Byfords, Holt. 19th June 2008

The Darling Wife has been looking forward to eating at Byfords for months and we were pleased to find time to go.

The restaurant has a delightful ambiance and lots of wonderful character, the building dates back as far as the 15th century in parts and there is a wealth of flint, red-brick and exposed timbers.

Upon arriving one is slightly confusingly directed to the middle of the restaurant to be shown to one's table. We were placed in a bay-window overlooking the square outside, a slight squeeze but a pleasant table.

Quite a good touch is the help-yourself table full of roasted peanuts, olives and breads with oils and balsamic vinegar. However it is not that well placed in the middle of the main thoroughfare of the establishment, and we did struggle to get to the table due to ill mannered fellow diners who were unaware of the custom of queuing!

We ordered a couple of glasses of Adnams Pink Champagne and settled down to choose from the tempting menu. Our champagne appeared with a most welcome jug of iced tap water.

Unfortunately neither of us was really very hungry, so we opted to share a couple of items from the tapas menu; Tempura King Prawns with Rocket and a tartare/mayonnaise sauce, and, Pork Rillette with melba toast.

It did seem to take an age for our tapas to arrive. When it did, we were pleased with the prawns, though the sauce was a little lack-lustre and the Rillette was pleasant tasting and absolutely fine. There were flecks of orange in there, which we initially thought would be apricot, though the flavour and sweetness was undetectable so we then settled on it being carrot. The melba toast was not really toasted, more warmed-through and there were only two rather small slices of baguette, so, a quick trip to the bread table was in order.

After a fairly lengthy wait our main courses arrived. Darling Wife had chosen the Steak and Chips Salad and I ordered a "posh" Parma ham Pizza. This is where it all fell apart.

The Darling Wifes salad didn't go down well, the honey & mustard dressing was not to her liking and too much of the red onion compote. Darling Wife felt that the combination was an unsuccessful concept. And the sauteed potatoes were not terribly flavoursome. It is quite possible that it was simply a poor choice and that it would be a success with some other diners.

My "Posh Pizza" sounded mouthwatering and tempted me away from all the other tasty sounding options. Regrettably it was a complete disaster. We regularly eat in several of the large chains which now cover the nation and I usually choose a Pizza as they are hard to get wrong and can be really enjoyable, never have I had a Pizza as bad as this from any restaurant.

The pizza was described as Parma Ham, Chorizo, Milano Salami, Red Pepper, Italian Ragu, Mozzarella, Rocket on a hand-thrown thin crust authentic pizza base made and baked on-site. This should be a recipe for great success.

I think the chief problem was the ragu. Apart from being heavily laden with red onions (which will never go down well with me!), it was simply too wet. The amount of liquid made the base of the pizza turn into a bit of a goo; the texture was rather off-putting. The ragu also contained large chunks of either courgette or aubergine (hard to tell quite which in the tomato sauce), which while perfectly acceptable ingredients in a ragu, just didn't seem to work. One other thing which surprised me was the chorizo which I expected to be of the smaller-thicker sliced variety, as it was the large thin-sliced pieces were entirely covered by cheese and simply warmed through rather than cooked or crispy.

I don't intend to slate this restaurant. I think it could be a wonderful dining experience, the salad was a poor choice for the Darling Wife and the Pizza was something they ought to redesign. I did notice that the menu allowed one to make one's own pizza using pesto as a base-sauce instead of the ragu - I might go along this route next time. Pizza is hard to get wrong and if national chains can do them really well then so should the likes of Byfords with their undoubtedly superior ingredients and cooks.

Byfords also operate a deli, a cafe, a B&B and do outside catering, looking at their publicity material it all looks lovely, though I did think perhaps they were a little overpriced, even allowing for the fact that North Norfolk tends to be a costly area to stay. I think that this establishment will do well to re-examine the basics of what they offer - they have been lauded with praise, rave reviews and awards for some time, consequently their prices have risen (though the restaurant prices seem to have remained fair) and their standards appear to have slipped.

Overall this is a good establishment, we intend to make a return visit before too long to see if things can be as good as the reputation suggests.

Go to http://www.byfords.org.uk/ for more info.

My rating: 4or5/10