The Dining Room, Boroughbridge

BEING the first to arrive is not something I make a habit of.

So arriving early at a party is not something I’m familiar with: the slight irritation of the hosts at your ringing of the bell before they’re quite ready, mixed with a bit of relief that at least two of their guests have got the right date and turned up.

For the first-to-arrive guests, there can be a flicker of embarrassment at having caused the slight irritation, combined with anxiety/expectation of their own as they wonder who’ll turn up next to take the pressure off. Nibbles are nervously nibbled, drinks are duly drunk.

True to form, we were slightly late on arrival in Boroughbridge on the Friday night we visited the Dining Room, having had to detour to Ripon to drop off a teenager. Overshooting the entrance to the side of the building, owner Lisa Astley, who runs the establishment with husband Christopher, came out to fish us in and show the way to a very smart upstairs bar area for drinks.

Tardy, but still the first ones to arrive, we had the place to ourselves.

As well as plush surroundings – plenty of mirrored furniture, crushed velvet and comfortable armchairs, we had a cocktail menu to peruse.

Driving for the night, I went for one from the mocktails list – a Bloody Shame. I like tomato juice, so the lack of vodka wasn’t too much of a shame. Anna, who’s always sober, even forewent a virgin mojito and stuck with fizzy water. Some canapés fresh from the oven eased our wait as we gave the menu a once over.

The menu was somewhat sparse, which is not always a bad thing if it means everything is cooked fresh to order, but on this occasion we were left rather uninspired and struggling to choose.

Nevertheless choose we did, and moved downstairs to our table. The dining room – an otherwise pleasant space – was empty, and remained so.

The whole establishment really was ours alone – little wonder they weren’t going to let their only customers of the night wander off lost into the North Yorkshire night.

But the subject remained the elephant in the room (in fact, there was room for two of them). No reference was made to our sole guest status – not even in jest, which we thought rather odd. I was to break the silence on that one later as we left, to be told that it was unusual and that numbers had been strong the previous Friday, and were so again the next night. The unpredictability of diners remains a predictably inconvenient problem, it seems.

In any case, wondering why we found ourselves whispering – after all, there was no one there to hear – we got on with our meal, with a mainly 80s music mix providing the only soundtrack.

I began with a venison terrine – a good, well-flavoured meaty slab, with some delicate little rounds of French toast and a nice chutney. Odd touches though were slices of pickled gherkin and a carved radish. The former is not known for its subtlety on the palate; was the latter an attempt at retro cuisine that went over my head. It wasn’t even prettified particularly well.

Anna’s scallops were at first glance a more attractive option, with half a dozen huge molluscs in a colourfully herb-sprinkled sauce. But she thought the balance of falvours was wrong, with a sauce that was too acidic.

For a main course, she had grilled chicken, which came on a plate with a ramekin of coleslaw, a little salad, a “smokey” sauce and, bizarrely, some chopped fresh tomatoes.

Perfectly okay, but as she said: “it’s chicken and chips with coleslaw – what more can you say about that?”

My rib-eye steak also came with a ramekin of coleslaw, a second of pepper sauce and a salad on the side, as well as another little copper pan of chips.

As a lapsed-vegetarian, I can’t claim to be an aficionado when it comes to steaks, but this one didn’t impress very much: it was neither flavoursome nor particularly tender.

Desserts were similarly mixed: a warm chocolate mousse with milk chocolate ice cream (£7) was a nicely-presented if curious confection – the mousse well on the way to being a soufflé. My autumn berry pudding with damson and blackberry coulis and vanilla ice cream (£6.95) was, I felt, a bit of a seasonal imposter though: effectively a summer pudding, complete with fresh strawberries on the side and redcurrants on top. I do like summer pudding mind.

A small glass of Rioja and large bottle of mineral water brought the bill to £82.05, which considering we’d had had inexpensive drinks, was just too much for the underwhelming food. An early bird menu offered between 6pm and 7pm from Tuesday to Friday might be a better bet – two courses are £14.95 and three coast £18.95.

Service had been polite and friendly throughout. Normally I’d have said it was efficient, but then again there wasn’t a lot else for the two front of house staff to do, was there?

Ignoring the absence of diners and focusing on the food, the meal was executed perfectly well, but it just wasn’t worth the high price and had, quite frankly, some rather bizarre elements that contributed to the oddness of the whole experience.

The Dining Room, 20 St James’ Square, Boroughbridge, YO51 9AR. Tel: 01423 326426. thediningroomonline.co.uk

Food served: Tuesday-Saturday from 7pm (last orders 9.15pm). Sunday lunch from noon (last orders 2pm).

Ratings (out of ten): Food quality 6 Service 8 Surroundings 8 Value 6