St William’s College, College Street, York

NESTLING in the shadow of York Minster, St William's College restaurant has a fantastic setting.

When we visited it was a fairly quiet Sunday lunchtime and the weather was on the turn so we opted for a table inside rather than one of the numerous tables outside along the green.

I live in the city centre, so it took us a matter of minutes to get there on foot, but drivers would have to pay for parking at one of the nearby city-centre car parks.

From the outside, the impressive period building looks like a chocolate box cottage dwarfed by the Minster, but the flight of steps going in would undoubtedly put off disabled customers.

Once inside, we were shown to seats in something of a passage way between the main door in and a door out to the toilets which are accessed by crossing the rear courtyard.

The waitress provided us with our menus, but neglected to tell us about the specials, which we heard being offered to a nearby table once we had placed our order.

Having had something of a heavy night on Saturday, we opted for Coke and Diet Coke to drink at a respectable £1.50 apiece.

If we'd been feeling more adventurous we could have gone for a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc at £15.50 or a Merlot Corvina delle Venezie at £16.10.

Glancing down the lunch menu I plumped for baked fillet of cod (£6.50) with a side order of chips (£2.20).

My friend, Suzanne, fancied a sandwich and went for rump steak and caramelised onion with horseradish mayo at £6.25, which we thought was quite steep for a sarnie, posh-sounding as it was.

While we were waiting (some 35 minutes), we took in our surroundings.

The first thing that strikes you is how spartan the place is. Despite having clean modern furnishings, the only spot of colour was some rather ugly art work and a solitary carnation in a vase by the window.

And as far as background music, we soon grew fed up of Sade's back catalogue which seemed to be on a loop.

The place was filling up by now and we soon realised we couldn't have chosen a worse table as people went back and forth to the toilet, swinging through the squeaky door time and again.

Turning back to the menu, we looked at what else we could have had including pork sausage and mixed bean cassoulet (£6.50) or St William's risotto (£5.90) with wild mushroom and asparagus.

The menu did look appetising and we were certainly hungry by the time our food arrived.

My cod came topped with sliced chorizo and a rocket and tomato salad. The cod was succulent and well-cooked, working well with the salad, but the strong-flavoured chorizo sausage over powered it a little.

Suzanne's steak sandwich was only average, not helped by being served in a cold ciabatta.

We both agreed the best part about the whole meal was the chunky homemade chips which were cooked to perfection and just like mother makes them - if not better.

We decided to check out the dessert menu and I chose a rhubarb crme brule with ginger shortbread biscuit (£3.95) while Suzanne had a piece of Bakewell tart (£2.45).

My brule was mouthwateringly wonderful with cold, tart rhubarb and a crunchy top to the custard. Suzanne's Bakewell was satisfyingly sweet without being over the top.

When the bill came it was £24.35 which we thought was about average in the value department.

Our lasting impression of St William's was one of wasted potential.

Given its great position overlooking the Minster and its historic connections, I think a lot more could be done to bring out the real character of the place and put it up there with the Caf Concertos and Caf No 8's as a place you'd recommend to a friend.

Haydn visited St William's College on Sunday, August 27, 2006.

St William's College Restaurant, St William's College, 5 College Street, York Tel: (01904) 634830.

Fact file

Food: OK
Service: haphazard
Value: average
Ambience: lacking
Disabled access: No