Being able to dine in a smoke-free pub is one of the big advantages of the new legislation, which kicked in on Sunday.

The last time we had stepped over the threshold of The Sun Hotel at Warkworth was for our wedding reception 13 years ago.

In fact, in the excitement all those years ago my wife left her veil behind in the hotel. So, on Sunday, she cheekily asked if they had a lost-property cupboard and whether there was a veil lurking in there!

Time has passed quickly, but not much has changed at The Sun Inn – it's beginning to look a bit jaded and faded (a bit like me, I suppose).

The settee and padded chair furniture is comfortable enough, but I'm sure I recognise the wallpaper from our reception photographs.

A light, airy conservatory restaurant on the side of the hotel offers an alternative ambience for dining.

But we stayed in the bar – simply because we could, without having to don gas masks!
The Sun Hotel still enjoys one of the best locations in north Northumberland – in the shadow of the imposing, impressive Warkworth Castle.

The first thing that strikes you about the Sunday lunch menu is the price. All main courses, including traditional roasts, are a wholly reasonable £6.50 (with a £1.50 surcharge for the mini leg of lamb or the darne (middle cut) of salmon in Chardonnay and dill cream sauce), £8.95 for two courses or £10.50 for three. Very good for hotel prices.
Children's portions cost £3.50, £4.99 or £5.50 respectively.

But here's the catch – the old adage "you get what you pay for" certainly rang true here.
Put it this way – we'd sampled better!

We all passed on the starters, a choice of soup (it was broccoli flavour), farmhouse pate in a pool of Cumberland sauce (why Cumberland?), honeydew melon with fruit sorbet or sautéed mushroom in garlic and parsley butter.

The main courses had a familiar look to them – roast beef, breast of chicken, lamb and pork, each with a Yorkshire pudding; mince and crispy dumpling, the aforementioned salmon or mushroom risotto.
The children had half-portions of the beef, while my wife went for the mini leg of lamb and I chose the chicken breast. We ordered the food at the bar.

The meals arrived within two shakes of that lamb's tail but the presentation left a lot to be desired.

My chicken breast was swimming in beef gravy and a dollop of mash sat alongside three roast potatoes, a scoop of sage and onion stuffing and the ubiquitous, dried-out Yorkshire pudding. None of it looked freshly cooked.

The salty, pungent gravy smothered the flavour of the rest of the meal. We all screwed our faces up at the watery, yet lumpy, mash.

I think mine was the wisest choice of meat as the beef and lamb were both overcooked and tasteless.
The vegetables – cabbage, carrots and mashed swede – were boiled to death.

No complaints about the quantity – there was certainly plenty of it – but the quality left a lot to be desired.

The sweet menu was slightly more imaginative: Strawberry cheesecake, meringue nest, caramel and amoretti Charlotte, chocolate truffle torte, jam roly poly, spotted dick, sticky toffee pudding, brandy snap basket and the "special", jam and coconut sponge, at £3.45 each, or a selection of ice creams for £2.75, or Northumberland cheese board (at last something local!) for £4.25. The children's menu was limited to just ice cream.

Sticky toffee pudding landed in front of me, while the others all had ice cream. None of them had any real flavour. The ice cream had the blandness of mass-produced catering fare, while my pudding was drowning in light brown, insipid sauce.

Our bill was £36.38, which included two pints and two lemonades.
We came away disappointed, harbouring happy memories and still without a veil.