The building which is now home to the Haxby branch of Caesars has had more name changes than I've had hot dinners. Well, not really, but you get the picture.

Over the past ten years or so, 169 York Road has been the Hilbra Court Hotel, the Golden River Cantonese Restaurant, the Haxby Court Hotel, the Jinnah Indian Restaurant and, more recently, Sloanes.

Now it has become a suburban spin-off of Caesars, the popular Italian eatery in Goodramgate, York.

Caesars owner Saleem Atktaer, the boss of the Jinnah restaurant chain, has spent about £50,000 giving the Haxby premises a continental makeover. It's been money well spent.

The interior is modern and spacious, with light neutral tones, a collection of tasteful canvas prints and a neat mixture of carpets and wooden flooring. Simple, but classy.

We had booked a table for our Sunday teatime outing, and it's a good job we did as it was extremely busy and it got even busier.

We chose a table for four near the back door and large bar area, which was great for when the kids became bored later on.

The menu came sharpish and, over a couple of soft drinks and a very palatable glass of the house white wine (verduzzo del veneto), we made our selections from the vast number of dishes on offer.

Most of the antipastas or starters are priced at £4.95. These included Scottish smoked salmon with prawns, cured Parma ham with melon, baked aubergines topped with mozzarella cheese and based chicken and mushroom pancake with mascarpone and gruyere cheese.

After much deliberation, I picked insalta con pancetta e funghi di bosco (£4.95), a wonderful warm salad of crunchy bacon pieces and tasty sautéed mushrooms on a bed of mixed leaf salad. It was delicious.

My wife, Jayne, too chose wisely - aparagi griliati com pecorino; three thick and tender asparagus spears covered in pecorino cheese, and accompanied by a soft poached egg.

Our children's main meals came at the same time as our starters.

Zara had a decent-sized bowl of spaghetti Bolognese, while Elliot enjoyed a large vegetarian pizza, topped with mushroom, broccoli, peppers, onions, garlic, courgettes and mange toute. At £4.50 for either pizza, pasta or cheeseburger, a soft drink and ice-cream, the kids' meals are extremely good value.

Choosing a main dish was tricky, such was the selection on offer; 15 types of pasta meals, 18 pizzas and a host of gorgeous-sounding chef's specials and grills. Both the pizzas and pastas cost only £5.95.

In the end, I went for filleto alla Caesars (£13.95), a mouth-watering fillet steak cooked to perfection and topped with thin pieces of Parma ham, and covered with dolce latte cheese, demi-glace and red wine sauce. This came with a bowl of crisp roast potatoes, courgettes, broccoli and peppercorns.

Very rich, but very good.

The dish was great, but the problem was that I had to eat it alone, because Jayne's pizza did not arrive for another ten minutes.

Our waiter, one of four who served us during the course of our meal, was very apologetic, saying my wife's original pizza had unfortunately fallen on to the kitchen floor, so another had to be rustled up.

Her new pizza capricciosa (mushrooms, artichiokes, peppers, onions, tomatoes - minus the ham), was, however, very good.

During our wait for the main courses, we had ordered another three Diet Cokes, but after 20 minutes the drinks still hadn't arrived (it would have been quicker to walk to Haxby Co-op for a bottle).

When they did land at our table, my Coke was so weak it was almost transparent. We had also asked for a bowl of fries for the kids to nibble at, but these never materialised.

For dessert, I tucked into a delicious chocolate soufflé, while Elliot was allowed to change his set meal ice-cream for a very rich chocolate pyramid with crème Anglaise filling. Both were priced at a very reasonable £3.50.

After sitting for nearly two-and-a-half hours with two very patient, but very tired children, it was time to settle the bill, and even that took some sorting out.

It came to a little over £40, although they did not charge for my dessert and cut the price of my main course by £8. Whether or not this was a mistake or an apology I don't know, because nothing was said.

It was a great shame our meal was tainted by several episodes, as Caesars offers great food at extremely reasonable prices.

Let's hope the problems we encountered were just a one-off due to the sheer volume of customers on the night.

Caesars, 169 York Road, Haxby, York, 01904 758864 Simon visited Caesars on Sunday, May 6.

factfile

Food: deliciousService: disappointingValue: excellentAmbience: livelyDisabled loos: NO