IT'S the school summer holidays and it's pouring with rain. You are pulling your hair out and the kids are pulling each other's hair out.

There's only one solution - visit a play barn.

Luckily, we are blessed (if blessed is the word) with four indoor soft play areas within a ten-minute drive from our York home.

We opted for Riverside Farm, a purpose-built family pub on the A19, at Skelton, where its Wacky Warehouse has just undergone a makeover. There is also a permanent two-for-one offer on all adult main meals.

The idea was to let our children, Elliot, five, and Zara, two, have an hour or so of going crazy in the "warehouse", before we ate in the pub. It would give them an appetite. But when we arrived, it seemed everyone else had had the same idea. It was full.

So, with two deflated children in tow, we headed for the dining area, and took a table by a window overlooking a very wet beer garden. A promotion on the table asked us to buy cool drinks for the hot summer. Yeah, right.

The Riverside, which is part of the Tom Cobleigh chain of pubs, is one of those places where you find a table, remember its number, peruse the many menus on your table, jot down your selections, then head to the bar to place your order. The problem was when we visited there was only one member of staff behind the bar, who was juggling food and drink orders.

Thankfully, it wasn't too long before our food arrived.

For starters, I went for the tortilla melt (£2.89): four crispy tortilla triangles filled with what was supposed to be "spicy" sausage smothered in a salsa sauce.

Unfortunately, they were pretty bland. I was expecting a kick, but it never came.

My wife, Jayne, fared better with her tasty breaded mushrooms dippers (£2.99), although they arrived with the wrong dip.

But what got top marks was the wonderful tear-and-share garlic bread (£2.99), which our kids adored.

Many restaurants treat children as an afterthought, but not the Riverside. They have produced a first-class menu, which promotes "healthy eating for active kids".

Youngsters can build their own meal, choosing either squidgy pizza, beefburger, chicken dippers, sausages or fish sticks, with jacket potato, chips or mash, and a helping of either baked beans, munch crunch vegetables or peas.

If that's not to their liking, they can choose one of the other main meals which include chicken "fahe-he-tas", sweet-and-sour chicken, cottage pie and bolognaise twisty pasta. Prices range from £2.65 to £3.85, which are very reasonable.

All the kids' meals have no artificial colours, flavours or sweeteners, and many of the dishes have had the fat and salt content reduced. The menu also lists nutritional information, including the number of calories, and fat, sugar and salt content.

Our two picked the chicken nuggets (made from 100 per cent chicken breast), chips, peas and crunchy veg, which also came with grapes. No complaints about the food, but their minds were on the play barn next door, rather than filling their stomachs.

The main meal choice for grownups was pretty good too.

There were the "pub classics", such as steak and ale pie, chicken kiev and chicken tikka masala; healthy choices, which included chicken and bacon salad and salmon and prawn amalfi pasta; a huge selection of grills, burgers and steaks - plus the chef's specials.

It was only let down by the poor choice for vegetarians - spicy beanburger, goat's cheese and pepper cheesecake and cauliflower tart.

That was it.

I was pleased with my 10oz rodeo rib-eye steak (£12.49), a succulent and tender chunk of beef smothered in tangy HP steak sauce. This came with chunky chips, onion rings and mushrooms.

But Jayne was disappointed with the goat's cheese and pepper cheesecake, which came with new potatoes and salad. It was dry and uninteresting. She would not have chosen it if there had been more non-meat dishes.

For dessert, we shared chocolate fudge cake (£2.79) and a bonoffee pie (£3.19), which were both delicious.

The bill came to a very reasonable £45, and nearly a third of that was down to soft drinks and a pint of lager.

It was then straight off to the Wacky Warehouse, where a new café area has been created for waiting adults, and a security gate installed to stop your little horrors from wandering off.

After an hour or so of whizzing down the slides and diving into the ball pools, we decided to head for home. As we drove off Elliot piped up, "I thought we were staying for tea." Kids, don't you just love 'em.

Riverside Farm, Shipton Road, Skelton, York Tel 01904 642525.

Simon visited Riverside Farm on July 26.

factfile

Food: Hit and missService: FriendlyValue: Very good Ambience: Family friendly Disabled access: YES