Chris Lloyd finds a stylish eatery on offer at the Croft Hotel restaurant, North Yorkshire

OVER the past 20 or so years, the Croft Hotel just to the south of Darlington has undergone more revamps than I’ve had hot dinners.

It’s been ripped out, knocked through, run down, tarted up. It’s featured overlarge chairs and supersize wooden lions.

It’s been rustic, it’s been modern, it’s been Mediterranean.

A few weeks ago, it reopened, this time with a gentle, sophisticated feel. This time, the old coach-house which was a gym has become a tearoom. This time, the cavernous dining hall has gone, and the main restaurant is back where it once was, with lots of interestingly intimate seating areas.

This time, even the urinals have changed – for decades, one was invited to widdle into the open-mouth of a monster with sharp teeth, a uniquely discomforting experience. Now it’s white porcelain and tasteful subdued lighting.

The menu begins with “nibbles and bread”, like chilli olives, Japanese rice crackers, warm cashew nuts or warm focaccia. This is either a new way of introducing additional tastes to the proceedings, of which I approve, or a novel way of adding a couple of quid to the bill.

We nibbled on Grilled Indian Spiced Mini Chipolatas with curry mayonnaise (£2.50), which were good, pesky little blighters, and we enjoyed the gorgeous scent of our Rioja.

After my nibbles, I had a starter: Crane Row Farm Rare Breed Pork Scotch Egg with more curry mayonnaise (£6.50). The Croft is keen to source locally, with Crane Row being up in Teesdale. Served on wood, the egg was nicely presented and perfectly cooked: crispy on the outside with a nearly runny yoke in the middle.

The curry mayonnaise added an exotic hint to the honest Teesdale flavours.

For main course, Petra chose bread-crumbed goujons of sustainable pollock (£13.50). It arrived on wood, with a metal basket of thickcut chips, and was quite beautifully cooked, the brilliant white fish was light, soft and clean.

I was, though, expecting a complaint from her about a lack of vegetables, but it never came. The simple fish, chips and tartare sauce worked on their own.

My crisp belly pork (£14.50) was superb, a dish worth going out for. The meat had a gentle taste and was served as an upstanding triangle leaning on a full-flavoured piece of black pudding.

THE different textures of the strandy meat and the brash pudding complemented each other, and across the top lay a stick of crackling, which was crunchy and porkily pungent but didn’t threaten to damage the teeth.

It was served – on a plate – with a delicious dark apple and cider sauce and just enough green beans.

For dessert, I had a classic sticky toffee pudding (£5), in a bowl, with plenty of good hot toffee sauce and a nice, melting dollop of ice cream on top.

Petra had the evening’s one disappointment: a selection of artisan Yorkshire cheeses (£6.50). Served strangely with a strawberry, the cheeses were a little too cold, the cheddar was a little too rubbery, the blue wasn’t bluey and the Wensleydale was just Wensleydale. They needed some warmth, and some oomph, and marred what otherwise would have been a four stars out of five in every category of our review.

And so to the bill. The food came to £53.40 – good value if the cheese had passed muster – and we had two coffees (£2.50 each) and that extravagant but gorgeous Rioja (£19.95).

I was handed the card machine, punched in my pin, said my farewells and walked out into the dark night, thinking that the service had been friendly and knowledgeable.

But at the bottom of the menu it stated: “A discretionary ten per cent service charge will be added to your bill.” It left me a little perplexed at the time as I imagined the tense situation if you used your discretion and asked for the removal of the ten per cent.

Yet when studying the bill for the purposes of this review, I’ve come to the conclusion that I didn’t pay the service charge.

I didn’t not want to pay it, I just didn’t pay it.

Which has left me feeling uneasy. I’m worrying that as I walked away, less polite waitresses would have been cursing me behind my back. Dare I show my stingy face again?

I hope so, because for all that and despite the cheese, in this new incarnation the Croft promises much.

The Croft Hotel, Croft-on-Tees, North Yorkshire, DL2 2ST

Phone: 01325-720319

Website: crofthotel.net

Food quality: 3/5

Service: 4/5

Ambience: 4/5

Value for money: 3/5