Time flies when you’re having fun... at least, that’s the considered opinion of the regular patrons of The Mill restaurant in Boston, who can scarcely believe that their favourite eatery is approaching its second anniversary, to be celebrated at the end of this month.

Despite being less than two years old, the restaurant has already gained favour with a number of diners in the area who think that the skillful combination of high-quality, very ‘Lincolnshire’ food, and good front of house management makes the venue a sound choice for regular dining. The restaurant was even coveted with Lincolnshire Pride’s Highly Commended Restaurant in our 2009 awards, voted for entirely by the public.

“We were absolutely delighted.” Says owner Tracy Topliss, who is responsible for the restaurant’s front of house, alongside chef patron and Tracy’s husband Paul Topliss. “Normally it takes a restaurant a while to become established, but our regulars already consider us worthy of an award in which competition is both strong, and established.”

Tracy and Paul are both Lincolnshire born and bred, from Donington and Spalding respectively. The two met back at the turn of the millennium whilst working at a newly established venue in Spalding. Leaving the venue to pursue a love of travelling, Tracy and Paul visited Portugal, Guernsey and Australia, working in each country, before returning to Lincolnshire in 2005.

The pair took a year or two to look for the venue they had always dreamed of owning, and were delighted in 2007 to discover that Batemans Brewery, based at Wainfleet, were looking to establish a flagship restaurant to showcase the best food and drink the county has to offer.

“We refurbished the pub completely.” Says Tracy. “The place had been used as a pub and was trading as a restaurant but when we arrived mid-refurbishment, the place was little more than a building site, so we had a great deal of say in the renovation, which was brilliant... Batemans gave us almost free reign so we could start from scratch and create a completely new restaurant rather than taking over an existing one.”

Tracy began working on the restaurant and bar itself, specifying a combination of slate flooring for the bar area, plush wooden flooring and carpeting for the restaurant area and traditional oak tables on which to rest contemporary crockery and polished silver cutlery. The overall intention was to create a high quality experience whilst retaining an air of relaxed informality, and for this reason, starched tablecloths are eschewed in favour of contemporary jazz and large wine glasses, and fussy food in favour of quality gastropub offerings that fully exploit Boston’s fenland location and wealth of tried & trusted local suppliers.

Whilst Tracy was honing the restaurant’s ambience, Paul was busy creating a kitchen from a wishlist of the latest equipment and choosing a dedicated brigade. He also created both lunchtime and a la carte menus for diners using suppliers like Bycrofts for fresh meat, Boston Sausage for pork, Peterborough Game and several local farmers for the freshest veg every day.

Great effort goes into each meal, with lunchtime dishes merely simplified versions of a la carte dishes, with four offerings for starters and a generous choice of 11 main course dishes.

A constant starter of soup of the day was offered alongside Crab Mousse with Smoked Salmon, Chicken Liver Pate and Portobello Mushrooms during our visit, whilst main course offerings included gastropub favourites such as Fish and Chips, Lasagne, Lamb Shank and Sausages & Mash to cater for a traditional clientele that favours down to earth food prepared freshly to order with as little delay as possible.

Lunchtime trade for the venue is brisk, and Monday and Wednesday sees special ‘Ladies Lunch’ functions with concessionary dining offered, whilst Sunday lunchtimes feature table d’hote dining with four starters, main courses and desserts and a choice of two or three course options from £10.95.

A la carte dining is a little more polished, and features a choice of seven starters, 12 main courses and a selection of specials which change twice a week. With constant fish and vegetarian options and options during our visit of Game & Red Wine Pie, Half Roasted Duck a l’Orange and Venison Steak alongside a dedicated steak menu, diners are never stuck for something new to try.

Notably, considering the price of each menu, all desserts are made in house, and all bread served in the restaurant is prepared and baked freshly each day.

The level of attention given to each dish along with the quality of ingredients and breadth of choice appeals to diners’ sense of value for money as well as their culinary tastes and therein lies the secret to the restaurant’s success thus far.

Not only does the Mill represent great food and great value, both Tracy and Paul clearly love satisfying diners. Tracy claims to ‘love people’ and adores working at the front of house, whilst Paul says he never loses the passion for producing great food no matter how many hours the kitchen demands.

Both Paul and Tracy’s respective passions in the restaurant trade complement each other brilliantly, and the pair certainly make a winning combination... but the real winners at the Mill are the customers, whose satisfaction is obvious, even after just two years of trading.