BEAUTY is in the eye of the beholder, they say, but if you eat at the Nightingale Hotel at South Marston it ends up in the stomach too.

From the cute baby pears wrapped in their parma ham coats, to the heap of chunky chips piled up Jenga-style, the exquisite presentation created a real feast for the eyes.

They didn't taste half bad either.

It's been a while since I went to the Nightingale, formerly the Swallow Hotel but known to us Swindonians as the South Marston club,' because of its popular leisure facilities. Last time I looked, the giant bar area served typical pub grub - burgers, salads, jacket potatoes and the like - while a separate restaurant offered a la carte dining.

All that has now changed. Gone are the help-yourself cutlery trays, the sachets of ketchup, the super-cheap deep fried food; in their place are white tablecloths, a classy centrepiece and a really interesting menu put together by London-trained chef Alex Gibson.

The change - most definitely for the better - is down to the new ownership. Nightingale business development manager James Dixon said: "As soon as we took over last November we launched into making some drastic changes to try and get an identity back again. We are aiming to be a trendy destination hotel - a place renowned for its food. About £500,000 has been invested so far, but we are still working on lots of other changes."

The food is some of the best I've eaten in a long while. There are half a dozen starters and the same number of mains on the regular menu, supplemented by another four of each on the specials board.

I went for a special - pan-fried king prawns in chive butter sauce on toasted ciabatta (£4.95) - while my dinner guest (never one to turn down the offer of a good meal) went for the smoked duck salad (£4.25).

Neither could be faulted. The prawns were plump and juicy and the sauce soaked into the ciabatta. The duck was pink-ish and perfectly cooked, served with a crispy salad to offset its richness. A very good start indeed. The children could have chosen from the impressive kids menu, which has the obligatory nuggets and chips (£4.95), but also a choice of three salads (£4.50) and even poached salmon with potatoes and veg (£5.95). However, both were predictably side-tracked by the promise of a homemade 6oz steak burger (£6.75), which came with cheese, coleslaw, chips and salad, and was polished off with ease.

I chose again from the specials menu - chargrilled pork chop and baby pears wrapped in parma ham (£9.95) - while my guest ordered the 10oz rib-eye steak, with chunky chips, mushroom, cherry tomatoes, salad and bearnaise sauce (£13.50).

What appeared before us was beautifully presented and looked almost too good to eat...but we forced ourselves to tuck in anyway.

My pork had that smoky chargrilled flavour I love, but best of all were those little poached pears, dotted around the plate, looking and tasting impossibly sweet.

The steak was also a success, if a tiny bit pink in the centre to be well done. The tower of chips was calling out to be toppled, and the kids duly obliged, but my guest was giving away none of the spoils.

Desserts looked just as intriguing, and I was sorely tempted by the honey and lavender brulee (£4.25), but felt too full to squeeze it in. The big eater and the children had no such problems, though.

Knickerbocker glory (a proper one, with jelly and custard and everything, £4.95), chocolate fudge cake (£3.50) and fruit crumble with sauce anglais (£3.75) were all ordered and demolished, before they finally declared themselves full.

Sitting back over coffee, we all agreed that the hotel deserves more recognition for its food - this is no run-of-the -mill menu. It does, however, need to work on creating a more ambient setting in which that food can be enjoyed.

The dining room still has the same cavernous canteen feel it had under the previous ownership. Tablecloths and decent cutlery help, but the feel of the place is still not quite right and the room is in need of a modern overhaul. My guest summed it up when he said: "The food is too good for the setting."

James Dixon, at the Nightingale, agrees. He said: "We have been working on the food and now we just need to work on ambience.

"We've got an architect working on transforming the space and there are some really big changes in the pipeline."

I can't wait to see them.

The Nightingale Hotel

Old Vicarage Lane, South Marston

Tel: 01793 833700

Restaurant hours: Weekdays and Saturday, 12-2.30pm and 6pm to 9.30pm; Sundays 12.30-2.30pm for the carvery and 6pm to 9.30pm