields restaurant in Durham, is a friend.

Which makes this a slightly tricky piece to write. You will have to take my word for it that our friendship is such that it can stand a little criticism, should it be necessary.

The creamed Brussels sprouts were under-seasoned, the Northumbrian lamb was slightly too fatty for Sylvia's taste and our charming waitress made a bit of a hash of serving our sparkling Blanc de Blancs and a rather lukewarm latte. But otherwise and in every other respect this was a damn fine meal.

We expected nothing less, given that Oldfields has picked up a hatful of awards this year, among them it being voted Durham's best restaurant for the second year running in the Durham Retail Awards.

It has also set its stall out as the region's most committed champion of local produce. Many establishments pay lip service to the principle of local sourcing but Oldfields puts regional food centre stage on all its menus. Virtually every dish served features some element of local food, whether it is bread from Jesmond, fish from North Shields, bacon from Wensleydale, or organic cream from Darlington.

But there's obviously more to the passion for local food than just listing it on a menu. Cooking it correctly is as important and Oldfield does that just as well.

My starter of "Bob Stanbridge's famous wild boar press with homemade apple chutney" was a beautifully compiled, flavour-packed wedge of herby, slightly gamey, meat. The chutney was chunky and not too sweet. It came with some lightly dressed rocket. Bob Stanbridge, by the way, rears his wild boar near Barnard Castle.

Sylvia thought the soup of the day - carrot and pea - was equally good, although she struggled to identify the carrot element. It came with a selection of breads, olive and sun-dried tomato among them.

Our main courses were sourced from a Sunderland butcher, Steve Beaumont, who supplies Oldfields with Northumberland lamb, Sylvia's choice, and my calves liver.

Apart from being slightly fatty for Sylvia's taste, the lamb was immensely lamb-ey, almost to the point of having a mutton-like flavour. It was also very tender. It was served on a bed of crushed and floury Heritage potatoes (supplied by Mrs Carroll of Cornhillon- Tweed) and came with a piquant caper sauce.

My liver came nicely pink and did truly match that rather over-used expression melt-in-the-mouth. It too sat on a bed of potato - mash in this instance - with thankfully batter-less onion rings and a deeply flavoured gravy.

Our side orders (£2.50 each) were the Brussels sprouts mentioned earlier (excellent in every other respect) and some sweetly shiny luscious red cabbage with apple.

Proceedings were brought to a close with a shared sticky toffee pudding (or ticky stoffy pudding as it will always be described in our household) which we know of old. This is a marvellously light version of this all-time favourite, not too sweet, and accompanied by a caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream from Beckleberrys of Blaydon.

This feast of local produce, cooked largely to the highest standard, was a steal at just £15 for two courses and £18 for three. Our bill, excluding a bottle of wine and coffee, came to under £40.

It was, in fact, a bit more because Oldfields adds a "discretionary service charge" of 10 per cent to every bill and puts the onus on the customer to ask for it to be removed if the service isn't up to scratch. I'm not a fan of this practice, commonplace in the South of England and rapidly spreading around the country. We were happy to pay because the service, despite some spilt wine and coffee, was perfectly OK. We would have had the courage to ask for the charge to be removed if it hadn't, but suspect that many folk would not.

More fool them, you (and Bill Oldfield) might say, but I just don't like restaurateurs to make assumptions on their customers' behalf.

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