YOU can picture a scene made familiar by millions of sentimental Christmas cards. The stagecoach and horses, the men in their Regency breeches and hose, the women in their bonnets and crinolines, assembled outside a perfectly symmetrical Georgian country house.

The BBC's drama department have been getting off on such scenes from Pride And Prejudice to Pickwick Papers.

Of course, we do our festive travelling in a rather different way these days and in massively greater numbers. Instead of the coach and four outside the inn, there's a mighty Airbus 321 waiting on the tarmac. And at Etrop Grange, they've seen it all, for it lies in the parish of Ringway.

Twenty years ago or so, this delightful pedimented 18th century small country house, nestling in a wooded glade between Wythenshawe and Manchester's expanding airport, had just been restored and opened as a restaurant with a few rooms. Despite its proximity to the terminal buildings - and that was before T2 was constructed - life still tended to pass Etrop Grange by, with the comings and goings of airport life monopolised by the big, modern, corporate chain hotels less than half a mile away.

It couldn't last; how could it? Today Etrop Grange Hotel has 64 bedrooms, and the original house has sprouted new wings and conservatories all around it. What used to be the restaurant is now the hotel lobby, still a pretty, period room, especially attractive with its Christmas tree and festive decoration. This is guesswork, but I suspect the bar - where a large group of festive revellers was grouping - is part of the old house, too, but the elongated dining room, for all its Georgian touches, is not.

By today's minimalist standards, Etrop Grange's restaurant is quaint and old-fashioned, but designers have made a decent stab at endowing it with the character of the original house. Hence the chandeliers, chintz-hung classical windows (though looking out only on to the car park), and traditionally set tables with silver-plate candlesticks lend an appealing seasonal air. The chairs are high-back Queen Anne style, and we were immediately jealous; we have seven at home and have been desperately searching for an eighth (even a ninth or tenth). No wonder we can't find any - this place is full of them.

The menu, too, is hotel-traditional, with starters such as leek and potato soup and pigeon and smoked bacon gallette; mains such as pavé of beef with braised baby onions, sweet potato purée and celeriac fondants, collops of monkfish with air-dried ham and pork medallions with apple and apricot chutney.

Various side orders come at é2.50, but portions proved to be more than substantial without. Otherwise the form is é19.50 for a one-course dinner (do we assume that must be the main?); é28.95 for two, é31.95 for three, é33.95 for four and é36.95 for five.

I began with pan-seared scallops and a macedoine of Mediterranean vegetables served in delicate filo tartlets and a buttery sauce. There were five scallops; perhaps not the tenderest of all time but, OK, and the combination was interesting in the crisp pastry cups.

Mrs K had a fluffy goat's cheese and olive soufflé partnered with rocket and sun-dried tomatoes in a crisp parmesan tuille. This, too, showed innovation, but the parmesan cup - more tangy than the bits of cheese that drip from your toast into the bottom of the grill pan and then go crisp - was much too overpowering for the soufflé.

Next I chose rack of lamb with a herb crust - two thick, pink and tender, though untrimmed of fat - double-boned chops served with wild mushroom and barley "risotto" with black pudding mash and roast root vegetables.

Adventure is commendable, but there was just too much going on here; besides the mash was dry and bready and the risotto and vegetables were drowned in an inky, heavy-handed red-black sauce that made it impossible to identify what was what.

Madame chose "Theme of Duckling; roast, smoked and confit served with its own garnish". The roasted breast, with its crisp skin and moist pink flesh, was a flavoursome treat, with the rest - not least a duck and vegetable spring roll - providing a reasonable supporting cast, though once more the mash was a letdown.

We passed over a "farmhouse" cheeseboard that tries to be discerning - Cropwell Bishop Dairy Stilton, for instance, alongside choices from Spain, Italy and France - but the Lancashire is just described as "tangy".

An opportunity missed, I think, given the clientele passing through here, to flag up the speciality cheesy delights of the north west.

Instead, we shared a bitter chocolate fondant with white chocolate ice cream that turned out to be the best course of the night. The wine list features a brace of Australian house selections for é13.95, after which prices leap beyond é17; even then too many of the more "modestly" priced were not available. Our Australian Moondarra Shiraz Cabernet (é17.45), however, was excellent.

COOKING: Classic hotel cuisine, perhaps over-elaborate.

STYLE: Country house Georgian.

PLUS: Very different from airport hotels.

MINUS: Remembering how it was.

VALUE: We paid é85.35 including drinks.

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