BRYN EVANS enjoys lunch fare close to (a stately) home

There are times when you instinctively know that something is right. Just such a thought occurred to me last Saturday lunchtime as my wife Antonia and I set about tackling our joint pudding at the Crown & Cushion at Welburn, which is the nearest public house to Castle Howard - probably!

Outside, everything was as damp and dreary as virtually every day of this sopping wet month has been.

But inside this remarkably neat and tidy pub everything was as cosy as could be, nd thinking about the sort of inn that an Evening Press reader would enjoy, it seemed to me that the C&C fits the bill in a number of ways.

Firstly, the service is friendly, with an apparent mixture of regular and newcomer. Mr and Mrs Tate-Smith run a jolly ship, with waiting staff who strike exactly the right note with their helpfulness.

Secondly, the pub looks as though it has just emerged from a spring clean, being spotless throughout.

Next, we get to the heart of the matter - the food. You'd have to be someone determined to make a complaint to find something to complain about.

My starter of home-made broccoli and cauliflower soup was excellently creamy, and came with two wedges of granary bread.

For the main course, I was tempted by the liver and bacon, but decided instead to issue the latest in an occasional series of challenges to the county's cooks: I ordered the giant Yorkshire pudding.

This particular one passed with flying colours. The batter was the perfect combination of chewy and crunchy, the beef that was reclining in the swimming-pool-shaped bit was beautifully cooked, and the gravy was plentiful and flavoursome.

Meanwhile Antonia was similarly impressed with her smoked salmon sandwiches, which came with a decent salad in a nice dressing, and not the careless lettuce leaf and slab of tomato all too common in more slapdash set-ups.

The pudding which we shared was the rather gruffly entitled Three Layer Fruit Cobbler, which turned out to be a delicious concoction of apples, blackcurrants and pastry.

Coffee came with its own little jug of cream, another welcome touch in a world awash with hideous brown cartons of 'milk'.

You'll often hear it claimed that certain places cater for all ages, but there really was a blend of the young and the old, couples and larger family groups, which made the atmosphere all the more pleasant.

We were a little squashed for space as the peak lunching hour crept upon us, but we could have taken up the offer of a table in the dining room, where - another good and uncommon thing - you can eat from the same menu and at the same price as in the lounge.

The Crown & Cushion has a smaller public bar as well, where the lovely red and black floor tiling is less hidden by carpet.

The village of Welburn has the air of a former age, which no doubt has to do with its historically having been an estate village of Castle Howard.

Even on a murky day like the one on which we visited, the views over the fields are very fine as you emerge at the back of the pub and make your way down the garden to the car park.

A visit to this hospitable place will remind you how lucky we are to be living in one of the finest corners of England.

Restaurant: The Crown & Cushion, Main Street, Welburn, near Malton

Telephone: 01653 618304

Reviewed: April 29th 2000

Food: tasty****

Value: not bad***

Service: friendly****

Ambience: very pleasant*****

Disabled Access: Yes

PICTURE: The Crown & Cushion, near Malton