After a fairly hectic week of being out and about, we were ready for a fairly quiet evening to celebrate another wedding anniversary.

But we hadn't figured on quite such a quiet night as we found at the Rockhollow restaurant in Ogden near Denholme.

I thought I had left it a bit late when I booked on at 6pm on the Saturday evening, but you could hear the ticking of a clock in the background as I made the reservation.

"You sound to be a bit quiet at the moment," I ventured.

"We could be a lot quieter without you this evening, sir," came the reply.

As it turned out, he was quite right, as we were the only ones in the restaurant that night, but it made for pretty much undivided attention to our needs - and it actually suited us fine.

And the food was really very good, all home-cooked, and plenty of choice - including vegetarian dishes - to go at on two sides of a menu sheet, and at very reasonable prices, too.

For starters, I thoroughly enjoyed a home-made tomato soup with cream, and a fresh crusty roll to go with it, as did our daughter Madeleine.

My wife Liz tucked into a bowl of garlic mushrooms for openers, before moving on to a very tasty lamb cutlets dish, both of which she thoroughly enjoyed.

My main course choice was a beef carbonnade, having swayed between that and a venison dish which looked equally tempting. It came with two beautifully-cooked mini-Yorkshire puddings, and a selection of vegetables to share with the others. These included boiled potatoes, carrots, broccoli and a red-cabbage-and-apple compote, all cooked nice and crisply.

Madeleine had a dish of chicken and rice, with the accompanying sauce removed at her request, and she happily demolished that.

As usual, I couldn't find room for a pudding, but the other two had an ice cream selection, and a home-made fruit crumble and ginger, with lashings of custard.

The lack of other custom meant Liz and I got a cafetiere of coffee apiece with chocolate nibbles to round the evening off, and a bill of a very reasonable £36.

Doug Akroyd

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.