Vennell's, Masham, North Yorkshire

"If you vote Tory, Dad, I'll ... " My son's threat, quite unprovoked by any electoral intention on my part, was left unfinished. He has a penetrating voice ... and though he doesn't always take account of its blast radius even he was aware that things had gone unnaturally quiet around us. Masham, in North Yorkshire, is heartland Conservative territory, and Vennell's, in Masham, knows precisely what constituency it is serving. If you had told me that we were taking Sunday lunch alongside several party officials and the Lady Chairman of the local Conservative Club, I wouldn't have been very surprised. And since Vennell's seats only 30 - in a chintzy conversion of a shop-front premises - you don't really need a penetrating voice to reach all its occupants. "I bet you're all interested to hear the end of that sentence," I murmur into the conversational air-pocket - and nearly everyone laughs politely, happy to get the hubbub airborne again.

I think they'd been a bit taken aback when we turned up, frankly - dressed for a pub lunch or, perhaps, a samplers' tour of Theakstons or the Black Sheep Brewery, which between them make Masham something of a draw for the real ale crowd. We were just a touch raffish for Vennell's interior - which has a dado-railed formality to it - although there was nothing chilly about the service, once it was clear that we had no problems with the concise set menu - three courses and coffee for £19.95, chosen from a list of three starters, three mains and four desserts. (Generous children's portions are half price.) Vennell's won Yorkshire Post's Best Country Restaurant in 2005 and has scored a Bib Gourmand in this year's Michelin Guide, an indicator of good food at moderate prices.

It's possible that Sunday lunch isn't the best time to find out just how adventurous Jon Vennell's cooking can get. What is clear from our meal though is that it is pretty assured in its conservatism. With five mouths on hand we cover everything on the menu bar the Yorkshire cheeses, and there isn't a dud dish there - even if some of our party hanker after something a little more daring than fish pie or roast beef.

Starters are particularly good. A cream of celeriac soup makes good use of the delicious aroma of truffle oil, and a risotto of peas and smoked haddock with a Parmesan foam is precisely cooked - not gritty, as can be the case when chefs try to make a show of their authenticity, but each grain retaining a faint bite - and the green sweetness of the peas nicely counterpointing the salty flakes of haddock. But the winner here is the potted duck, shreds of meat fragrant with orange zest and served with large petals of beetroot drizzled with lemon oil.

Main courses are Sunday lunch stalwarts - but the roast rib of beef is of excellent quality, a trim of ivory fat stitched to generous folds of blushing meat. Fish pie keeps the essential promise of fish pie - to fill you up in a comforting, boneless kind of way, and a confit of belly pork flops languidly backwards over a hillock of fine mash, a deeply acceptable face of flab. Some of the vegetables feel as though they have done time in a steam tray, but it's too late for that to slow the general onward roll of contentment - and, in any case, a very good floret of cauliflower, draped with cheese sauce, adds another spin to the wheel. Desserts don't put the brake on either: a Grand Marnier panna cotta, speckled with vanilla seeds, fully justifies the adulteration of a simple classic and a chocolate mousse with vanilla tuile is also pronounced excellent by my attendant experts - who can quibble over cocoa solid percentages with the best of them.

Heretically one of the children insists on having his jam roly poly served without custard (old school-dinner war wound) and as a result misses out on a crème anglaise that tastes, deliciously, as if it has been made with caramelised sugar. I try to put him off by telling him where suet comes from - so that I can eat what he leaves - but unfortunately it doesn't work. By the time we finish our coffee and lick the chocolate fudge off our fingers we're too late for Theakston's last tour of the day - but by then none of us really cares.

Vennell's, 7 Silver Street, Masham, North Yorkshire (01765 689000)

Food
Ambience
Service

Dinner £19.95 for two courses, £4.95 for a third. Sunday lunch £19.95 three courses and coffee (children eat half price)

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