AMERICANS always reckon that they can teach the English a thing or two about dining out value for money - but they've obviously never visited Smithills Coaching House.

The only way anybody could leave this famous Bolton eaterie hungry would be if the place burnt down mid-meal.

I'd actually forgotten the gargantuan portions since the last time we'd had a family "do" there five years ago. But, the huge main courses still provided the centre-piece of a rather smaller, but nonetheless pleasant, occasion recently.

The Heritage Weekend at adjacent Smithills Hall made this equally historic venue even busier, so I booked earlier in the day for a teatime meal for three.

My elderly mum, who doesn't live in Bolton, just loves the place. She says that the old buildings, staff in timeless black and white and the whole easygoing atmosphere make the meal a pleasure.

She's 85 and knows a thing or two, so how can her daughter and grand-daughter disagree?

We arrived at the appointed time and were taken straight to our table although there were plenty of people in the bar area, waiting to dine or just waiting for members of large parties to arrive.

Smithills Coaching House is especially popular with families - the atmosphere is always buzzing with conversation.

Here, though, the menu is the real star. The Dickensian theme that starts with the old building, is echoed through its decor and paintings of famous fictional characters, and continues into the comprehensive menu.

There are nine starters you can have inclusively with your main course - soups, black pudding, fruit dishes and smoked mackerel. And there are 11 more, none over the £3 mark and some, like Hot Smoked Cheddar and Chargrilled Chicken and Asparagus Pancakes, quite unusual.

We chose from the inclusive menu, two of the party going for Melon and Pineapple Cocktail and one for Florida Cocktail. Each swiftly-delivered starter was a perfectly acceptable dish of fruit, providing a nice, light starter.

Main courses at Smithills boggle the brain a bit. Apart from the five vegetarian dishes, all around the £9.40 mark, there are eight grills, six fish dishes, four chicken, and nine "Smithills Favourites."

These were the ones I remembered well: Alfred Jingle's Choice, Mr Pip's Passion, The Innkeepers' Pie. These vary from £8 to £10 and include items like steak and kidney pie, beef, pork and salmon in a variety of tasty dishes.

There's also a separate menu of lighter meal deals in Mr Bumbles Putter On Menu.

In the event, my mum and I each chose the Angler's Friend from the salad selection (£9.90), and daughter Lucy went for Mr Peggity's Pasta Perfection (£9.25.).

Main courses here don't only include starters, there are chipped or baked potatoes, salads and even home-made coleslaw.

Lucy's traditional lasagne was a large dish of sizzling, cheese-topped pasta, served onto the plate by our pleasant waitress. This came with a good-sized bowl of mixed salad and a large, crispy baked potato. She set to this lot with a will, and nothing more was heard for a while.

Our Angler's Friend was a huge, glass, fish-shaped dish apiece, completely covered with salad of all kinds. Along with enough prawns to launch our own seafood restaurant were a potato salad, a celery and cheese salad, egg, grated carrot, lettuce, tomato, onion and brown bread. Oh, and a large baked potato each.

We tucked into this whopping catch with a vengeance, and found it all delicious. My mum's only complaint was that the special salads all had mayonnaise on them, but this was a mere detail.

Unfortunately, the main-course dishes are so big at Smithills that when we'd finished, it looked like we hadn't even started!

Even so, I am ashamed to report that, after a short break, we all felt up to something from the sweet menu.

Smithills offers bags more choices here, from ice-cream dishes that come with every possible sweet ingredient plus lit sparklers, to cakes and tarts to delight.

Mum and Lucy went for a lovely, light blackcurrant sorbet (£1.50 each) which was a large blob of sorbet and plenty of diced fruit. I went for a perennial favourite: Hot Apple Pie with ice-cream (£2.05) which involved a decent-sized slice of good, traditional pie with two big scoops of ice-cream.

We had a couple of drinks, all pretty cheap including a big schooner of sherry for my mum at a good-value £1.25.

The service set up here is spot-on. You seldom have to wait, and staff seem to helpfully hover all the time.

Smithills Coaching House may not be the intimate little bistro you'd select for a cosy meal for two, but it is an ideal choice for families and other groups. It's almost all on one level, with ramps to the bar, and as child-friendly as you could ever wish.

One thing, however of which there is absolutely no chance . . . anyone leaving this restaurant and asking, Oliver Twist-style, "Please, sir, can I have some more?"! ANGELA KELLY

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.