Hotel restaurants are often not our first choice for eating out – the chain feel, possibly quite bad food, and impersonal service.

I once ate at a Holiday Inn on the coast and ordered a spinach, bacon and avocado salad as a main.

The bowl that arrived was a sludgy jumble of just avocado and processed bacon bits. The waitress had the nous to look slightly aghast, and raced back to the kitchen for the missing spinach.

And then it was my turn to look, well, agog actually as a plate of erstwhile frozen but now cooked spinach arrived, a stinky, watery, stomach-churning puddle of green on a side plate, for my ‘salad’.

Er no chef.

But lo, the Hilton in South Reading is about as far away from that ghastly experience as you can get.

For those who don’t know, it’s a popular place for a pint or two before watching the Royals and London Irish at weekends, it’s got a top-notch gym (LivingWell) and swimming pool, and it’s a good place to hang out (especially when travelling teams are doing their physiotherapy sessions in open-doored rooms, but that’s for another day, ladies).

I swim most days in the pool and sometimes grab a bite to eat at the bar or a coffee from their Costa concession. So it was time I tried their Larder restaurant, said their executive chef Daniel Smith at the recent EatReading Live food festival after he’d given his demo.

Daniel has just introduced a new menu – he calls it ‘going back to basics... food people want to eat’. And I’d say he’s got that right.

To begin, choose from dishes like The Larder prawn cocktail (£8.50), cured Scottish salmon, pink grapefruit and wasabi (£7.50) or slow-cooked chicken, apricot and sage terrine with chutney and wafer bread (£7.50).

I had the feta, watermelon and pumpkin seed salad with balsamic dressing (£6.50). The chunks of salty feta with the cool and sweet watermelon, the crunch of seeds and the sticky balsamic were a great combination (and a few days later I had similar at a London Michelin restaurant so top marks for trends, Daniel). Topped with pea shoots and baby cress, this did champion Daniel’s ethos.

My partner had the scallops (£10.50) – three fat and luscious hand-dived specimens with a smooth cauliflower puree, ribbons of courgette and a golden raisin dressing. This was judged pretty good – tender scallops and cauliflower are a classic, but with the courgettes and raisin dressing it was lifted.

For mains I had one of the plainest dishes on the menu, but it was just the type of light, summery dish I wanted – a salmon fillet with new potatoes and hollandaise (£17.50). The sauce was ultra lemony, smooth and medium thick, the skin on the salmon crispy and the potatoes minty and buttery (and properly cooked – why is it that new potatoes are so often bullet-like when you eat out?).

My partner had a really tender rump of lamb with pea puree and a rectangular slice of potato terrine (£19). The special that night was hake, but other mains include roasted butternut squash, chilli risotto and mozzarella (£14.50), tagliatelle, confit tomato, harissa, courgettes and black olives (£14.50) or corn-fed chicken breast, beans, chorizo, basil and tomato (£16.50).

There’s also a grill section, with half a chicken (£19) and steaks from rib eye to fillet, skewered prawns, Chateaubriand, or surf and turf.

I liked the Hilton service (worth noting that all Hilton staff from cleaners to porters are well trained and polite and there’s always a cheery hello as I pass on my way to the pool).

Our waiter recommended the house red initially, a mix of cabernet sauvignon and shiraz. When we looked doubtful, neither of us being keen on grape mixes, he let us try it. It wasn’t a bad example but we decided on a glass of Merlot.

The dessert menu reads like everyone’s top choices – toffee pudding, lemon tart, crumble, pana cotta, summer pudding, chocolate tart or cheese.

But they all come with a twist. The lemon tart (£6.50) arrived with a raspberry milkshake and a raspberry sorbet on top of biscuity crumbs which my partner said were ‘all cheekily fighting for my attention’.

I had the clotted cream pana cotta (also £6.50) with poached strawberries and what the menu said was honeycomb but was, I think, a piece of fudge.

The pana cotta had the right wobble and that clotted cream oily mouth-feel which went very well with a sparkling pool of strawberry syrup on top. All in all, this is above average hotel fare – and it is reflected in the prices. But Daniel’s using top-notch ingredients, like fish from Brixham and the same meat supplier as Gordon Ramsay’s empire.

You’re also getting a nice vibe, a lovely light and airy setting (try to get a table at the floor-to-ceiling windows to watch the sunset), excellent service, and a chef who knows what he is doing. There are not many chain hotels which can boast that.

And you know what? I’d even risk some spinach.

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