Give yourself a treat and visit the Trout at Barlow, a pub-restaurant just outside Dronfield and Chesterfield. The staff there are conviviality itself.

We arrived 20 minutes late for our booking after getting lost on the way from Sheffield, feeling stressed after a tough week, and left feeling well fed and relaxed.

Seating us near the bar, the jolly Scottish waiter steered us through the menu with a deft touch and a few laughs.

As he went to fetch our drinks, we were left to take in the atmosphere. The pub is modern in a comfortable style with lots of wood and gold and gentle greens in the decor. The restaurant open at the far end of the room is festooned with curious-looking fishing baskets and other paraphernalia.

The specials board above the bar gave lots of choices to add to the A4-length menu and fish is a big speciality. The food is modern British and a step up from the usual pub grub without being fussy. Young head chef James Gaunt, a local lad, has just introduced a new autumn menu.

The staff obviously take their cue from the boss, landlord Mike Norie. He greets customers, often by name, checks everything is perfect and directs his team. He even found time to break a couple of glasses that had small chips in them.

Mike says he has done the rounds of pubs in the area and had a soft spot for the Trout as he met his wife there 12 years ago when he looked after it for a few weeks. He has had the place for 14 weeks and is working hard to overcome the Trout's reputation as a place where fights broke out regularly.

He is looking to build up the lunchtime food trade with a mixture of pub grub and lighter options and has introduced an over-60s menu, a Wednesday night quiz, live jazz on the first Monday and last Saturday of the month and a steak night on the third Thursday.

On the night we visited the locals started to materialise as the food service finished at 9pm, no doubt attracted by the range of beers which include weekly guest ales alongside the Marstons and Mansfield Smooth, Guinness and Peroni Italian lager.

I decided on the scallop and lime kebab starter (£4.50) and Andy had a Moroccan lamb naan (£4.25). Our waiter Scott apologised that there was no skewer for my kebab, so the scallops were arranged with their wedges of red onion and lime on a bed of salad. The scallops were perfectly cooked and flavoured and the grilled lime was a nice touch but the onion was a tad crunchy.

Andy's lamb and cous cous was falling cornucopia-like from a mini naan bread. It was a moist, sweet and nicely spiced combination, studded with vegetables and chick peas. Andy said he would have liked a little more lamb, though.

After a bit of deliberation involving sea bass and the locally-caught trout, I opted for meat instead and ordered the lamb shank (£11.25).

Andy's eyes lit up at the words 'pie of the day' and there were three to choose from.

He went for steak and onion (£9.25) but could have had steak and stilton or chicken and stilton. The side dishes are a choice of salad or vegetables and we opted for sauteed potatoes and chips from the potato options.

The lamb shank arrived encrusted with blackberries and sitting on roast leeks and parsnips, annointed with a well-judged reduction of meat juices.

Andy was thrilled with proper hunk of plate pie in a melting shortcrust pastry, not one of those imposters of a stew in a little dish with a hat of puff pastry. I didn't think there he had much gravy but he said the filling was perfectly moist. His only quibble was with the addition of a clump of watercress on his plate.

The potatoes and chips were fabulous and the chunky broccoli, cauliflower and carrots perfectly well cooked.

We were pretty well stuffed and the waiter told us to let him know if we fancied anything else.

Greed prevailed over waistbands and we tried the honeycomb chocolate cheesecake and apple crumble with custard (both £4.25).

The cheesecake was a fantastic milk chocolate confection on a darker chocolate base studded with Maltesers and sitting in a puddle of cream marbled with chocolate. Andy said the crumble was very good but maybe lacked that little extra tweak of flavour.

I also had the best coffee I've tasted in a pub (£1.95), accompanied with a shot glass of Maltesers.

Our bill came to £45.25 including drinks.

Suddenly all was well with the world again, especially after Scott told us an easier way back home.

Verdict: the Trout certainly ticked our fancy.

Opening times: lunch 12-3pm Mon to Sat, evenings 5pm-9pm. Sun lunch 12-4pm, full menu plus choice of two roasts for £5.95.

The Trout at Barlow, 33 Valley Road, Barlow, near Dronfield. 0114 2890893.

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