The offer seemed too good to be true! All you can eat at the lunchtime buffet, Monday to Friday, for £4.99. So, tempted, off I went with a colleague.

Pizza Huts have been around for a long time. Enter and you know the drill.

Wait to be seated, be offered a drink, then select from the menu small, medium or large pizzas with a range of toppings. Settle back and wait while your order is being cooked. Not so at lunchtime.

Sit down and you are immediately presented with a plate. It was cold.

Am I the only person who objects to eating a hot meal off a cold plate? Then straight to the hot plate where a selection of ready-sliced pizzas are ready for the taking.

I took a piece of pork and pepper plus a slice of the plain version.

I popped an American bread strip on to the plate as well.

Back to our table to find my colleague was trying the vegetarian selection.

He said it was OK but especially liked some pasta he had found.

One was tomato-based, while the other had a meat content. His verdict was very tasty, hot in temperature and also quite spicy.

Just too hot for a child, he mused. I also enjoyed the vegetarian pizza, but on my second trip to the hot plate I was tempted by the beef and onion and ham and pineapple.

They too were very good as was the manager's selection which appeared later. I ate six slices from various pizzas which were freshly cooked.

The staff kept a watchful eye on the hot plate and replaced empty dishes swiftly.

The standard menu was also available as is the salad bar. But mindful of what we had to do in the afternoon we called a halt.

We both agreed this offer, available in all branches, is excellent value for money.

Perhaps we sat just too close to the door because there was quite a draught each time a customer entered or left.

Mind you, any further away and we might not have observed the well-dressed man who carried out ten large take-away boxes.

What an appetite - or was he feeding a local army?

Restaurant: Pizza Hut

Address: Clifford Street York

Reviewed: July 10 1999