The Burlington Restaurant, Devonshire Arms, Bolton Abbey

Please accept our apologies for the lack of postings recently. Mary has just had a hip replacement and, as she is the driver, we have not been dining out at interesting places for a while. She is now fully recovered and getting back on the road, so for her birthday meal this year we went to the one remaining michelin-starred restaurant in Yorkshire that we had not yet visited.

It was a beautiful summer Sunday. The sky was blue with fluffy clouds. The scene was set for a memorable lunch. We were shown through the beautiful dining rooms to the well-appointed conservatory where we were served the following things:

Amuse Bouche: Mustard Ice Cream with Pea Veloute 

Starter: Piglet - Belly pork with Girolles and Peas

Starter: Cauliflower Veloute with Goats Cheese BonBons

Main: Hebridean Lamb with Sweetbreads, Olive Tapenade Gnocchi and Broccoli Puree

Main: Fallow Deer with White Asparagus, Black Pudding Puree and Lovage

Pre-Dessert: Blood Orange Foam, Rhubarb Granita and Vanilla Pannacotta

Dessert: Chocolate Mayhem with Peanut, Caramel and Lime

Burnt Cream with Strawberry Sorbet and Mixed Berries

Petit Fours

You can see what we had. After our last Michelin excursion to Glyn Purnell's I had perhaps slightly lowered my expectations. I need not have worried. We both agreed that this was one of the very best meals we had ever had. Every single mouthful, without exception, was a delight. All the flavours were well defined and intense, everything was cooked perfectly, and served with genuine warmth. It could not possibly have been better. 

The Black Swan, Oldstead

This pub/restaurant is in delightful countryside, 55 miles from Castleford, somewhere near Thirsk, down quite a narrow lane for the last couple of miles past Kilburn. You'll need your sat nav, but it is worth the trip. We've never had food more beautifully presented in a pub, which I hope you will see from the photographs. It has been recognised by Michelin as a "rising one star" so it could be the next Yorkshire pub to get its own star.

I had the smoked salmon platter to start, Mary had the Goats Cheese:

For mains, as usual, I had the beef, Mary had the Pork:

For dessert, I was intrigued by the idea of peanut butter ice cream with a brownie, while Mary had the Pear cheesecake:

You probably have a really good idea what all of these dishes taste like. The high points were the superb pork, the smoked salmon was deliciously smokey (oak?) and plentiful, and the peanut brittle with my dessert was exquisite. Only one low point really - the pear cheesecake was one of the prettiest plates we've ever seen, but the contents, while delicious, were very light, not really like a cheesecake at all.

It was overall a very, very good lunch, and I left fuller than I have been for a long time. Two pots of tea, a coffee and a pint of (excellent) Black Sheep bitter - £66.

Update October 8, 2010: This pub won the AA Rosette as Pub of the Year (England) for 2010, announced in September.