CULINARY entrepreneur Mark Irving has a natural knack of knowing what gets the taste buds going in the Holme Valley.

After all, he’s been at it for a while in his quirky underground tapas bar Les Caveaux, spotted a chance and certainly took a risk when The Victoria pub on Woodhead Road between Holmfirth and Holmbridge was boarded up.

The risk is he’s clearly invested heavily into it to transform it into the Toad and Tatie – part tapas bar but predominantly a mid-priced A La Carte restaurant.

That’s not to say those who still want it as their local aren’t welcome. There were one or two dotted around the bar when we went in and the restaurant is open both before and after dinner is served.

Glancing through the window we thought at first the restaurant was empty as we arrived shortly before 9pm on a Thursday night.

We were wrong. The pub is, in effect, split into three distinct parts with the large, roomy bar in the centre and two dining rooms at either end. We’d seen the empty one as we peered curiously through the glass. Had we gone down to the other window we’d have seen it was busy.

Inside it has a minimalist feel with the walls that women would describe as taupe in colour. A bloke would say they were a dark beige or a light brown. But that’s blokes for you. No imagination, allegedly. I’ll let you into another secret. Apparently the paint came from Farrow and Ball. The classy stuff. The flagged floors are set against cream walls and exposed stonework, adding to that crisp, neat and modern feel and the artwork – mainly modern – on the walls is for sale.

The menu’s not overlong but is more or less immediately doubled when you look at the specials board. If you’re not a fish or meat fan then, well, there’s something for you but probably not advisable to read on here.

For starters I had fresh Scottish mussels cooked with chorizo and brandy (£5.95). Clearly Mark doesn’t do things by halves either. A quick count up revealed more than 30 of the little Scottish blighters, but also revealed one thing that was lacking – a chunk of bread.

Luckily the waitress had also provided a spoon for the superbly spiced sauce that saved me from, quite literally, lapping it up. I was having every last drop no matter what. It had a rich piquancy and made a great change from the usual creamy accompaniment to mussels.

Ruth had a hot salmon salad with beetroot. Big chunks of salmon that were ... cold. Never quite sure what the hot meant but another great starter. Things were starting to look very promising.

The other starters on offer include Thai steak salad – strips of seared steak on a salad base served with a warm Thai dressing (£5.95).

An so on to the mains and the French fish stew was certainly tempting with a mermaid-style siren call to it. But no, after the mussels let’s go inland.

And so it was the duck, pork and Toulouse sausage cassoulet with haricot beans. You can’t get much more inland than that although the duck may beg to differ.

A dish for meat lovers with large chunks of spicy sausage among a thick casserole. It was piping hot – you could even say too hot – and perhaps some of the liquid had evaporated in the process. A rich, thick, full-on dish while Ruth went for fillet of sole in a creamy pernod sauce. Again a large chunk of tender, moist fish in a terracotta-coloured sea that had sweetness to it. Don’t spill this one on your clothes.

Sides were green beans – crunchy and cooked with olive and garlic just to lift them out of the ordinary – and chunky chips. Big, fat juicy fellows with crispy coats. These hadn’t come out of a bag.

The signature dish is Fatty’s Cow Pie – Gert and Sidney (steak and kidney) cooked in hoppy Yorkshire ale, topped with Gran’s suet pastry (£9.50). If Last Of The Summer Wine was still being filmed around these parts, the cast would live on this.

Then there was slow roast pork with scrumpy cider gravy (£9.95), creamy wild mushroom risotto with roast cherry tomatoes and beetroot puree (£6.25), seafood and chorizo paella (£11.95) and a choice of steaks – rump, sirloin and fillet – from Hereford cattle matured on grass and hung for four weeks.

If vegetarians are still reading this don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Other animals for the chop and special treatment include rabbit and pigeon.

The tapas is only served in the bar area and, unlike the two restaurant rooms, the six tables here can’t be booked.

The tapas includes bread with a selection of oils and balsamic vinegar (£2.50); mixed Spanish olives (£2.50), traditional and beetroot hummus served with toasted pitta bread (£3.75), large prawns cooked in garlic (£5.95), fresh squid, cooked in beer batter (£4.55), brie and goat’s cheese bread-crumbed and deep fried (£4.25), chickpea croquettes, served in a pitta bread with salad (£3.95), spicy marinated chicken piri piri kebab on skewers (£4.95), a Greek salad of feta cheese, tomato, cucumber, olives and red onion (£4.10), fried potatoes served with chilli sauce and aioli (£2) and chef's sticky barbecue ribs (£4.95).

So the Victoria is now under a new reign – and the crown jewels are on its menu.

Toad And Tatie

38 Woodhead Road, Holmfirth, HD9 2PR.

Tel 01484 689635

Website www.toadandtatie.co.uk

Opening hours Tuesday to Thursday 5pm onwards (food starts 6pm); Friday 4pm opening (food 6pm onwards); Saturday opens 3pm (food 6pm onwards); Sunday 2pm-9pm (food 2pm-5.30pm)

Children Yes

Disabled access Yes and toilet

The bill £59.95

Would you go back? Certainly