Service that brings a smile

"Haddock and chips for two," announces the cheery restaurant manager as she puts down a white oval plate containing two small battered fillets, four chips and a smudge of tomato sauce.

In London, you might get goats' cheese on a parmesan crisp, foie gras on brioche or a spoon of mysteriously flavoured foam as a pre-dinner appetiser. In Sowerby Bridge, where men are men and mushy peas are never mistaken for guacamole, it's fish and chips. They don't call these tiny freebies "amuses" for nothing and this individual touch prompts a laugh from us and a small roar from the adjoining table of five who also appreciate the joke.

In the remorselessly competitive world of restaurants, chefs need some sort of an edge, and this will certainly get Chester's talked about. It may need it because there's no shortage of eating places in the Calder and Ryburn valleys.

Many town centres, infested at night by disaffected youths, are no longer congenial to recreational dining and Halifax, like many other towns, has seen its quality eating places move to the fringes. Within five miles of Chester's lie at least half a dozen gastro-pubs or bistros offering a similar style of eclectic, modern cookery.

The menu at Chester's, for all its familiar repertoire, reads well; better, in fact, than the sign outside which proclaims it to be a "fine dining" establishment. An increasing number of restaurants are styling themselves as such. Why? As a marketing statement, the phrase is useless. If the dining's not fine, why are they running a restaurant? If it is, the chef is merely doing his job.

Worse, it may deter those potential customers who still equate "fine dining" with ideas of silver service, disapproving head waiters and general snobbery.

Fortunately, none of those apply here. The service and atmosphere in the 28-cover room, where even the tiniest kitten would defy being swung, are conspicuously informal.

Moreover, chef-proprietor Anthony Bickers doesn't need empty slogans, for he cooks with thoughtfulness and a sure touch.

His experience is transmitted to the plate where simplicity of approach can yield something memorable like the main course of rack of lamb, served juicily pink with some honey for sweetness and thyme-infused meat juices as the sauce.

Bradford-born Bickers took over this converted shop – once the highly rated Café Sardegna, then Bistro Brûlée – after spending 13 years in the kitchen at Bentley's in Shelf.

One salutes his courage, not least because he is alone in the kitchen while his wife Jill runs the front of house. This is the economic model for many fine French bistros and there's no reason to imagine it won't work here.

In fact, a Gallic thread to the menu already shows itself in dishes like calf's liver with braised red cabbage, fondant potato and red wine and shallot jus; grilled sea bass on a sauté of Provençale vegetables; rump of lamb on a braise of lamb with roasted baby onions; and wood pigeon on a paté-coated croute with roasted mushrooms and a pepper sauce.

Starters can be robust: ragout of bacon, leeks and mushrooms on a mustard-buttered crumpet, and crab and prawn tower with fresh mayonnaise, plum tomatoes, boiled eggs, mussels and olive oil dressing will certainly counter any accusations of nouvelle cuisine.

Even fresh pasta with queen scallops is described as being dressed with
"a rich seafood reduction finished with butter fresh parsley and black pepper".

Yet there's nothing heavy or overfacing about a baked goats' cheese sandwiched by char-grilled aubergines and colourfully attended by roasted peppers and pesto or an immaculately composed, and fried, crab cake.

In case there's any doubt about who runs the kitchen here, the perpetually open door – a product of its size rather than the chef's ego – gives a view of Bickers whizzing about as though his apron is on fire.

This may entertain those diners who prize the Ramsay school of action-packed, theatrical dining, but it could prove a minor irritant to others who don't wish to pay £30 or so a head to gaze on pots, pans and bins.

One dividend of an on-view chef, however, is the speed of the food from pan to plate.

One moment, he's dusting some calf's liver with flour, the next it's plated and on the table, a lovely piece of pink-centred meat in a puddle of intense red wine sauce based on good stock.

Vegetables, the usual suspects, arrive in that other usual suspect, a white bowl. No blame attaches to the cooking of them but who supplied the anodyne carrots? A week ago I bought from a farm shop at Birdsedge, between Huddersfield and Penistone, sensational home-grown carrots that you could have sweetened your tea with. Is there any excuse for coy carrots?

Nothing coy, though, about the puddings. Anyone for "baked to order apple crumble with a mixed spice topping, double cream and a shot of apple vodka"?

Well, me, actually.

But apple vodka? Mrs Bickers, seeing the puzzled look, explains that it's made by mixing the cooled juice from cooking the apples with vodka – and very good it is.

An excellent crumble, too, involving a friable topping caramelised by first-rate fruit.

A lemon custard cream with red berries and meringues invokes the world of Constance Spry and there are some other retro big hitters: jam sponge with (colonels prepare to splutter) red wine and jam sauce and custard; and chocolate mousse with "chilled Bailey's anglaise" and white chocolate shavings.

Perhaps when this bistro gets into its stride, the chef might programme a few more dishes of local character. Goats' cheese, chicken liver parfait, calf's liver, sea bass and risotto are now on every menu from Sowerby Bridge to Tower Bridge. But it takes greatness to fashion something from dock pudding.

Chester's, 5 Wharf Street, Sowerby Bridge, Halifax. 01422 834824. chesterb@hotmail.co.uk. Street parking, music, toilets on the first floor. Three course à la carte dinner for two with
wine aout £65.