ONE of our party on this night out has a very serious head for figures. With a high-flying accountant among us, I know we’ll have no problem sorting out the bill at the end of the meal.

What I am not expecting, though, is the deadly serious nature of the business he has tucked under his arm.

“We wondered if you wouldn’t mind witnessing the signatures on our wills?” asks dealmaker Martin as he gets in the car en route to Leeming Bar.

My key focus after arriving at the Corner House is therefore to complete such a serious responsibility without getting any gravy or beer stains on the august documents.

This achieved, and with a welcome pint of Black Sheep in my mitts, I was able to take stock of my surroundings.

Sitting on the busy corner of the A684 where it runs through Leeming on its way between Northallerton and Bedale, the Corner House is hard to miss.

Bar, restaurant area and rooms have had a full refit and makeover.

I’d never crossed the threshold before so I have nothing to compare with, but it’s attractive and smart, particularly for daylight visits – which is odd because there appears to be no daytime opening at the moment. It turns out it opens for coach parties by prior appointment during the day.

By night, we wondered if overly bright lighting didn’t take the shine off romantic dining. Staff were cheerful and efficient throughout.

The menu is a straightforward run-through of pub food familiars – six starters ranging from soup at £3.95 to tempura prawns at £4.95; a dozen or so mains ranging from £5.25 salads to gammon and chips for £9.45.

The line-up is completed by a range of sandwiches and snacks, three veggie options and half a dozen more specials, including sirloin (£13.95) and fillet (£16.95) steaks.

The liberal smattering of the word “home-made” on a menu such as this helpfully marks out the remaining items that are likely to have gone from delivery van to freezer to fryer – nothing to be ashamed of at these prices.

I chose duck spring rolls served with salad garnish, soy sauce and sweet chilli sauces (£3.95). Hot and crisp, but without much taste of the duck within. As for the dated concept of salad as a “garnish” (undressed and complete with cress, anaemic tomatoes and the dreaded raw onion rings) – don’t get me started.

Salad should always earn its place on the plate with flavour, colour and a good dressing.

My companions were uncomplaining about their classic prawn cocktail, a lemon wedge and wholemeal bread (£4.95), black pudding fritters with homemade red onion marmalade (£3.95) and tempura prawns, salad garnish and sweet chilli dipping sauce (£4.95). That said, Sarah was a little sniffy about the margarine on her bread: go on, it’s better with butter.

For my main course, I’d again chosen from the specials list: chicken sizzler with black bean sauce (£8.95). This was the showoff dish of the night, brought to the table by a chef and poured onto a superheated cast-iron platter. Basically a victory of style over substance, it was essentially a rather bland stir-fry, lacking the kick of a decent dose of ginger or chilli. Half rice, half chips (a concept newly introduced to me for the night) completed the line-up.

Garlic chicken – strips of chicken fillet in a cream and garlic sauce (£8.95), chilli con carne (£7.95) and breaded Whitby whole-tail scampi with chips, peas and tartare sauce (£7.95) all went down nicely. Sarah’s grilled pork fillet with Stilton sauce (£8.95) looked to be the tastiest of the bunch.

Portions were generous, with authentic chip shopstyle chips aplenty.

Those of us with room for desserts were greeted again with pub classics – warm chocolate fudge cake, jam roly-poly and a banana split (all £3.75).

The latter was mine and, I must admit, a mistake.

Afloat in a boat-sized dish of UHT squirty cream and bland Caterers’ Friend ice cream, even the banana – a sop to the notion of ‘five a day’ – failed to lighten the load.

But setting aside my snobby fussiness for food that actually tastes of something, this had been a decent pub meal at a fair price.

Two bottles of wine and a round and a half of drinks brought the total bill to £117.25 for five of us.

We’d had a pleasant Saturday night out and, despite the grave nature of the business in hand, had managed to extend the old adage that where there’s a will there’s a way ... to a good feed.

Ratings (out of ten): Food quality 6, Service 7, Surroundings 6, Value 7

The Corner House Hotel

2 Leases Road, Leeming Bar, DL7 9AN
Telephone: 01677 423 084
Website: cornerhousehotel.net
Open for meals: 5-9pm Mon-Fri; 4-9pm Sat; 4-8pm Sun