tastes - gourmet burgers, grills, dishes to share and dip, and flavours from Mexico, Italy and the Far East. However, we had the weekday menu, which does include some 'spice rack' mains, but also features some of the great British classics. And we really enjoyed the resulting meal.

The scene was set by the welcome we got on arrival. We were greeted warmly, and when we set about being fussy (specifications about which sort of table we wanted, having a cushion to sit on, etc.) the staff didn't miss a beat. The dining room is rather anonymous but the food and the staff made the difference. We had arrived early, but within the hour it was fairly full, with at least two good size groups (evidently of local residents) who seemed to be there for social rather than business reasons.

We decided on the three course set meal at £20, which still gave us a good choice of dishes, as there were five starters, ten mains and four puddings. We also appreciated the fact that the wine list gave us the option of 17 different wines we could buy by the glass, from a total of 42 wines in all. It seems to us that this sort of flexibility about wine is a very important part of enjoying a meal.

For starters we chose a smoked haddock and mozzarella fishcake, which was light in texture and full of favour, and a spicy lamb roll. Somehow the filo pastry was tough, but all was forgiven because the lamb was very tasty, and sat on top of a most generous and refreshing cucumber/spring onion/ minted yoghurt salad. We had debated which mains to choose: perhaps the slow-roasted belly of pork, the grilled salmon Nicoise salad, or the mushroom and tarragon tart? Finally we settled for two standard dishes - steak pie and sea bass.

The steak, parsnip and horseradish pie initially looked a little squat and dull, but turned out to be first rate. The slow-braised meat was very tender, with a rich gravy. You could not quite put your finger on the parsnip or the horseradish, but it worked terribly well. The pastry walls of the pie were very thin, crisp on the outside and actually completely cooked. It turned out that the pie was a prize winner at the South West Food & Drink Festival. We were not surprised.

Our other choice - grilled sea bass with Hollandaise sauce - can be a risky option because of the sauce. Often Hollandaise is so vinegary and assertive that it masks the food it accompanies, and fights the wine to a standstill. But not in this case. The sauce was delicate and really enhanced the fish. We were very favourably impressed.

By the time it came to pudding we both felt well fed, so the Sicilian lemon brulee cheesecake pretty well chose itself. It was very refreshing and lemony, and although the brulee element was completely soft, the biscuit base was good and crunchy.

The sticky toffee pudding turned out to be a heart-sinkingly huge slab of a portion, but gloom was transformed by the first mouthful. It was light and moist, with a touch of ginger, and nicely set off by the toffee ice cream. Really, upon consideration - it was not too big at all.

Obviously the Holiday Inn is a brand, and the menus, which change every two months, are decided by HQ. As the organisation is keen on maintaining a brand standard, you can expect some consistency across the hotels. However, the chefs are occasionally let off the leash for an evening, to produce their own 3 course set menus, to run in tandem with the brand menu. That could be quite interesting, given the Impington chef's sureness of touch.