A SUNNY summer's evening, a drive out in the country and a slap-up meal in a country pub. What could be more quintessentially English?

So with lashings of ginger beer and ice cream high in our thoughts, we set off to enjoy an evening out with two young connoisseurs - a friend's children, Theo, 10, and five-year-old Nathaniel.

I should point out here that our first attempt to enjoy a sunny, weekend lunch at the Swan with Two Nicks in Little Bollington was abandoned in frustration a week or so earlier.

Having arrived, located ourselves at a table outside and perused the menu, I was met at the bar with the welcoming words "we've stopped doing food". Regardless of my explanation about being outside looking at the menu and my increasingly pathetic plea for "perhaps you could just do us a sandwich", I received the unhappy, teenage truculence which so often now passes for service these days - and left hungry.

This time I knew we couldn't be too late - arriving at 6.20pm - and we were all starving.

So it was somewhat familiar ground when our arrival and request for a table for five resulted in the response "We don't start food until 6.30". Yes, "hello and welcome to this fine establishment to you, too!"

We were allowed to sit down, for which I felt honoured, and I managed to extract some menus, so that we could at least select what was to come.

All decided we were too hungry to bother with starters, so it was straight to the main courses.

Theo had settled on a spaghetti bolognaise and wanted it in the man-sized adult portion for é7.95. So he was disappointed to discover that wasn't available and settled instead for the exotic sounding chicken bang bang.

This turned out to be a mild curry, which was started with relish, scoring a seven out of 10 from Theo, who soon tired and later scored it as a three.

Meanwhile, his younger brother tucked into the old English sausage and mash. The children's portion proved good value at half the adult price of é7.95. Explaining in a man-of-the-world way that he had had this meal before, Nathaniel didn't seem disappointed and tucked in until no more could be eaten.

We adults went for a traditional selection of main courses, too. The children's dad tucked into a sirloin steak with a shallot and red wine sauce, which came with big, chips (é12). I went for the Lancashire hot pot with red cabbage - remarkable value at é6.25, although I did find the gravy a little greasy. Himself pushed the boat out and tried the venison at é13.95, which he declared was plain but hearty.

Despite the gusto with which the food went down, we were all in the mood for puddings with Nathaniel leading the call for "cake".

Both boys devoured the chocolate fudge cake with ice cream with the only fault found being that it was too chocolatey - something I hadn't realised was possible before now.

My créme brulée with pistachio was even worse than it sounded, being hot and eggy, but the men's fruit crumble and bread and butter puddings seemed to fit the bill and round off the evening in a suitable style.

With an interesting list of beers and a delightful location, The Swan with Two Nicks is definitely worth a trip out. The food isn't fine dining, but it's enjoyable and good value - a traditional English dining experience in all ways.

STYLE: Family country pub.

COOKING: Home cooking.

PLUS: Great location near to the river and country walks.

MINUS: The kind of quintessentially English service that makes you want to emigrate.

VALUE: Good for budget eats. Our party paid é89, including drinks.

The Swan with Two Nicks, Park Lane, Little Bollington, Altrincham, Cheshire, WA14 4TJ 01565 830018. Tweet