The Millstone, Bolton Road, Anderton

We'd booked a table for five on Sunday evening as an early birthday celebration for my daughter after enjoying a light lunch there the week before.

The Millstone stands in its own grounds with a good-sized, well-lit car park on the road from Horwich to Chorley.

Its olde world exterior does not hint at the warm, modern interior within, so it is a treat to step into the pleasant pub with its real fire, alcove-like seating areas and separate, extensive restaurant.

It is difficult to describe the Millstone's menu, although Mediterranean sounds about right. There are eight or nine starters, mostly around the £3.75 mark, including soup of the day, black pudding, goat's cheese in filo pastry and flat mushrooms with spinach.

In fact, the mushrooms proved a popular choice with our group -- a small but filling portion of mushrooms covered with spinach which provided a delicate taste.

Equally pleasing was the thick, home-made vegetable soup, and the large, mouth-watering portion of goat's cheese in crisp filo pastry which came on a bed of home-made salsa. Delicious!

There was much "try a bit of this" and exchanging of little tasters as we all tried out the different, adventurous starters.

Main course choice was equally daunting, with plenty of unusual choices ranging from pheasant and partridge, through peppered steak, braised chicken, to halibut and (new to us) butterfish.

There is a separate vegetarian menu of around eignt or nine dishes, too. Main course prices were generally around £12-£14, not cheap but the quality is of the best.

Two of us chose crispy duck with orange and Grand Marnier sauce, the birthday girl chose peppered steak, another chose lamb kebab with mint and honey and another went for halibut.

An apologetic maitre d' returned to tell her there was no halibut left, but offered instead butterfish, with the promise of having the course free if she didn't like it! In the event, she loved the large, tender steak of melting white fish.

All the main courses came with vegetables, on this occasion garden peas, sugar snap peas, swede batons and new potatoes. The peppered steak, after discussion with our helpful maitre d' again, was medium rare and won immediate approval for its peppery, savoury taste. The large skewer of marinated lamb pieces came with a mint and honey sauce combination which was described as "unusual but very good" by an appreciative diner.

My husband and I both went for the crispy duck, which was definitely a case of eyes being bigger than belly. The portion was huge -- a crispy, delicious skin and fall-off-the-bone meat, all with the sweet tang of the orange and Grand Marnier. I couldn't finish mine, but my partner's plate cleared surprisingly quickly.

In spite of my previous shortcomings, the sweet menu proved simply too tempting. Again, there was a variety of less usual sweets, although favourites like ice cream and fruit crumble with hot custard still figured. One of the party chose lemon sorbet, a bowl of several scoops of the refreshing sweet. Two of us chose lemon meringue Alaska, £3.75 each, which proved to be pudding heaven.

Throughout the meal, we had a mixture of soft and alcoholic drinks, including pints of Tetley and Carlsberg Lager at £2 each and generous glasses of cool, sharp medium house white wine at £2.50 each.

The final bill came to £121.30 for five -- perfectly acceptable, especially for a special occasion and bearing in mind the excellent quality of both food and service. We had also mentioned, just in general conversation with each other, about my daughter's birthday and this must have been overheard by our attentive maitre d'.

At the end of the meal, a complimentary plate of ice-cream with a lit sparkler arrived at the table for her. Even 19 year-olds are not immune to a spot of birthday fun!

STAR RATING

Quality of food ****

Menu ****

Service ****

Value for money ****

Atmosphere ****

Overall rating ****