ON paper it looked a splendid choice.

The menu at Henri's Brasserie boasted a range of gourmet meals, a smattering of local produce, although I suspected more was used but not mentioned, and a manageable choice that indicated freshly-cooked meals rather than over-use of industrial-sized microwaves.

The balance of fish, meat and vegetarian was probably about right – three, three, one respectively on the main courses – although a second vegetarian option would have been welcome.

But alarm bells did start to ring at the prices. To give you a flavour, fillet of sea bass, sauté potato, chorizo sausage and curried vinaigrette would set you back £14, while roast rump of lamb on puy lentils and button mushrooms would relieve you of £14.95 and you'd have to part with £16 for the roasted monkfish, pomme puree and saffron broth.

It sometimes pays to be a vegetarian, if you see what I mean. The animal-free choice of risotto of butternut squash and herbs was a mere £9.50.

But here's the sting in tail of the monkfish, sea bass, duck, pig, halibut, lamb and butternut squash, if indeed squashes have tails. If your pomme puree or sauté potato or braised red cabbage is not going to assuage your appetite then a side order of chips, onion rings, mash, beans, salad or house vegetables would cost you a further £2.50.

Even the entrées started at £5.50, for the rocket and parmesan salad. These are city prices. Morpeth may be able to get away with it but I'm not so sure Alnwick is quite ready for such inflated tabs.

Henri's Brasserie is now owned by the award-winning Black Door restaurant group, based at the Biscuit Factory in Newcastle, so that explains it.

Although we would consider spending such sums on a special occasion, a business trip to Morpeth was not one of them.

The saving grace as far as we were concerned was the bar menu, which was available until 7.30pm. It was awash with basic, cuddly favourites – homemade shepherd's pie (£7.50); fish, chips homemade mushy peas and tartar sauce (£7.50); luxury fish pie (£7.50; braised beef with dumplings (£7.50); salmon and cod fish cakes (£7.50); Cumberland sausage on mash with crispy onions (£7.50); deep-fried tempura of scampi with salad and chips (£9.50); beef steak and Guinness pie with a push pastry lid, mash and vegetables (£7.50). That was more like it for the limited time we had.

We took our seats, ordered soft drinks and our food and sat back to soak up the atmosphere. I had chosen the risotto of chicken and king prawns (£7.50) and my wife had the seared minute steak ciabatta with chilli roasted onion, watercress salad and fries (£9.50).

Henri's, as the name suggests, is modelled on a continental bistro, with bare wooden floors, plain, raspberry-coloured walls, dark wood panelling and beautiful, exotic flower arrangements. It looked cosier the further in you went, although we sat by the window and watched the police cars go by.

The service was efficient and unobtrusive, yet friendly at the appropriate moments.

Some soothing background music lifted the atmosphere on a quiet Monday evening in March.

The large central bar was snug and lent a homely air to the otherwise stark surroundings.

Our food arrived after a comfortable wait. They were served on large dish plates too big to rest your cutlery on the table and too deep to prevent both knife and fork disappearing into the medley of food therein.

Perhaps we were expecting too much from a bar meal but neither would score maximum marks for presentation.

My risotto was very creamy and rich with large chunks of succulent chicken embedded in the rice and three king prawns perched majestically on top. But that was it!

The taste was sublime – I could have been taken away to heaven happy at the end of it.

Better still, my wife refrained from pinching one of my king prawns as she is wont to do, seeing she would have reduced their number to just two.

She was also having to concentrate on her steak ciabatta. Both the steak and the ciabatta were lovely but she was struggling with the chilli-roasted onions, which were more chilli than onion and I could just about see steam emerging from her ears.

Her chunky block fries were full of flavour but the watercress salad was curiously salty.

It was not an easy meal to enjoy and she wished she had been warned about the overpowering chilli.

We had a break of about an hour while my wife attended her meeting, then resumed eating with desserts. There were four at £5.50 – warm sticky toffee pudding and butterscotch sauce; crème fraiche crème brulee and orange compote; iced Lindisfarne Mead parfait, prune compote and honey Anglaise; and vanilla pannacotta, cherries and candied walnuts. Northumbrian cheese with home-made oat cakes was £6.95 and a selection of ice creams and sorbets cost from £2.50 depending on how many scoops were requested.

I couldn't see past the sticky toffee pudding, nor could I fault it, and my wife had two scoops of ice cream for £2.95 (she needed something cold to put the fire out).

We left recognising the potential of Henri's but ultimately disappointed that we had probably chosen unwisely and not gone for the comfortable options, and wondering quite what you got for your money on the à la carte menu.

We also departed without £34.15, of which £25.45 was for food.

STAR RATINGS (out of five)
Quality of food 3.5
Choice 3.5
Vegetarian choice 2
Value for money 2
Service 3.5
Children catered for 3
Disabled access 4
(separate side entrance)
Disabled toilet Yes
(toilets adapted for disabled use)
Overall experience 3
Verdict: Expensive

Contact details: Henri's Brasserie, 59 Bridge Street, Morpeth. Tel: 01670 516200; website: www.blackgroup.co.uk