Malcolm Warne enjoys Gisborough Hall’s decision to chuck out the chintz and bank on a bistro

IT sounds like a recipe for hospitality disaster. A venerable country house hotel decides to chuck out the chintz and funk it up to appear less stuffy and attract a younger crowd.

It creates a swanky, contemporary new bar and bistro (since when did English country house hotels have bistros?) and gives it an excruciatingly corporate-passe name – G Bar. Which is where we ended up recently for lunch. G Bar and Bistro is Gisborough Hall’s alternative eating option. We had booked lunch and although told that only the bistro menu would be available we weren’t told that we would not be eating in the two AA rosette Chaloner’s Restaurant as we’d hoped.

So no grand and elegant dining room with mullion-windowed views over the hall’s manicured grounds. We were shown to the aforementioned G Bar, a windowless space which on first entering we felt had all the charm of an airport Holiday Inn.

But first impressions preceded by a disappointment can be misleading. Once we had found a table we liked (there were plenty to choose from), had persuaded our waitress to turn the muzak down, we warmed to G Bar.

It’s glitzy in a quietly classy, deep-pile, superior boudoir sort of way. There are lots of mirrors and clever lighting effects. Sylvia in particular loved the centrepiece chandeliers but we were a little spooked by the man-sized mirror-tiled statue of Buddha squatting in an alcove next to our table. A bit surreal that.

The menu is anything but surreal and clearly designed to cater for needs of any hotel guest or non-resident who turns up wanting a bowl of soup, a veggie burger or a steak. The penny dropped when we realised that the new-ish head chef at Gisborough Hall is Jason Moore, who may have cooked in more top-notch kitchens than we’ve had hot dinners. Most recently he had an extended spell at Provenance Inns, the people behind the rejuvenation of the Black Bull at Moulton, the Carpenters Arms at Felixkirk and a number of other North Yorkshire hostelries which have been favourably reviewed on this page in recent years.

“Our Jase” – bless him, he’s a Guisborough-raised lad returning to his roots – has been directly or indirectly responsible for some of the best food we’ve eaten in pubs and he’s nailed it again in an environment where creativity normally plays second fiddle to uniformity.

The soup of the day (£4.50) was nettle. Our keen-to-please waitress clearly thought this a dubious choice when it was ordered – certainly I can imagine lots of diners going “yrrugh” – and asked to be told what we thought of it. I loved its earthy, well-seasoned, buttery thickness and informed her it was excellent. I don’t think she was entirely convinced.

Sylvia’s classic prawn cocktail (£7.95) may not have been especially seasonal or local but it was pretty damn good nevertheless. Substantial prawns reclined in a particularly good Marie Rose sauce with lots of lemon and a noticeable cayenne/paprika kick.

There might have been the first incipient signs of summer outside but in our cave with no windows we were still in winter eating mode. My individual steak and mushroom suet pudding (£12.95) featured some hefty stomach-lining pastry and a richly flavoured filling full of tender braised steak, plump mushrooms and red wine gravy. Spot on, as were the chunky chips, broccoli and green beans served with it.

Sylvia’s 35-day aged rib-eye was the real deal thanks to a large eye of fat which served to make this the juiciest and most tender and flavour-packed steak she had enjoyed since the one she raved about at Acklam Hall. It probably helped that she had asked for a garlic butter sauce instead of the standard peppercorn. All the trimmings – skinny chips, field mushroom, tomato and the crispiest, lightest onion rings – measured up too so she was very happy.

And full, as was I, weighed down with suet pastry. Plus, as we had been very late arriving thanks to a bad smash on the Guisborough bypass and a diversion, we had got stuck in to the bread and butter on our hungry arrival.

So no puds, but we thought we would get our fix of stately home style by retiring to the sun-lit drawing room for coffee – an experience only slightly tarnished by the large vase of once splendid daffs which looked liked they had expired at least a couple of days previously.

Surreal Buddhas and dead flowers aside, this was a rather lovely meal which cost £78.40 including drinks – a top notch glass of Chablis among them. Our waitress might not fancied the idea of nettle soup but we thought she was lovely.

G Bar and Bistro

Gisborough Hall

Whitby Lane, Guisborough TS14 6PT

Open: noon-2pm (Mon-Sat), 6pm-9.30pm (Mon-Sat); 6pm-9pm (Sun)

Tel: 01287 611500 Web: macdonaldhotels.co.uk/our-hotels/gisborough-hall-hotel

Disabled access. Vegetarian and gluten-free options

Food quality: 4/5

Service: 4/5

Surroundings: 3/5

Value: 3/5