Chris Greenwood steps off the beaten track to visit a Chinese restaurant with a twist in Tollerton.

TO MANY people's eyes the Canton Station Inn could well be a vision of Friday night heaven. Walk in through one door and you are welcomed into the lounge bar of a typical country pub. Carry on through and it opens out into a Chinese restaurant.

The pub restaurant is on the outskirts of Tollerton, about 20 minutes drive north of York and metres from the railway line that the skirts the edge of the village. The two stone lion statues standing outside the pub doors are one of the few clues that this is a boozer with a special bent.

The three of us made the drive up from York on a dark, wintry evening and strode straight into the large restaurant area which adjoins the side of the building. The room had about a dozen diners inside, tucking into steaming platters of Chinese fare.

The smell set our mouths watering and we began with a hot and spicy mixed platter, which is intended to serve as a starter for two at £6, but we found was an ideal way to get all three of us munching away.

The large plate comes with crispy Wan Tun (a kind of hot, crispy batter), prawn toast, spring rolls, crispy seaweed, spicy lamb satay, a beef parcel and spicy meat nuggets.

The remaining bits and pieces were quickly cleaned up between us as our fingers hovered over the deep fried spring rolls, heavily salted seaweed and simply-made white bread prawn toast with sesame seeds.

For our next course we unanimously opted for a plate of aromatic duck with pancakes, Hoi Sin sauce, spring onions and cucumber. The Peking speciality dish costs a hefty £13 for half a duck and £7 for a quarter, but is well worth the money for a treat.

This dish is very hands-on and the large platter of shredded duck allowed each of us to make up three or four pancakes, stuffed with the delicious hot duck meat, tangy sauce and cool vegetables.

We quickly ran out of the steaming-hot pancakes but Amy, our waitress, happily fetched more until we had scraped the very last of the duck from the plate and finished dipping cool pieces of cucumber in what was left of the fruity sauce.

Eating Chinese food in a succession of small courses like this has many advantages. It is very sociable, the food comes quickly and is always piping hot. The downside is that stomachs fill very quickly.

In retrospect three main courses, plus a plate of fried rice, may have been a little ambitious, especially when we saw the scale of what the menu calls "Yorkshire" size portions.

The sizzling chicken with a spicy Peking sauce (£6.50) proved very popular and came with bean sprouts, crispy water chestnuts and small shapes of carrot in a very tasty sweet and sour barbecue sauce.

The highlight, however, was the relatively small plate of crispy beef with lemon and black pepper sauce (£5.80). It was absolutely delicious, with a minimum of gloopy sauce but a maximum of fresh flavour and good ingredients.

This left the special vermicelli (£6.50) as a disappointment which went against the grain of the meal so far. The noodles were starchy and overcooked, so much so that in places they had welded together into a solid lump.

The plate was piled high with slices of beef, Chinese pork, prawns and vegetables such as broccoli and mushrooms in a creamy, white sauce but the dish didn't reach the high standards we had seen so far.

The yellow-coloured fried rice (£2) was adequate without being outstanding.

My two companions drank a bottle of wine with their meal. They originally ordered a bottle of Syrah Duboef from the red wine list but when it arrived even our amateur eye spotted that it was a ros, so Catherine sent it back and asked for a bottle of Chilean Santa Rita Merlot at £10.95 instead.

The nominated driver stuck with a Coke at 80p. The food bill came to £39.80, with a further £11.75 for drinks, which we all agreed was excellent value for a feast of fresh, varied Chinese food for three hungry adults.

Whether you are a Chinese food fan or a pub visitor who doesn't like to travel far for your meal, the Station Inn should prove an ideal platform to satisfy those Friday night cravings.

The Canton Station Inn, Station Road, Tollerton, is open every evening from 5pm to 11pm. 01347 838897.

Chris, Catherine and Adam visited on Friday, January 24.

Updated: 08:57 Saturday, February 15, 2003