I’M Easy like Sunday Morning sang Lionel Ritchie with the Commodores in 1977. I mention it here only because the gentle lyricism of the American soulster’s mega-hit has been with me ever since enjoying Sunday breakfast at Richmond’s Station a week last Sunday. It’s one of those tunes that gets lodged in your brain.

Quite what put it there I’m not sure because Something Blue, the house duo who play regularly at the Station on Sunday mornings don’t do that sort of schmaltzy stuff. What they play is cool, smooth jazz and very easy on the ear it is too.

The Station is just as easy on the eye. The plaudits the community centre/cinema/art gallery/shops/offices/heritage centre and restaurant/cafe has received since it opened in 2007 are generally inadequate to describe the contribution it has made to the life of the town and the wider area. Never has Heritage Lottery (and others’) cash been so well spent.

The elegant Victorian former station building is a lovely space to spend time in. Whatever the weather outside, it always feels light and airy, even summery on a cold winter’s day. Just after 9.15am the place was filling up, some folk drinking coffee, reading the papers, some having breakfast and some just hanging out.

We were breakfasting with friends Gordon and Jean, taking a table in the slightly more formal side of the Seasons restaurant/cafe, the two sections divided by a glass screen.

The menu is a simple affair. Everything costs £8.95 and tea/coffee and a glass of fruit juice (apple/orange) is included. Taking centre stage is the full English farmhouse plateful (egg, bacon, sausage, mushroom, tomato, beans and a muffin), the supporting acts are poached eggs served with toasted muffins, hollandaise sauce and a choice of smoked salmon (Eggs Royale) flat-leafed spinach (Eggs Florentine), and bacon (Eggs Benedict). There’s also toasted muffins with scrambled egg and either bacon, tomato and mushroom , or smoked salmon. It’s a clever mix designed to make it easy for the kitchen while offering myriad combinations.

Gordon and Sylvia went for the full English and were very happy with their choice. A good high meat content sausage, lean and sweet-cured bacon, perfectly cooked fried eggs and the other elements were all as they should be.

My poached eggs with smoked salmon and Jean’s, with the spinach, were also spot on – fully cooked through white but soft golden yellow yolks. Not the easiest thing to do when serving up dozens of breakfasts.

The muffins were fluffy and lightly toasted but the stand-out element on the plate was the hollandaise sauce, served with my eggs but separately in a jug for Jean. There are lots of things that can go wrong with hollandaise but Gordon and Jean who are well-travelled gourmands, having eaten in some of the best restaurants in Europe, thought the sauce as good as any they had previously sampled. It was beautifully balanced and smooth, not too rich with a good dash of lemon and possibly a hint of cayenne. Truly excellent.

Decent strength coffee and tea along with juice was included in the price. The tea is worthy of note if only because it is not your conventional pot of Rosie Lee. Called Suki Tea – "tea as it should be" – it is served on a wooden board in a cast iron tea pot with the tea bag sticking out of the lid. The pot looks like it will be a dodgy pourer and one of our two pots turns out to be just that, liberally spilling tea. But there's nothing wrong with the taste of the strong English breakfast blend. Further investigation reveals Suki Tea to be a "boutique ethical tea blender" from Belfast. Well fancy that.

Service was OK. It's an area where Seasons has not always performed well in our past experience but joint owner/manager Jane handled our less than straightforward order (the ladies had all sorts of special requests) with ease and our food arrived promptly.

We can recommend Something Blue. They are Matt Case (saxophone) and Mike Hepple (guitar) who some may know from his musical alter ego in the peerless R’n’B/soul band the Smokin’ Spitfires in which he plays keyboards (so much talent, it makes you sick). Available for bar mitzvahs, weddings as well as breakfasts we understand.

:: Correction: In our review of Berry's Farm Shop and Cafe two weeks ago we praised the bread bun served with the burger from the Bedale Community Bakery. We have been asked to point that while the Bedale bakery supplies Berry's with bread, other baked goods, including the burger buns, scones and teacakaes come from the Taste of Wensleydale Bakery, also in Swinithwaite. And very good it was too.

Seasons at The Station
The Station, Station Yard, Station Road, Richmond DL10 4LD
Tel: 01748-825340 Web: restaurant-seasons.co.uk
Sunday brunch served 9.30-11.30am
Vegan options available. Disabled access.

Ratings (out of ten): Food quality 9 Service 7 Surroundings 10 Value 7