Last October Jennifer and Brian Steele celebrated their tenth year at Yeoldon House Hotel in Bideford. Over the last decade, not only have the couple seen the hotel retain its red rosette for culinary excellence but also overseen its recent upgrade from two star to three star status.

The gardens, which are worth a visit in their own right, have a waterfall which trickles under a bridge into a pond, plus stunning views over the river. ADAM HILTON went along to the attractive Victorian country house hotel to sample the delights that manifest from its kitchens.

THE Yeoldon House Hotel sits on the banks of the Torridge in that desirable no-man's- land between Bideford and Northam. It is housed in a Victorian mansion of many grey stone gables, spectacular views and great charm.

The hotel should clearly be inhabited by British heroes of a certain age — Bulldog Drummond, Richard Hannay, Biggles perhaps. So it was entirely appropriate that when we arrived the lounge bar should be thronged with well-built, well-spoken chaps whose luggage out in the hall betrayed the fact that they had come down for the shooting. I could imagine every bedroom with a gun cupboard as well as well-burnished tea-making facilities entering another year of reliable service.

The hotel also seems to have a keyboard in every room — a pianoforte in the lounge, a euphonium in the spacious dining room. I was unable to prevent one of my guests going over to get a few wheezes out of the euphonium. The tables displayed the whitest of linen and an enticing array of sparkling glasses. We sat down to an excellent dinner of brown Windsor soup and roast griffon. No, enough fantasy. We sat down to an excellent dinner in the modern British manner at a set price of £32.50.

My smoked salmon mousse was a little casing of smoked salmon filled with shivering delicate mousse and with, at its centre, a gobbet of pungent sauce. My wife's wild mushroom tartlet contained, we reckoned, chanterelle mushrooms — those distinctively delicious yellow ones that I used to know where to find, but don't any more. Any suggestions?

Across the table Mr Euphonium was enjoying his vegetable soup while his companion scraped up every last pine nut off her smoked chicken, avocado, sweet chilli thingy.

Euphonium and I had the lamb cutlets cooked pink and we were right to do so. Every bit of fat had been removed from the three little chops so that each came as an elegant curve of bone with a luscious nugget of tender lamb. Tender guinea fowl and stuffing for my wife; Mediterranean vegetables and goat's cheese to my left. All good stuff.

It was such a nut-freezing night it would have been good to eat a good old Victorian suet pudding to line the ribs. Still, we couldn't complain at a little stuffed cylinder of white chocolate, winter berries with yoghurt or an elegant little pyramidal crème brulee. The cheese, as it should, arrived at room temperature, but the brie could have been a little riper.

Peppermint teas and coffees back in the lounge rounded off an evening of being beautifully looked after by Yeoldon proprietors Brian and Jennifer Steele. (And Mr Euphonium did fail to keep his fingers off the lounge pianoforte.)

Where: Soyer's Restaurant, Yeoldon House Hotel, Durrant Lane, Northam, near Bideford, EX39 2RL.

Opening hours: The hotel is open to non-residents for dinner from Monday to Saturday but booking is essential.

The restaurant can be booked privately for lunch or dinner for a minimum of 20 and a maximum of 60 people.

Bookings: 01237 474400.

Website: www.yeoldonhouse hotel.co.uk.