Roy Woodcock follows in the wake of the Michelin inspectors, naming the Pipe & Glass at South Dalton as The Journal’s Restaurant of the Month for March . . .

The Pipe & Glass

I went into The Journal’s photo library in an attempt to convey in pictures the sheer artistry of James Mackenzie’s food at the Pipe & Glass. This is exquisite fare . . . food that teases and tantalises but, crucially, delivers one of THE great sensory experiences.

By now, you can’t have avoided knowing that the South Dalton pub/restaurant has made history in becoming the first in East Yorkshire to attain a Michelin star.

In doing so it rubs shoulders with famous names like Ruth Rogers and Rose Gray’s River Café in Hammersmith (the place where a young Jamie Oliver metamorphosised into the Naked Chef), Gordon Ramsay’s Maze in Mayfair, and Nobu, the London Japanese restaurant exerting such a powerful pull on celebs and other A-listers.

Word has certainly got around that the Pipe & Glass is making culinary waves too, for on the night we dined I spied national newspaper scribe and TV foodie Jay Rayner, making notes mid-course for a review I assumed was planned for The Observer.

“I wonder what the collective noun is for food critics,” I mused to James’s wife, Kate, as she took us through to our table. It was my subtle attempt at tipping them off, but I needn’t have worried: “We spotted him already,” she whispered, and James later confided there was a picture of said critic pinned up in the staff room with the message “tell us if you see this man”!

I defy anyone not to be impressed with the Pipe & Glass dining experience. I’ve been a fan since day one and wouldn’t trade a night here for anywhere else on Britain’s culinary map. The food, always top notch and inventive, evolves year on year – and that’s just as it should be.

Right now the dishes coming out of the South Dalton kitchen are probably better than they’ve ever been. Pretty, certainly, but this is much more than gastronomic gimmickry. Importantly each constituent part makes perfect sense, flavours combine and are enhanced and time upon time you just sit there and go “wow”.

James preparing another dish

My smile said it all when, with first courses duly dispatched, we sat back to compare notes (not with Jay, you understand, but my better half). She, who really knows about these things, was gleeful in her description of the grilled half shell Queenie scallops with Lincolnshire Poacher and herb crust and pickled chicory salad.

As always I’d had a forkful (no more on this occasion – a sure sign of how good things are) and concurred that these were indeed among the best I had ever tasted; so plump and full of flavour; topped off in fine style by the herby/cheesy delicate crust.

If you’ve ever order scallops in a restaurant and been disappointed by a bland, watery and rubbery, virtually tasteless, dish (and I have), I could forgive you dismissing the thought of ordering them again. But, believe me, these were scallops good enough to win over the harshest of critics.

My starter is a personal favourite here: “A Taste of Yorkshire Game”. James first did it for me at a Journal gourmet dinner and I couldn’t resist this updated version – honey-smoked wild duck, potted grouse, a little hare and juniper pastie and a shot-glass full of game “tea”.

I can’t imagine ever tiring of this and I hope this will always figure on James’s menus at the appropriate time of the year.

Other choices included a little jar of Gloucester Old Spot potted pork (it comes in a little lidded Kilner jar), sticky apple and crackling salad and warm spelt toast; then there was a mulled poached pear with Yorkshire blue cheese and a walnut and watercress salad; and finally, crispy fried wild rabbit rissoles with cockle and caper vinaigrette, sorrel and aged, air dried, ham.

Things just kept getting better, though – my main course of a fillet of wild turbot with braised oxtails, sea persalane, crispy Colcannon and monkfish cheek fritter was a culinary tour de force, while Chris enjoyed a roast loin of red deer with juniper creamed cabbage, a thyme rosti, haggis fritter and stewed redcurrants.

Here were symphonies on a plate . . . a culinary jigsaw put together to create an astounding end result. Only when someone has had the imagination and skill to decide, for example, not merely to serve up one of the best pieces of fish it’s possible to get, but to partner it with what may seem to be an unlikely choice (the oxtails), to search out some delicate, fleshy seashore leaves and to create a mini fritter from offcuts from the monkfish, can you appreciate why the enjoyment of food can be elevated to the realms of true art appreciation.

There is a rustic quality to the restaurant

I love the way, too, that James champions East Yorkshire produce and producers. As a freebie appetiser we had devoured some wonderful sausages from James White, of Hutton Cranswick. Inevitably Burdass lamb was on the menu, along with some pheasant from the nearby Hotham estate.

I chose another favourite of mine to end the meal – ginger burnt creme with poached rhubarb compote; but the real revelation was Chris’s lemon and rosemary posset with mulled winter fruits and East Yorkshire sugar cakes. I had to admit I’d never heard of the cakes, but James told me they were based on an old recipe discovered when it fell out of a book in the Beverley records office.

Adapted, to reduce the amount of mace and cloves in the recipe, it produced biscuits that were surprisingly moreish. I urge him to make and sell these from the pub’s own counter of foodstuffs – they are that good.

So how much does it cost to eat Michelin quality food in East Yorkshire? Our bill for two, with three glasses of wine and coffees, came to £103. It can be done cheaper, if necessary (one of the main courses, for instance, was only £9.95), but whatever you pay is value indeed for an evening you will remember for a long, long while.

Impressive, too, is the fact that James offers an equally inventive full vegetarian menu and a “little people’s menu” with starters, mains and sweets all designed for the under 10s. How cool is that?

On this occasion the Michelin men have got it right. I can’t wait to go back.

Bookings on 01430 810246