AT the end of a long and somewhat frustrating working day, Pub Spy was looking forward to getting a decent meal, and found himself heading in the direction of Malvern.

There, he reasoned, he would find somewhere that would give him a chance to relax and enjoy some good food.

On arriving in town, it didn’t take long for his eye to fall on the Mount Pleasant Hotel, a brick building festooned with ivy at the southern end of Belle Vue Terrace, and next to the picturesque Rose Bank Gardens, home of the town’s famous buzzard and skylark sculptures.

The Mount Pleasant has some interesting history of its own, as a residence of the celebrated British artist Dame Laura Knight when she lived in these parts; a blue plaque installed by the industrious folk of Malvern Civic Society attests to this fact.

Pub Spy entered and asked if food was being served; it was, but all tables were booked, and he could only be served in the lounge area.

But just a few moments after he settled there, a staff member announced that an unbooked table had been found after all , and Pub Spy was escorted there and seated with a menu.

The menu of the Mulberry Tree restaurant and bar offered a range of nibbles, sharing courses and starters, but Pub Spy, now armed with a pint of shandy, as it was a warm afternoon, decided to go straight for the main event.

After mulling over the rival attractions of roast duck breast, beer-battered haddock and spring vegetable tagliatelle, Pub Spy decided to go for an old favourite - the beef burger, or in this case the Herefordshire beef burger, priced at £12.

It was an inspired choice; far from resembling the scorched brake pads served at multiple chains too well known to need naming here, this burger was a sizeable slab of prime minced beef, grilled to perfection and garnished with a thick piece of back bacon, melted cheese, lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise and thin slices of dill pickle.

The bun it came in - the whole assembly being held together with a wooden skewer - was a brioche with a distinct taste of its own, bearing no relation to the average production-line bread roll.

Accompanying it was a mini-bucket full of chips - it’s always a bucket or a little fry basket these days - and some pink-hued coleslaw.

The chips were, once again, exemplary, crisp and crunchy outside with fluffy interiors.

The staff were attentive and courteous - Pub Spy was not the only one moved to a better place when one became available - and inquired regularly yet unobtrusively about his comfort/

Once the burger and chips had gone, Pub Spy decided against a dessert - he was completely full - and returned to the bar to finish his drink before heading off into the night.

The Mount Pleasant, he mulled, definitely lives up to its name and can be recommended to anyone.