IT looked like a restaurant ready and primed for the arrival of foul-mouthed celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey.

Like the establishments featured on the Glaswegian's current Kitchen Nightmares TV documentary, McQuays by the River at Stockton is clearly struggling. On a Friday evening when any self-respecting restaurant should be at very least full-ish, there were just 14 souls in a dining room which must seat in excess of 70. The atmosphere was of a private dining club out-of-season.

If this sounds like the prelude to a critical mauling, you would be wrong. Despite the many things which we didn't like and which no doubt explain why it has so few customers, McQuays has a number of good qualities and may be worth a visit in the future. Don't cross it off your list just yet.

Firstly, its riverside setting is superb, especially if you can get a table overlooking the Tees. Housed in a converted warehouse next to the replica of the Endeavour, the wooden floors and stone-mullioned windows give the place a contemporary loft look. But it's by no means spartan. Modern but comfortable dining furniture, subdued and warm lighting with Sade and Gary Callum singing in the background complete the cool and restrained feel. The spacious bar on the floor above is decked out in similar fashion and has a large conservatory/balcony area overlooking the river where we studied the menus over a drink.

Secondly, apart from one minor exception, the staff were uniformly excellent and willing. It must be hard working in a place where you know the business isn't covering your wages.

Our waitress was particularly attentive and charming to the extent that I could not be even remotely cross when she brought me the wrong bill at the end of the meal. And that was after a series of bloopers which would have made the aforesaid Mr Ramsey apoplectic.

Shortly after our arrival we knew this was not going to be an entirely wonderful evening. The bar waitress gave us two menus, the a la carte and a second one with three or four more starters and main courses. This was because, she explained, a new a la carte menu was about to be introduced and a number of the dishes on the old one were no longer available.

Sylvia chose confit of duck with spring onion salad and hoi sin dressing (£4.50) followed by Hunter's Chicken - a chicken breast topped with bacon, barbecue sauce and mozzarella and red Leicester cheeses (£8.50). I opted for penne with roast courgette and sun-blushed tomato sauce (£3.95 for a starter portion) and seared tuna loin with a warm Nicoise salad, aioli and balsamic syrup (£13)

The duck salad was on the bland side, with precious little hoi sin or spring onion. The penne was much better and benefited from a very good sauce with the pieces of sun-blushed tomato being particularly tangy although the pasta was a shade overdone for my taste.

On to the main courses and this time Sylvia was the winner with her chicken being tender and the cheese and bacon combination working well with it. It was a hefty portion too, which she was unable to finish.

My seared tuna, sadly, was a travesty for £13. It was not so much seared as baked. It had the texture of a tough pork chop and I couldn't finish it either, but for a rather different reason. Perversely, the Nicoise salad and mayonnaise it sat on was very good.

Then the evening took on a slightly surreal feel when the fire alarm went off. The restaurant manager emerged to assure customers that there was no fire. He explained that the building's fire alarm went off every time the Indian restaurant on the ground floor cooked a dish on "a sizzler".

After a scramble for the relevant alarm keys, aural order was duly restored and we completed our meal undisturbed with a shared mille fueille of strawberries and brandy snap wafer s with Chantilly cream (£3.50). It was very, very good.

Afterwards we spoke to a somewhat crestfallen manager John Skipp who acknowledged the evening's failings and said great faith was being placed in the new menu which would "cheaper and more straightforward".

We hope McQuays gets it right because its location provides it with the potential to be a great place to eat. And we wouldn't want its charming staff to face the wrath of Mr Ramsey.

*Apologies to Panetti's cafe/bistro in Bedale. Readers of last week's review may have formed the impression, thanks to a missing-without-due-cause "s", that the dessert menu was rather radical. I am happy to point out the light and dark chocolate mousse was delicious.