IF YOU like plenty of choice, then you might panic at the thought of being faced with a single option on the menu.

But choice, like some other supposed innovations of early 21st century life, is often overrated.

Choice of hospital appointment (“Choose and Book” indeed), choice of school – why can’t all of the options just be good?

So, in principle, I like the prospect of a tasting menu such as the one offered by Adam Jackson, formerly of the wonderful Black Swan away to the north at Oldstead.

His eight-course tasting menu (£48 per person) is the only option on Friday and Saturday evenings, besides an equally sumptuous sounding vegetarian eightcourse menu at the same price.

From Tuesday to Thursday, there is also the option of a three-course set menu (£22), but he says most people go for the longer option.

We went on a Saturday night, so it was Hobson’s choice, although I had been asked about any specific dietary requirements or likes/dislikes when I booked.

Although they’ve grown popular in recent years, tasting menus are by no means a modern phenomenon.

It’s generally a chance for the chef and his kitchen to show off what they can do, what they are best at. Perfection in mini-portions that require time to savour and add up to a bellyful.

For a guest at Heston Blumenthal’s Fat Duck in Berkshire, 13 courses will set them back £195 and three and a half hours – lucky for some. Closer to home at the Black Swan, where as head chef Jackson helped land a Michelin star, you’ll pay £75 for their nine course taster.

The Park Restaurant by Adam Jackson (to give it the full title) opened last September in Adam Jackson’s home village, off the A19, eight miles north of York.

Sutton Park, a Georgian mansion, is the family home of Sir Reginald Sheffield, the Prime Minister’s father-inlaw.

It’s currently open to the public for part of the year, and Jackson has based his restaurant at the opposite end of the building occupied by the tearoom run by his partner Hilary Smith and named after their daughter, Daisy.

It’s a small venue – a little bar area with room for just six or seven to sup a preprandial and enjoy their canapés gives way to a comfortable and attractively decorated dining room with barely more than a dozen covers.

Each artfully presented course has the simplest of menu descriptions (“Beans, Feta, Mint, Gnocchi”, “Lobster, Salmon, Squash”) but the most complex of flavours – for the most part.

Good fresh bread, a lozenge of pease pudding and a little lidded jar of piccalilli. It’s great to be reminded there can be more to this than the usual vinegar tart, luminous turmeric-yellow slime that bears the name.

Tuna Niçoise was a delicate little pun on the familiar French salad, with squirts and smears and tiny cubes of ingredients.

The aforementioned bean course had a single, crisped gnocchi with peeled broad beans and crumbled feta alongside a delicate minty puree. Duck dim sum, with its teapot of broth, was a similarly intricate dish, but individual flavours, particularly from the fowl, struggled to make themselves heard.

Things unravelled a little further with the lobster course, where flavours could be made out, but to my taste just didn’t go together well enough.

Five dishes down, and time for a breather. Which is what you get in spades between courses here, along with excellent service from two attentive front-of-house staff. Make sure you leave as long as three hours to savour the experience.

There’s plenty of time for us to lap up the company of our guest – the outing is a 16th birthday treat for our first-born, who is honouring us with a night off grunting by way of communication.

I recall the time, for my 16th birthday, my parents took my then girlfriend and I out for a posh meal (Ripon’s Old Deanery, if I remember rightly). She disgraced herself by yawning right into my father’s face mid-conversation.

He remains fond of the girl nevertheless. I remain married to her.

Course six is a return to form and the meal’s high point. Pork, sage and onion – a tender triumph. When you dislike massive mounds of meat as I do, daintier, intense servings such as this are the way to go.

The first of two desserts is a rhubarb and vanilla pairing, a creamy incitement to dishlicking.

At this point, speaking of Yorkshire rhubarb, it’s worth celebrating the lengths Jackson has gone to ensure his menus are truly seasonal, with a new one every two weeks using produce from the estate and surrounding area.

The final flourish: “Chocolate, Mango and Passion Fruit” – a riot of brown and vibrant orange, with toasted slivers of coconut providing bite alongside the smooth mousse and sorbet.

The trouble with a tasting menu is that expectations are extremely high for each and every stage of the journey.

You might have thought that if a course is less to your liking, it won’t matter too much, because another more favoured one will surely be along shortly. But it doesn’t seem to work like that. The stakes remain high for each plate.

Cheese is an option with a £4 supplement and a carefully matched package of five wines would be an interesting addition at £35 per person.

For our visit, three bottles of fizzy water, a sherry and a bottle of Sauvignon blanc took the overall bill for three to £189.

I like what Adam Jackson is trying to achieve here – he’s clearly a talent to be treasured and much of what he’s put in place at the Park is close to excellence. But as I’ve said before, there is a wealth of top-notch competition in this part of the world – indeed even in this little pocket of the county.

He’ll have to do more to ruffle feathers up the road at the Swan.

The Park

Sutton Park, Sutton on the Forest, York, YO61 1DP
Telephone: 01347 810852
Website: theparkrestaurant.co.uk
Open for meals: Tue-Sat, 7-9pm. Closed Sun & Mon.
Access fine for the disabled.

Ratings (out of ten):

Food quality: 8
Service: 8
Surroundings: 7
Value: 7