A self-styled "hip" urban restaurant brings a dissonant note to the quiet majesty of the Yorkshire DalesDevonshire Arms Country House Hotel, Bolton Abbey, North Yorkshire (01756 710 710). Meal for two, including wine and service, �90When I phoned the Devonshire Brasserie at Bolton Abbey to book a table I was told that, while the full menu would be available, they would be serving in the bar rather than the dining room. Having seen the dining room I can only describe that as a blessing. It is a square box, the wallpaper fluttering with kitsch butterflies. I'd describe it as the kind of room in which you'd give the kids their high tea at the sort of hotel frequented by the fading English gentry who don't much like their own children ? were it not for the chairs: blood red and chromium studded, as if they were bought in a fire sale from a brothel. You would have to pay me to sit in there. Actually, to be fair, in this job, I would have been paid to sit in there, but you get my point. It is a master class in the finer points of wrong.And so, with some relief, to the bar, though that is sending out some very peculiar messages, too. The website for the brasserie talks about its "hip city-centre" vibe. With its clean slate floors, bottle-stuffed bar, coloured panels and big vibrant slaps of art ? paintings which look like they were the work of an acolyte of Chagall in the advance stages of glaucoma (I mean that rather admiringly) ? I can see what they mean. But here's what I don't get: who in their right mind wants to drive out across the majestic earthy roll and cut of the Dales, across old stone bridges and winter-surging rivers, through woodland and pasture only to arrive at a restaurant with a hip city-centre vibe?Not me. I could have stayed in Leeds for that. And while making assumptions about people based on their age is rarely smart or clever, I'm going to have a stab at it anyway. The clientele here on a weekday lunchtime is what I believe we call senior; I do find myself wondering if hip and city is what any of them want, as well.But still they come, presumably for the food, which, in places, is better than average. As luck would have it we were told the menu would be changing completely the very next day, so dishes described here can be taken only as examples. None of them is likely to shock or thrill, but the kitchen seems to know what it's doing. There is a carefully seasoned smoked-salmon tartar on a soft blini, surrounded by strips of lightly pickled cucumber formed into a square to frame the tian of fish. A pea-and-tomato risotto could perhaps have done with a minute more, but it is dotted prettily with seared queenie scallops, and laid with fillets of red mullet that fall apart on the fork.A long piece of saut�ed sea bass loiters across a coffin-shaped lozenge of curly kale and bacon and, while the greens are terribly over salted, fish and vegetables taken together do the right thing. The use of saffron in a fondant potato, which could turn the whole puck into a lump of soap, is so measured as to question its value. A braised blade of beef, dark and rugged and barely holding itself together, is topped by a disk of buttery oxtail and breadcrumbs, and were it not for the small strand of clingfilm left around the disc, it would have been a marvellous dish. A sweet-and-sour confited shallot cut through the meat assault. We had space for just a lemon tart and while the filling was spot on the pastry was too dense.Hmm. Sometimes I get to the end of writing a review thinking it was going to be a game of two halves; that I'd diss the room and be kind about the food. Then I look back and realise that, in trying to be precise, I have described a curiously patchy experience. That's the case here. Price does play a part, because the Devonshire Brasserie is not cheap for relaxed bar eating: main courses hang around the �15 mark. With a bottle of wine you are quickly heading towards three figures. And at that price a lunch should be completely caveat-free.Email Jay at jay.rayner@observer.co.uk or visit guardian.co.uk/profile/jayrayner for all his reviews in one placeFood & drinkRestaurantsRestaurantsJay Raynerguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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