Without naming names, many Oxford pubs in lovely riverside settings have for years apparently traded on their situations, providing bad service and disappointing food in the expectation that the punters will pile in anyway.

In North Hinksey, just ten minutes stroll down a lovely willow-shaded walk from our Osney Mead offices, across a landscape that would have been familiar to Mathew Arnold's Scholar Gypsy, is just such a pub - The Fishes.

For years I went there in lunch hours, and for years I left thinking what a lovely place it could be if better run and if given dollops of tender loving care. Eventually I gave up going there, fed up with being herded about by people who apparently saw customers as mere end-stops on a production line.

Now I regret the 15-month miss I gave the place. Exactly what I hoped would happen, has happened. Out has gone most of the silly, faintly fishy-themed clutter; in is simple light wood furniture with clean lines reminiscent of Scandinavia, which somehow manages to accentuate the place's beautiful setting.

No wonder all the tables were booked when the three of us working on the business desk at this office turned up (as usual) without a booking. But did they scowl and turn us out as might have been our lot years ago?

Far from it. A smile and an apology, coupled with an invitation to eat at the bar, came our way instead. If this is the way English so-called gastro pubs are going, then here is good news indeed.

Even sitting in the depths of the light and airy pub on a busy day, the atmosphere felt relaxed and, yes, happy; a calm mood engendered by people who are doing a job well is infectious. Certainly we found ourselves merrily ordering another bottle of the excellent Italian house red (£12), which none of us had planned to do!

Architecturally, much has been made of the large conservatory, standing on a sort of stilt arrangement around the Edwardian building.

It works well, causing even us lot, propping up the bar as we were, to be constantly aware of the spacious garden around the pub.

Even in the depths of winter we were not suprised to read a discreet notice announcing that the place had won an Alfresco Pub of the Year award.

Gastronomically, standards have shot up too. Gone are the conveyor belt days of yore. The first taste of my fish stew transported me back to a meal in Cannes some 30 years ago which even then probably cost more than the £12 I paid here.

Carnivore business editor Andrew Smith, ever frugal, waded straight in with a mistake: he didn't know his toad in the hole from his bubble and squeak. In fact he got the latter.

And now he knows: toad in the hole is made of sausages and Yorkshire pudding; bubble and squeak is mainly cabbage, potatoes, and free range egg. All the same, at £9.50 he pronounced it "surprisingly tasty". Certainly no complaints.

Colleague Maggie Hartford went for the bream stuffed with orange and fennel from the specials board at £13. It looked so good that I secretly made a note to eat one just like it next time I visit the place.

Somehow The Peach Pub Company, which now runs The Fishes, has managed to introduce an up-to-date, slightly cosmopolitan feel. Certainly, the tapas-style starters we shared brought to mind carefree holidays. It is the same at The Fleece in Witney, which the company also runs.

No surprise, therefore, that The Fishes was in 2005 the highest rated Oxfordshire pub in the trade journal Morning Advertiser's Top UK traditional pub league. It came in at number 16, with The Fleece at number 17.

As for that bream I plan to eat: I shall be back very soon, as I have an Italian friend to show around Oxford.

I shall tell him how Oscar Wilde helped build the road outside the pub when his tutor Ruskin solemnly handed bricks to students and books to workmen. And I certainly will not be ashamed of British cooking.

n Contact: The Fishes, 01865 249796, www.fishesoxford.co.uk