: The Moor the merrier.

A COUPLE of weeks ago I set out on my bicycle along lanes fringed with red campion and lady's bedstraw, a red kite circling overhead and blue skies all the way.

I think I can claim this as a first - that is travelling by two wheels rather than four to a Taste Test and it certainly made me feel virtuous, as well as very, very hungry.

I had been to Pont Yr Afon Gam cafe once before, in a car, for a pre-TT recce and had fallen in love with the chocolate and almond cake. There wasn't a yard I didn't ride without thinking about that cake and, after 11 miles, I practically hurled myself through the door, straight to the cake table to see whether it was on that day's menu. It was. Phew!

We set off for this unique cafe from Pentrefoelas, breezing along the lanes to Ysbyty Ifan, before hitting the high road for Ffestiniog. It's here that the going gets tough but I had plenty of carbohydrates to look forward to and the knowledge that I could eat more of them, having created calorie space beforehand.

The cafe comes as something of a surprise. Out in the middle of the Migneint moorland, it is stylish and modern, all stripped pine floors, beech IKEA tables, exposed stonework and pots of lavender in the windows.

There are leather sofas to collapse into with a cappuccino, magazines, the day's papers and games to wile away the time when you aren't looking at the view. Not to be missed are the trendy Phillipe Stark-inspired washbasins in the lavatories.

If you were to wander into this cafe on the high street you would be impressed but its position out on the moors makes it even more remarkable. Publicity material cleverly promotes the cafe as serving ``food with altitude''.

My partner Nick had ``discovered'' Pont Yr Afon Gam while out on his bike a month or so earlier and had been similarly revived by cakes before sprinting home with a copy of the menu tucked into his saddle bag.

The cafe offers the lot for hungry travellers along these moors, regardless of your mode of transport. Breakfast comes in the shape of homemade museli, nutella on toast or a full fry-up, there's afternoon tea options of baked-that-morning-cakes or scones or more substantial dishes to fill the lunch/early supper gap.

I opted for roast vegetables with humous, olives and home-made bread, followed by pasta, roast vegetables and feta - then chocolate and almond cake and cream (I was ready for this lot, believe me). Nick, meanwhile, chose the French onion soup with homemade bread and a salad of sausages and apple.

My starter was the perfect taste bud primer with succulently-roasted peppers, potatoes, courgettes, home-made humous which had a spicy chilli bite to it and to-die-for walnut bread and foccacia - both hot out of the oven.

Nick's soup was an energy-restoring meal in a bowl and set him up for the sausage salad. The porkers were the real McCoy, with herbs evident throughout, and were suitably complemented by the apple and a mixture of salad leaves. Getting pasta and roast vegetables right can be difficult but this was a tasty dish too with just the right amount of feta and enough oil to mop up with the remains of the walnut bread.

And I still had room for pudding. A great big slab of the chocolate and almond cake, originally a Cranks recipe, followed.

Wonderfully crumbly in texture it's the sort of cake you can eat without feeling queasy afterwards, chocolatey without being sickly. The accompanying strawberries and a big dollop of thick cream not only looked nice but turned the cake into a pudding.

Nick enjoyed this pudding too and a slice of spicy apple flapjack which, again, was a cut above the usual anaemic stuff served up in tea shops up and down the land.

It's not often you get to eat superior home-made food like this in cafes, less likely in remote spots like this but the word compromise is not on owners Christine and Mark's vocab list. They spent three years working hard at weekends to transform this place from a run-down cafe and garage into the individual eaterie it is today.

Having tested the water with weekend-only opening they are about to go full time from August 1 with plans for licensed evening openings in the near future. I can think of no better spot although we may have to leave the bikes at home for a supper booking. Cycling in high heels is no fun. I've tried it!

After rounding off our gargantuan feast with tea and tucking a small piece of cake into my saddlebag for later we got back on our bikes and headed off, all the way giving thanks that this was a downhill home run.

notesPont Yr Afon Gam, Ffestiniog. Tel: [phone] Open: weekends, 10am-7pm. From August 1 daily.

Decor: Traditional wood, stone and slate Directions: Travel from Ysbyty Ifan towards Ffestiniog or vice versa - whitewashed cafe on the high road. Smoking? No, but there are tables outside. Access: Steps down to the cafe

the billHumous & roast veg: pounds 2.50 Soup: pounds 2.50 Pasta and feta: pounds 4.90 Hot pork sausage salad: pounds 4 Chocolate and almond cake x 2: pounds 4.40 Apple flapjack: pounds 1 Elderflower spritzer x 2: pounds 3 Tea for two: pounds 2 Total: pounds 23.30