IT IS nice to revisit a restaurant and find it has really upped its game — and that was the happy state of affairs when I ate at The Lamb Inn in Burford recently.

I was distinctly underwhelmed on my last visit a few years ago, as we had high expectations. We had previously enjoyed a memorable meal there in 2005 for my daughter’s 18th birthday — when it was the place to eat — and was disappointed that the food on our return visit was decidedly mediocre.

However, everything is much improved now— and our dinner was practically faultless, and most enjoyable. My only whinge would be that the restaurant needed to be warmer. It is a spacious, airy room, but it was the depths of icy February, and it was a bit nippy around the legs!

It did not spoil our dinner, though. We had warmed up in front of the fire in the lounge while we perused the menu and sipped aperitifs, and the surroundings are delightful. This atmospheric hostelry, tucked at the bottom of Sheep Street in Burford, is very traditionally Cotswold.

It used to be three cottages, so the public rooms are a long, higgle-piggle of cosy nooks and crannies. The log fires, uneven flagstones, comfy sofas and convivial chat of fellow customers add to the charm of The Lamb, one of Cotswold Inns & Hotels’ stable of seven hotels. The Bay Tree Hotel, just a couple of hundred yards away, is also among them.

Manager Bill Ramsay was a gracious host, and he soon had us comfortably seated at a corner table. It was a Wednesday night in February, and I was impressed to find the restaurant two-thirds full.

Bill told us that the hotel was doing well, and ran at an average 80 per cent capacity all-year-round. He and his staff are obviously doing something right in these hard-pressed times.

The restaurant, which holds two rosettes, is producing food to please.

Sometimes hotel food can be a bit corporate, but this is refined and quirky, but not over the top. We thoroughly enjoyed our three courses from head chef Sean Ducie’s interesting menu.

We started with an amuse bouche of intense mushroom veloute, and then I moved on to my ‘duo of fig’ starter. It featured a delicate parma ham and fig ‘toastie’ with a little pot of the most divinely rich foie gras topped with more sticky sweet fig. It was a wonderful combination.

My friend Dee had the scallops and langoustines, finished with a slick of cauliflower puree and seaweed salad. She described it as “bursting with flavour”.

I rarely fancy steak, but this was one of those occasions that I did — and what a steak! This was a very superior melt-in-the-mouth hay-smoked fillet steak from Ruby & White Butchers in Clifton, near Bristol, and it makes my mouth water just remembering it!

With it was some equally stupendous truffled dauphinoise potatoes, a purée of shallots and ceps. I would be back for that meal like a shot!

Dee savoured every mouthful of her sea bass — perfectly cooked, with a crispy skin, it came with a crab tortellini and was complemented by a fennel and tomato dressing.

Pineapple carpaccio and rum butter pre-dessert cleansed the palate before pudding.

Dee cannot normally manage a dessert, but could not resist the baked white chocolate and ginger cheesecake with blackberry compote and sorbet — a menu staple that is so popular it never gets removed. She said she could see why.

I was not so enamoured with my choice — peanut butter and jelly sandwich with banana foam and peanut butter ice cream.

The sponge ‘sandwich’ component was a bit slab-like and dense for my liking, but the ice cream was good.

Back in the lounge, the evening ended on a high with coffee and home-made petit fours in front of the fire.

At £39, this meal is good value. You can also have an eight-course tasting menu for £55 and selected wines to complement each course for a bargain £29 per head. There is also a reasonably priced and interesting bar menu.

Who can resist?

The Lamb Inn, Sheep Street, Burford. Call 01993 823155 or see cotswold-inns-hotels.co.uk