In a recent review I stated that The Crown, at High Newton, was one of my top three Cumbrian restaurants of the moment.

No17 in Milnthorpe is one of the others which has certainly made it into the top trio.

My partner and I went to the Park Road restaurant a few weeks ago when there were four inches of snow outside, but as soon as we walked in we forgot about the freeze outside.

The staff were friendly and the atmosphere was cosy and relaxing.

For starters, I went for the chilli, chickpea and feta fritters with curried mango and mint coleslaw, which were nothing short of amazing. I love falafels and I thought these were sort of a fancier version.

The other half picked the seared scallops, crispy black pudding with pickled apple puree, which he described as a mini surf and turf. He added that the puree and black pudding complimented each other nicely, which is a win as he is usually against mixing sweet and savoury.

Next, I plumped for the vegetarian pizza, complete with aubergine, peppers and olives, which was scrumptious. Not too thick and with plenty of topping.

Lakeland venison steak with fondant potato, honey and parsnip puree, charred leek with red currant and thyme sauce was Ross’ choice for mains, and he was equally as delighted. ‘There was an enormous amount of venison which was cooked perfectly’, were the comments.

Although quite stuffed, neither of us could resist the banoffee creme brulee.

I would go back to No17 purely to eat pudding! The brulee was melt-in-the-mouth texture, and it came with toffee ice-cream, a brandy snap and a small ‘shot’ of banana milkshake. It was well thought-out, beautifully presented and a taste sensation.

Writing this has been quite a challenge because there are only so many words for ‘amazing’ in the dictionary, but I really could not find a bad word to say about the food or the experience.

The bill came to £69 for three courses, including drinks.