The Mytton and Mermaid: The Mermaid really makes a splash

Not the Mytton bit necessarily, but Mermaid certainly; Shropshire not being overly rich with harbours, ports and beaches.

My girlfriend and I were pondering over this on our first Sunday afternoon visit – lounging on a comfy leather sofa in the bar.

Was it the River Severn, I wondered, which runs alongside the beer garden and past Attingham Park just across the road? Could a mermaid have swum all that way inland, and clambered, gasping, from the water, perhaps to the astonishment of a group of merry drinkers? I suppose it would make a change from pink elephants.

The mystery of the Mytton mermaid was certainly worth looking into but, for the moment, there was something much more immediate to concentrate on – people-watching. For in the setting of a country house hotel like the Mytton (sorry Miss Mermaid, but it's just less cumbersome from now on) there are few finer pleasures than to watch whoever else is lazing their day away in such relaxed and comfortable surroundings.

The Mytton clearly benefits from its position opposite Attingham – the car park seems rarely anything but full – and it attracts a lively and diverse crowd.

The atmosphere is bright, chatty and optimistic as, it must be said are the young bar and restaurant staff, who are a real credit to the Mytton; customer service is clearly high on the list of priorities when it comes to training, or maybe they just choose their staff well.

Occasionally, amid all this conviviality, a conversation may develop, and so it was that we found ourselves chatting to a couple who had popped in on their way home. It turned out that the Mytton held a very dear connection with them, as they had held their wedding reception there just a few weeks shy of 10 years earlier.

With recommendations ringing in our ears we resolved to return to the Mytton at the nearest opportunity for a meal, having glimpsed sight of the sumptuous dining area.

We returned a couple of weeks later, again on a Sunday, and soon found ourselves sitting at a table for two in the elegant dining room. With candles lit and wine glasses gleaming on the tables, it was a perfect balance of formal yet relaxing.

And it is clearly a very popular venue too. Although we were the first to arrive, the room was soon alive with chatter; a family of three and another of 10 sat nearby, while across the other side of the room there were no fewer than 16 people enjoying a 65th birthday celebration.

With drinks to hand, merlot for her and a Shropshire Beauty for me (well two actually, the pint of beer so named and my dining companion), we shared some richly flavoured sundried tomato bread, served with butter on a heavy wooden board before our starters arrived. Full marks for the butter being spreadable, it's a small point which so many places still get wrong.

For my starter I ordered garlic buttered mushrooms on toasted focaccia bread, served with a poached egg and dressed salad. The mushrooms were plentiful although not quite as packed with flavour as I might have hoped and the egg was ever so slightly overdone so that the yolk, although soft, was no longer runny, which really kind of spoils the whole point of a poached egg for me, dipping your food into a deep yellow running yolk is a guilty pleasure I was left feeling cheated out of.

My girlfriend's starter, roast pumpkin soup, served with a pepper stew and swirl of dramatically dark chorizo oil, was a delight. The soup had a lovely depth of flavour and the oil was a sweet counterpoint. I was instantly jealous.

Being vegetarian I had checked what sort of choice I would have when I booked the table and was told that if there was nothing on the Sunday menu which took my fancy I could choose from the full vegetarian menu. The veggie selection this Sunday; creamed leek, mushroom and potato crumble, didn't ring a bell with me so instead I considered the five choices on the vegetarian menu.

How nice to see a full, separate menu for us veggies – it doesn't happen anywhere near often enough, so it made a nice change to be spoiled for choice for my main course.

I was sorely tempted by the chickpea and coriander pattie with red onion marmalade, but not so much by the Glamorgan (veggie) sausages and mash – although it's among my favourite comfort foods, I can have bangers and mash at home any time, so I passed on that.

Also tempting were the spinach and rocket pesto linguine with a mozzarella rocket salad and sweet pepper confit and the charred haloumi ratatouille, served with cous cous and a Greek-style feta and olive salad.

But in the end I decided on the pea and wild mushroom risotto. Strangely I also cook risotto a lot at home too but I think it's often a good test of the kitchen's credentials as it's all too easy to overcook the dish into a horrible, gloopy rice pudding consistency and I was keen to see how the Mytton's chef would measure up.

When it arrived, I clearly had made a good choice as this risotto was both delicious and generous . . . with no gloop in sight. The rice was cooked beautifully, tender but with just enough bite, the peas sweet and the mushrooms (strangely for a vegetarian perhaps) meaty and satisfying. The accompaniments brought it to life too; charred asparagus brought depth and vine tomatoes sweetness, parmesan crisps delivered lightness and crunch, and a wild rocket oil and rocket and parmesan salad balanced the whole course off.

My partner's roast loin of Shropshire pork didn't elicit quite the same degree of satisfaction though.

It too was a generous portion, and beautifully presented, along with thyme stuffing, roast potatoes and an apple and redcurrant sauce, plus a dish of side vegetables. But she felt the pork could have been more flavoursome and found her accompanying gravy a bit too thin in consistency and flavour. Of the side vegetables though the sweet potatoes were enjoyably creamy and the red cabbage was nicely textured.

On to desserts and again, one of us was happier than the other. Bread and butter pudding with caramelised brown sugar is one of my girlfriend's all-time favourites but when it arrived she was disappointed to find it somewhat anaemic, its topping pale instead of enticingly browned as she was expecting. Strangely she also found it too sweet, even for a sweet-tooth like her.

I am generally no sweet tooth and often divert straight to the cheese board, so I surprised us both at my dessert choice, lemon posset. And this really was an explosion of sweetness but, for once, that worked fine for me. Enhanced with sugared raspberries, an intense raspberry puree and luxurious, buttery shortbread, it was alive with flavour. It was her turn to be jealous this time.

We rounded off the meal with coffee and truffles, before migrating to relax in the covered courtyard outside for a further drink, as we were feeling chilled, happy and in the mood to linger longer.

Here comfy sofas, arranged around low tables, were thoughtfully adorned with blankets in case the afternoon turned a little chilly. There was a gentle trickle from a water feature in the centre of the courtyard which featured (maybe you've already guessed) a mermaid, and a bubble of conversation from the other people out there. It turns out that there is a separate outdoor menu for the courtyard and the spacious beer gardens, which we vowed to explore sometime soon.

Reflecting on the £55.10 bill, we decided that although the quality of the meal had been a little varied, the setting, ambience and the efficient and friendly staff, made the Mytton good value and a place well worth a return visit.

Oh, and the mermaid? Well, according to the hotel's website, in the 1930s the building was bought by Sir Clough Williams Ellis, the architect linked with Portmerion in North Wales. When it was converted to a hotel it took its current name. Mytton was the name of a local squire who had squandered his fortune and the Mermaid is the crest of the Portmerion hotel. Sunday puzzle solved.

Ian Harvey