‘It’s a pub that doesn’t sell food because its customers don’t want it,” I wrote 22 years ago about The Bell, a tiny one-room local at Hampton Poyle. If only its then landlord Ernie Soanes could see the place today!

The 17th-century building, which members of Ernie’s family ran for 80 years, has been utterly transformed in a £1m revamp by new owner George Dailey. Besides a big increase in the size of the bar area and the adding of a restaurant extension, there are also nine new guest bedrooms, turning the place into an upmarket hotel.

And then there’s the matter of food: from a pub that did none in Ernie’s day, save for a bag of crisps or pork scratchings, The Bell has turned into a foodie establishment, specialising in a range of traditional rustic pizzas cooked in a wood oven with pride of place in the centrally positioned, open-to-view kitchen. There are, besides, a good assortment of other temptations, including some excellent fish dishes, a range of top-class steaks and traditional pork and leek bangers – though served in an untraditional way, with spicy lentils topped with an egg.

This is not the first time the place has gone in for food. There was, briefly, a Mexican restaurant in the early 1990s run by a chap called Wolfgang Stiehler (how Mexican that?) and later a rather longer-living establishment called the Gonefish Inn – a pun intended there, I fancy. Certainly, I did not much fancy any of the fish on the one occasion I sampled it.

The arrival of George Dailey, after a long period of closure, has been warmly welcomed by villagers who are very glad to have their ‘local’ back – for local it remains, with a good assortment of drinks as well as the fine food for which George has been famous over many years. A group of neighbours I met in the bar told me they had become regulars in the few weeks the pub had been open, and had twice eaten there with great enjoyment. Here is not the place for lengthy rehearsal of George’s history in the catering business. Suffice it to say that he has been feeding me and thousands of other discerning customers over more than 30 years at, first, The Harcourt Arms in Stanton Harcourt, later at The Boot in Barnard Gate, which he fashioned from the down-at-heel Britannia, and later (after a period out of the trade) at the Eyston Arms, which is still going strong in East Hendred.

In each of these the appealing look of the place has been achieved through the unerring good taste of his wife, Cargie, who has once more ‘done the biz’ at The Bell. A principal feature of the design, a wonderful display of photographs from around the world, was supplied by another artistic member of the family, daughter Charlie, whose work as a snapper was described in a feature a few weeks ago in Weekend.

Rosemarie, her mother Olive and I, visiting on a packed Saturday night had a corker of a meal. I began with a superb plate of chef Adam Abbott’s home-cured gravadlax (“with lots of vodka,” says the menu!) with a pink peppercorn and ginger dressing. For my main course I wanted the grilled sole offered as a blackboard special.

Manager Megan Morrison said she would make sure one was saved but then returned from the kitchen to say the last one had been bagged (or I suppose, in the context, landed). So I went for the Parma pizza, which had a gorgeous crispy base topped with melted goat’s cheese, lots of rocket and a solid covering of thinly sliced parma ham. I polished off the lot, though it was ‘large’ size rather than ‘sensible’ (sensible for whom? Only a dieter, surely).

Rosemarie began with grilled king prawns with garlic mayonnaise (a Dailey classic since Stanton Harcourt days) and continued with a first-class Bell Burger – super meat, with smoked mozzarella and onion. Olive was delighted with her chicken terrine and the rump of lamb with pea purée and dauphinoise potatoes. Both had puddings – a scrummy lemon tart for Rosemarie, ice cream and hot chocolate sauce for mum. Smiles all round.