TeaHee!, 3 Tollbooth Bar, Market Place, Easingwold

I’ve just had a five-day break in Amsterdam, where café culture rules and the customer is king. Whether it was a cup of coffee, a bowl of soup, a simple sandwich or a slice of apple pie, they were, without exception, excellent.

I returned home thinking that British cafés had some way to go before they could match the general standard of those in Holland. Then I remembered TeaHee! in Easingwold.

It has been open since 2003, and won several awards. I had only eaten there once before, on a flying visit to the market town with my parents this summer. It was the afternoon so we refuelled on tea, coffee and cake, but my eyes had scanned the lunch menu enviously. I vowed to come back.

Cosy would be a good word to describe TeaHee!, but not in a chintzy way. There are no paper doilies here.

Tucked away at the top end of the Market Place, the door opens straight into the shop, and all eyes are directed to the display cabinet, packed with homemade cakes, tray bakes, quiche and other pastry delights.

There is also an excellent cheese selection (the shop bills itself as a ‘Cheesemonger and Espresso bar’, but it is so much more). If that isn’t enough to tempt you, the aroma of freshly ground coffee surely will.

Although there are a couple of tables in this section of the shop, a better place to sit is in the nextdoor room – or outside in the courtyard if weather permits. When I turned up on Tuesday at noon with my friend Moira, we were lucky to get the last table.

There are three menus: food, drinks and tea. There is a good selection of breakfast snacks as well as choices for lunch, including filled ciabattas, hot paninis and home-made sausage rolls.

Soup of the day was garden vegetable with herbs, which appealed to me as there was an autumn chill in the air.

Moira fancied the Farmhouse Platter (£6.75), with a selection of cheese, with pickle, salad garnish and bread. She inquired about the Paté Platter and was told the choice was duck with orange or soft cheese with roasted peppers.

My ears pricked up and my face must have shown my dilemma. Happily, the waitress came up with a solution by suggesting I had a half portion of the soup (£2) with the paté to follow.

The soup was delicious; piping hot and full of flavour. It had been blitzed and was light green in colour, but I’m sure I could taste broccoli and peas. It came with triangles of pillowy, wheaten bread and a pat of soft, salty butter.

There is an extensive selection of drinks available, hot and cold. Moira and I couldn’t resist some blasts from the past; she ordered a bottle of traditional Dandelion and Burdock while I plumped for fiery ginger beer (both £1.80).

As soon as I finished my soup, my bowl was replaced with my Paté Platter £5.95. It looked pretty substantial, with two servings of paté, a pot of thick oniony marmalade, four slices of brown toast and a fresh salad garnish.

I was expecting to like the duck paté best, and while it was good, it was quite firm and meaty and I probably would have preferred it softer. The cream cheese with roasted peppers was a real sensation; smooth and sweet, and won the thumbs-up from both Moira and myself.

To finish, I ordered a caffe latte (£1.60) and Moira a pot of Early Grey tea (£1.50), with lemon. She was pleased to see it came with a separate pot of hot water for a top-up. She was impressed with the tea, saying it was full of flavour. My coffee was top-drawer too – the milk thick and creamy and the coffee strength pitched just right.

We had to visit the cake counter by the front door to make our selection. Among the sponges were chocolate, carrot and banana. But there were flapjacks and chocolate and caramel shortbreads too as well as fudgy chocolate brownies.

My heart was won by the Bakewell tart (£3.10), which was moist and almondy with a delectably light pastry. If I had one criticism, it would be that I would have liked a bit more jam in the base. It was so rich, I couldn’t finish it, so the waitress kindly offered me a bag and napkin so I could take it home.

Moira chose a custard tart (£1), akin to the small flaky-pastry tarts you get in Portugal. Again, the pasty was a winner and the cold, creamy, set custard a true pleasure. She was a happy lady.

Our bill was £28, which included two custard tarts and a brownie to take home.

One warning: TeaHee! doesn’t accept cards. Luckily there was a ‘hole in the wall’ around the corner, which spared me the shame of offering to do the dishes.

•TeaHee!, 3 Tollbooth Bar, Market Place, Easingwold, York YO61 3AB. Tel 01347 823533 •Maxine visited on Tuesday, September 30, 2008