The refined Bath Place belies its odd description in top guide...

MORE SEDATE THAN SIZZLING

While I am the first to applaud owners Kathleen and Yolanda Fawsitt on the award of the accolade of Oxfordshire Restaurant of the Year to their historic Bath Place, off Oxford's Holywell Street, I must confess to being totally baffled by the weird description the Good Food Guide's inspectors apply to it.

Honoured establishments in other counties have stamped over their guide entries such legends as "Undervalued Star", "30 Years In Guide", "Somerset Flavour" and "Kent Newcomer."

Over that for the Bath Place is imprinted "1999 Oxford Sizzler".

Sizzler!? This is a word defined in my dictionary as anything striking or racy; even scurrilous or risqu. Now whatever else this hotel and restaurant is, sizzler it ain't. With its air of quiet gentility, elegant country house style furnishings, refined and unhurried service, the whole ambience is utterly (and some might say blissfully) sizzle-free.

To call it a sizzler is as inappropriate as it would be, say, to describe the late Queen Mary as a good time girl or Chris Evans as a man of taste. Let us hope that Good Food Guide readers in search of a racy, risqu time do not beat a path to its doors in too great numbers.

Looking through the files in the Oxford Mail library, I find it as long ago as 1989 that I reported its development by the Fawsitts from a group of 17th-century cottages previously used as staff accommodation for the next-door Turf Tavern.

My feeling since then has been that the place was rather more suited to the needs of well-heeled tourists than local people for whom good value might seem more important than picturesque quaintness.

Yes, value; for looking at the Bath Place's mentions in foodie books I had long taken the view that its prices were on the steep side. The GFG, I note, tells readers to expect to cough up between £30 and £73 a person with wine.

We managed to keep very much to the bottom end of this range when we called for Sunday lunch a couple of weeks ago and sampled the set menu (at £24.50 already a quid up on the price in the GFG).

In fact, we could have sampled a significantly cheaper lunch on any other day of the week when two-courses for £14.50 are offered; but readers will hardly need me to say why Sunday was the preferred option, with a leisurely feast in prospect, followed by a post-prandial snooze.

Hotfoot from a private view of a college art exhibition, we arrived bang on time for our table, booked for 1pm (we had actually wanted 1.30pm but for some reason this was impossible).

As we walked in the door we were given a rather off-putting behind-the-scenes view in a room to the left (computer, clothes horse etc). But we found a more welcoming feel to the little bar where we settled in leather armchairs and enjoyed a bottle of crisp French sauvignon, while we studied the menu.

The sauvignon was so good (and not bad value at £11.95) that we decided to stick with it for the meal, with a robust Stewart Point cabernet sauvignon-shiraz blend for the red. Orders taken, we were invited next door to the dining room (actually, there are two inter-connecting ones) where a good-sized table, properly decked out, awaited.

After freshly baked rolls, starters soon arrived - for me, a splendidly generous fricassee of succulent monkfish, marred only by the curious thinness of the sauce.

Rosemarie had liked the sound of the calf's sweetbreads but, put off by a £6 supplement, went instead for a tasty tartlet of fresh Roma and sun-dried tomatoes on buffalo mozzarella. Her parents, Cliff and Olive, both went for the soup, a tasty vegetable variety. There was another supplement, of £8, for the main course offering of grouse with a chocolate sauce. This had not discouraged others as it would have done us, however, for there was none left.

Both Olive and I went for the roast loin of pork, which was absolutely delicious, aboard a cake of chopped greens and elegantly presented in a circle of tiny roasted shallots and pieces of apple.

Equally impressive (and certainly very lavishly supplied) was Cliff's fillet of salmon, cooked to a turn and served on a stew containing courgettes and tomatoes. But best of all (I was allowed to try some!) was Rosemarie's tempura of vegetables and fish - pieces of salmon, white fish, prawns, peppers, aubergine and broccoli, deep fried in batter.

Particularly impressive, said R., was the way each had been cooked very precisely so that its texture was just right.

Puds were so-so - a bought-in (or so it seemed) almond tart for Olive, a gooey chocolate mousse for me, and for Cliff a selection of three sorbets, one of which (melon favoured) had already been served to us before the main course.

Rosemarie's selection of cheeses was a joy to the eye and palate but came without biscuits or bread. When she asked for one or the other, the waiter - after a little incomprehension in the style he had shown throughout the meal - delivered a couple of oatcakes.

Coffee was extra, so rather than impair the afternoon snooze, we skipped it.

The Bill. Two set lunch £49 Bottle of House red £11.95 Share of white wine £6

WHEELCHAIR ACCESS (NOT WC) NO SMOKING IN DINING ROOM