SOMETIMES in our busy lives there isn’t time to grab a minute let alone a chat with one of my long time neighbours.

Often my neighbour Anna and I go for weeks without so much as a wave from the car or a quick chat when passing her house while walking the dog.

So we decided it was definitely time for a catch up and headed out Holmfirth way for a meal out at The Huntsman Inn, the popular pub/restaurant which sits high above the town and is the last stop on the Greenfield road before Lancashire.

Even though it is close to home, it’s been a long time since I had been in The Huntsman Inn and I was surprised to see that today it has an extensive and quite contemporary menu featuring dishes from around the world, as well as traditional favourites, winter warmers, chef’s specials, grills and steaks.

I was also surprised to drive into the large car park on Monday evening and see how busy it was in this current credit crunching climate.

Initially we thought these vehicles might belong to people staying in the adjoining accommodation but actually a lot of the occupants were inside eating.

The Huntsman Inn is a big pub/restaurant with an equally big and extensive menu.

You can either eat in the bar area or in the restaurant itself.

After studying the menu, we decided on starters of pâté served with salad and toasted malted bread and goats cheese crostini, cheese and homemade red onion chutney served on ciabatta bread and served with mixed leaves.

Both were delicious, but Anna said she would have liked the options of a dressing for her salad and I could have easily eaten another piece of bread to finish off my pâté, but then I suppose I would have been complaining I was getting too full.

When it came to main courses I decided on the dish of salmon and dill penne pasta which came off the special fish menu. Anna chose the Vegetarian Sizzler, oriental vegetables in a sweet chilli sauce served with rice and a tortilla wrap.

My dish of salmon and pasta featured large succulent chunks of salmon in a lovely creamy sauce.

As for Anna’s choice, it was sizzling so much we could hear it coming out of the kitchen. Very spicy, it was tasty, hot and extremely filling.

I asked to try a forkful and it really was delicious.

Although the restaurant was busy and the waitress did tell us everyone had arrived at the same time, we didn’t have to wait too long for our meal.

The only comment I could make is that the restaurant was a little bit too dark. I’m all for a bit of subdued lighting but the atmosphere would have benefited from tweaking up the lighting just slightly.

After a little rest, we decided we could manage a pudding to share and chose a raspberry pavlova with ice cream from the extensive list of desserts.

Yes, nice, but our pud could have done with just a few more raspberries and a tad less pavlova.

All in all we had a good evening and a good catch up on the neighbourly gossip, family news and much more.

Our bill of £44.03 included a couple of drinks so worked out to be very reasonable.

The Huntsman Inn

Greenfield Road, Holmfirth

VENUE: The Huntsman Inn, Greenfield Road, Holmfirth

TELEPHONE: 01484 850205

OPEN: Serves food all day every day.

CHILDREN: Yes, welcome.

DISABLED ACCESS: Yes, full disabled access with wheelchair ramp and disabled toilets.

THE BILL: £44.03 for two including drinks.

WOULD YOU GO BACK? Yes, it is close to home and we enjoyed our evening.