I HAD no idea what to expect when turning up for a meal at the Masons, Wichenford, near Worcester. Being a country pub, I expected low beamed ceilings and roaring fires with a hearty pub grub menu.

So I was surprised when we walked into a stylish, contemporary bar area bustling with regulars. My fellow diners and I were equally as surprised when we were shown into the dining room extension and found it to be an opulent Thai theme, complete with Thai waiting staff in beautiful traditional dress.

We were presented with vast menus which included mainly food with an eastern twist, but also some international dishes - including a rather strange but interesting sounding chicken dish, deep fried in cornflakes.

Deciding to stick with the obvious Thai theme, we opted for the set Phuket menu for four at £19.95 each.

We tucked into a generous selection of moist chicken satay with a delicious peanut sauce, crispy and fresh vegetable and noodle spring rolls with tangy plum sauce, meaty pork spare ribs marinated in red wine sauce, chilled shrimp with a chilli sauce, and Thai money bags - minced chicken and spices in a pastry parcel with plum sauce. These starters selection also came with Thai fish cakes which was the only slight disappointment - the texture of the red curry paste dumplings was rather like chewy omelette and didn't much resemble fish.

For mains there was a selection of Mason's duck on a bed of crispy noodles, steamed fillet of cod dressed in a basil and chilli sauce, stir fried chicken in red curry paste, Thai aubergine, galangal and green peppercorns and stir-fried tiger prawns with ginger, mushrooms, spring onion and green peppers.

The dishes were beautifully presented and equally delicious. The accompaniments of stir fried egg noodles with cabbage, spring onion and egg, together with steamed rice and Thai special fried rice were plentiful and perfectly cooked.

The dessert was the only real let-down of the meal. The coconut ice cream choice was unavailable, so we were left with banana fritter.

It tasted distinclty like it had been deep-fried from frozen. Sadly there was not a hint of banana taste and the fruit had taken on a strange texture like cardboard. However, when we sent all of them back, they were replaced, free of charge, by delicious fresh coffee.

My tastebuds were definitely tempted by the huge range of other dishes available and I am sure I will go back.

THE MASONS, CASTLE HILL, WICHENFORD Tel: 01886 889064SERVICE: **** FOOD: *** VALUE: *** AMBIENCE: ***