Great, highly consistent food, excellent wine by the glass (175ml), carafe, or bottle. Really good white burgundy at about £12 a glass. Not cheap but stunning. “Sharing plates”…what on earth are they? We swop tastes of beautiful food – is that what they mean? So situation normal.

Ah but, after 30 years, Paul and Helen Klein have retired and we’re now under new management. So, changes all round? Not a bit of it. The same staff, long serving and elegantly attired in black with long white aprons – think your favourite French brasserie but with a smile. The same wine list, the same menu, heavy with meat, but balanced with great fish and veggie mains. Stunning blue cheese salad, luxurious twice baked soufflé (mind, the dish is very hot!) and melt in the mouth beef carpaccio.

Ok, a blackboard with low or zero alcohol drinks (avoid the G&T) but the same transient group of the young, highly articulate and well heeled getting stuck into a couple of magnums of Krug, before hitting the claret and grouse – it’s always fed the shoots very well. And a discussion between an old regular in braces and a surprisingly young looking 90 year old about being made to “talk posh” to avoid being mistaken from Sunderland (he was). They all talk posh here because we’re in Y….. (enough…Ed).

It’s won the Good Pub of the Year three times, and we’ve been going for about 30 years. We’re unlikely to make another 30, but we’re going to give it a go. So, after all, why change perfection?

Pub with rooms and great food The Blue Lion East Witton. Heaven on Earth.