Highgrove House Hotel, Troon, Ayrshire

A natural. These people do exist. The boy who from the time he first kicks a football seems to have it glued to his feet: the child who has a symphony written by his fourth birthday. And, in the world of hospitality, the surprisingly small number of people who instinctively know what their public wants and provide it in an apparently seamless manner.

I've never met any of the inappropriately named Costley family. but I'll put Bill in that category. With many of their hotels and other units being sold off, I had feared that the dynasty was coming to the end of the road. I was delighted, therefore, to learn that there are ambitious plans ahead for Highgrove House, which was the first hotel in the group. Staying with chums R & D just down the road in Troon itself, we visited for dinner on a glorious Monday night, admiring the views out to Arran and Ailsa Craig.

Running a hotel with a busy dining room is fraught with complexity, and I'm not suggesting for one minute that his level of success comes without immense hard work and attention to detail; however, after 40 years working as a legal adviser for the licensed trade I know that the vast majority could never get there in a month of Sundays. This is a family run local business, not some international behemoth. If you live in the area you will know these folk and, in all probability, they will know you.

We were greeted by Michael Poggi who is, I think, the only non family director, though he's been in with the bricks (1990, since you ask). A little tired and jaded? Absolutely not. A calm and amiable presence presiding over the place, despite a party going on next door for the staff of the recently sold Lochgreen Hotel.

We're given various menus, set, a la carte and specials. I cannot believe the prices, in a good way. One would describe the setting as quite luxurious, yet you can have two courses for £22. And that's available every day except Friday and Saturday night, obviously, and Sunday lunchtime. The a la carte has a list of sandwiches from £9.95, and I don't see anything restricting these to lunch time. Michael has one named after him, The Poggi. It features something called west coast sauce. Thousand Island with attitude, he explains with a grin.

There's something for everyone. We ate steamed mussels, classically done with white wine and garlic, and a splash of cream. A salad of poached pear and blue cheese was well received, the candied walnuts being a nice touch. I did wonder in advance about the provenance of Fresh Water Prawns, but having eaten them I no longer care. They were advertised as coming in a spicy bang bang sauce with peanuts and coriander. And they did - all TEN of them, each about 3cm long. The Highgrove smoked salmon comes from Marrbury, in Newton Stewart, who also supply Gleneagles. Bet you pay more than £8.50 there.

Although we didn't try it it was interesting to be offered Cioppino Fish Soup. That's a spicy Italian-American dish which I've seen on a menu only once before, at Edinburgh's excellent Little Capo.

To mains. R & D went for the special main course. It was described as a Duo of Seafood. Hang on, it contains salmon and seabass and garlic prawns. What the heck? Chef may not be good at counting, but he or she produced some nice plates of food. Dining out is an opportunity to eat what you don't get at home, hence L's choice of liver and bacon. That's a bleugh! from me, but she enjoyed it. And it was thumbs up from me for the nicely seared seabass fillets with lemon beurre blanc.

Dessert? You are having a laugh, aren't you? And if you're thinking that a £10.25 price tag is a little out of synch with the rest, let me reassure you. There's a choice of three sundaes. We saw one brave, and surprisingly slim, man attacking one. Remember knickerbocker glory glasses? The ones for which you have to stand up to reach the bottom. Yep, that's what you get here.

I enjoyed this very much, the food, the place, the people. Fine dining it is not, nor does it aspire to be. And consider this. Including a bottle of wine, our bill for four was less than the food bill for one at Avery. All hail, Bill Costley. Long may your tribe thrive. There aren't many out there like you.