YOU join me this week on an intrepid journey out East. Alright, so it’s not actually intrepid at all, and not even that far out of D&S Times readers’ comfort zones – I’m pretty sure you’ll find a copy in the newsagents out this way – but it’s a part of the patch I’m only really familiar with through childhood holidays and more recent twowheeled forays.

I have always wondered, though, why this Gilling needs to distinguish itself from the Gilling West in Richmondshire, close to the A66 trans-Pennine route and almost 50 miles away.

Is there really a danger that travellers will muddle one for the other, even with a straying sat nav?

It sits south of Helmsley, at the top edge of the Vale of York, where you find some of the loveliest villages in the region.

Gilling is among them, a short way from Castle Howard’s grandeur and Ampleforth and its college.

The Fairfax, like the Inn at Hawnby, where we ate last, is as much inn as posh pub, and would equally make for a haven of a weekend getaway.

I’m here with a fellow former journalist. We were friendly rivals once, but there’s no competition when it comes to a choice of beer – it has to be Black Sheep for both of us.

It’s a Wednesday night and the place is extremely busy, from families enjoying the tables outside to couples and well-to-do friends filling every available spot in the series of inside little dining rooms.

Smiling, polite young staff are teeming to and fro, some wearing bizarre-looking outsized white gloves that make them resemble undergrown butlers or snooker referees – I quickly realise they allow them to carry hot plates safely.

We go straight for our table and are allowed plenty of time to linger over the menus: eight starters, six mains (plus four ‘pub favourites’) and a generous daily specials sheet with a dozen or so more.

The choices are fairly traditional and French in flavour.

There are one or two things for the non-fish-eating vegetarians.

Dave kicks off with pansealed smoked haddock (£7.25). Wafting a lovely smoky aroma my way, it’s a nice-looking plateful with tomato, a poached egg and a little salad of bean shoots.

My potted blue cheese and Ampleforth cider brandy paté (£6.25) comes with a good apple chutney and oatcakes.

A successful combination of flavours, it is rich enough to need more oatcakes, and these are brought promptly on request.

Again selecting from the main menu for his main course, Dave opts for the butterflied breast of chicken (£13.95). Cooked in garlic butter, it is topped off with leeks in a creamy blue cheese sauce.

Darlington and Stockton Times:
The dining area at The Fairfax Arms at Gilling East

Mine is chosen from the specials list – pan-sealed fillet of brill (£13.75). Soused in a chive butter sauce with plump, shelled mussels and a bed of new potatoes, it’s a rich creamy dish that manages not to swamp the subtleties of this firm-fleshed flatfish.

Side dishes of new potatoes and perfectly-cooked vegetables complete the line-up.

Desserts are similarly flawless – a raspberry and Amaretto [sic] crème brulee for my guest, and a lemon and mango tart with passion fruit jam for me (both £5.50). What’s not to like?

A glass each of Gavi and Pinot Grigio, a bottle of mineral water and a pint and a half round the bill off to £68.50 (of which drinks make up £16.30).

Excellent service is provided by a crack team, clearly well led by landlords Andrew and Emily Slingsby.

I couldn’t really fault anything at the Fairfax, even at my nit-picking worst.

The boys’ zone motor racing- themed gents reminded me a little of a 1980s barbershop – I’m not into the vroom-vrooms, so it’s a matter of personal taste.

But then, isn’t it all?

Ratings:

Food Quality: 8/10

Service: 8/10

Surroundings: 8/10

Value: 7/10