If you were to look up the phrase “small, but perfectly formed” in the dictionary, next to picture of Kylie you might find one of the Wells.

During the day it’s a light and airy café in the chic spa town of Ilkley serving above-average lunchtime food. However I’d yet to visit the Wells in its other incarnation as a night-time bistro. It’s only open Friday and Saturday evenings and has just two sittings – 6.30pm or 8.30pm. For us, the later sitting suited fine, other people might want more choice. If you realise what’s going on in the kitchen though, you can see why this arrangement makes sense. David and Samantha Howcroft own and run the Wells, she cooks and he does front-of-house. The night we visited there was a young waiter helping David with the seven or so tables and possibly Samantha had a hand in the kitchen too. Well, you would hope she did, considering the labour-intensive offerings on the menu that night. Though there were only four choices for each course, all appealed when I checked out the Wells’ website beforehand. Among the starters were confit of duck leg with plum chutney and warm asparagus, cherry tomato and parmesan tart. So it was with anticipation that we arrived on a Saturday night.

Every other table was taken as we settled into ours. Pricing was as simple as the reservations policy – £15.95 for two courses and £18.95 for three. Prices are slightly cheaper on Fridays and the earlier sitting on Saturday.

As well as the menu, the Wells’ wine list is also pared down. We settled on a nice Pinot Grigio and soon the amiable David was there to take our orders.

Despite the fact that the bistro was packed, the wells maintains an easily relaxed charm. It tasted as good as it looked. The mackerel was unlike any I’d ever had, sweet and smokey. The only problem was portion-size. Three-quarters of the way through I was wondering how I’d fit in my main.

Luckily my dining partner had chosen a (slightly) lighter option and foregone the delicious bread. She’d chosen soup of the day, which was cream of sweet potato. We’d been told this almost as soon as we sat down, a nice touch which a surprising number of restaurants fail to do. My companion described her soup as “lovely”, with an unusual depth of flavour and smooth consistency.

After a slight pause, which my almost-full stomach appreciated, it was onto mains. My grilled fillet of salmon with oak roast salmon fishcake and lobster cream sauce arrived first. Other main course options were roast breast of corn fed tandoori chicken, coriander cous cous, mint and cucumber yoghurt dressing and pancake of sweet potato, feta and sage, hollandaise glaze.

Then came the star, my dining partner’s pan-fried Dutch calves liver with bacon and spring onion mash and red wine sauce. The liver was huge, so big it was folded over on top of a massive mound of mash, surrounded by a sea of

glossy gravy. My dining partner was speechless. Luckily she got over her shock by tucking in. She said the liver was tender, the mash smooth and the sauce tasty. Her only criticism was that after the sweet potato soup, the sweet gravy was a touch cloying. My salmon was beautifully cooked and the sauce delicately fishy. The fishcake was nicely smokey though there was arguably a bit too much potato. So often accompanying vegetables equate to a mini serving of limp, microwaved specimens, but not here. There were baby carrots, snow peas and broccoli plus a large dish of delicious dauphinoise. Unsurprisingly, we both struggled to finish our mains. But that wasn’t going to discourage me from trying a pudding. Among the choices were chocolate roulade and Wensleydale cheese with apple, walnuts and biscuits. I settled for a vanilla bavois, made with bananas, butterscotch and almonds. The set vanilla cream, though not overly vanilla-flavoured, paired perfectly with a few slices of banana, toasted almonds scattered over a generous drizzling of butterscotch sauce. We had to share though.

The bill, along with a couple of small bottles of mineral water, came to a reasonable £52.40.

Food at the Wells isn’t haute cuisine but it’s simple, hearty and seasonal and well worth a trip to Ilkley.