WE have been fans of Paul Heathcote for a long time, in fact I think you could call us two of his greatest devotees.

Well we did go for our first meal as a "courting couple" to his Winckley Square restaurant (now called The Chophouse), and then ended up having our wedding reception there too.

In between, we visited his flagship restaurant in Longridge, conveniently known as The Longridge Restaurant. And this is where we found ourselves on this particular Sunday.

You may think it is a long way to travel just for a meal, but it is well worth a trip and can be combined with a day out in the countryside as Longridge Fell is right on the doorstep.

The Longridge Restaurant received a Michelin Star in 1991 which it still retains and among many other awards the former Egon Ronay Chef of the Year restaurant has been described as "one of the best in the world". You don't come across many restaurants in Lancashire with Michelin stars to their name.

However, when you hear the words "Michelin starred restaurant"you could be forgiven for thinking "an expensive special occasion restaurant" where only the rich and childless go.

But not so. At The Longridge Restaurant they are trying to move away from this image and head more towards an everyday, relaxed and everyone welcome restaurant.

And so to the food.

We had a three course Sunday lunch which changes every week so you can never have the same dish twice, which is a shame if you really like something, but on the up side it means you try different dishes and it keeps the menu interesting.

On the menu when we visited were, for starters: chicken liver parfait with toasted brioche and shallot marmalade; Lancashire cheese fritters with cauliflower puree and shizo cress; Gravadlax of salmon with pickled cucumber and horseradish crme fraiche and deep fried fish cake with herb salad and lemon dressing.

My husband chose ballontine of ham hock and parsley with apple chutney and hot toast.

I had butternut squash soup with herb crme fraiche, which tasted very buttery and smooth.

For main course, there was seared fillet of salmon with crushed jersey royals, spinach and hollandaise sauce; pan fried fillet of line-caught mackerel with creamed polenta and semi-dried tomatoes and basil oil; linguini of summer vegetables and confit pork belly with sage dauphinoise and Dunkerton's organic cider cream.

I chose roast sirloin of Bowland beef served with creamed and roast potatoes, Yorkshire pudding and roasting juices. This was a fantastic portion and tasted divine. I did leave some of the potatoes and only tasted the Yorkshire pudding, as I wouldn't have had any room left for dessert.

My husband chose slow-cooked shoulder of lamb with hot-pot potatoes, fine beans and rosemary jus.

He said it was delicious and was struggling to finish (he had eaten a lot of bread during our starter course!), but managed it in the end.

On to dessert - there was spearmint panna-cotta with chocolate sauce and tuile biscuit; chocolate and apricot tart with crme fraiche, lemon crme with fresh berries.

Very predictably, my husband chose Heathcotes bread and butter pudding with apricots and clotted cream.

He loves this dish; in fact we had it on our wedding reception menu. It was, as usual, very light, fluffy and creamy, not heavy as you might imagine. He polished it off faster than you could say "Heathcotes Bread and Butter pudding".

I chose vanilla parfait with strawberry compote which was deliciously sweet and combined well with the creamy parfait which had the taste of the vanilla pod coming through with every mouthful. It was also very light.

To accompany our meal we had a large glass of Italian ros each and a bottle of still water on the table to share.

The price of two courses is £16.50 with desserts £3.50. We finished with two cappuccinos and the total bill was £57.

As we have found, once you have tried one of Paul Heathcote's restaurants, you have to try them all.