Someone will surely correct me if I am wrong about this but 40-plus years ago, when I first started eating out on a regular basis, I don’t think many people had much of an idea what an allergy was let alone suffered from one.

Where did all these allergies come from? Why are we so susceptible to suffering adverse reactions to such a wide range of foods?

And when I say ‘we’ I don’t mean the baby boomer generation of which I am proud, and downright relieved, to be a member of. It seems to be those aged 40 and under – Millennials and Gen Z.

I don’t know the answer to that question but I do know the allergy issue is a nightmare for the hospitality industry now.

At the Carpenter’s Arms, Felixkirk, near Thirsk, for Sunday lunch we looked at a menu which superficially was everything you would expect from a pub which fairly recently was North Yorkshire Pub of the Year – a blend of the traditional Sunday fare and the slightly more exotic.

But there was also an absolute mountain of information to guide those with allergies safely through it. Peanuts, diary, gluten, soya, crustacean, eggs, sesame, nuts, mustard – 14 ingredients in all – have a number code to indicate if they are present in any one dish.

So choose the roast butternut squash and goats cheese tart with salad and sage and pinenut pesto and the eight potentially allergy-inducing ingredients are listed by code number on the menu. Choose a roast dinner and there are no less than seven.

It’s not off-putting if you’ve no allergy issues, just striking that it is what a business has to do to protect its customers – and itself if something goes wrong. One day all menus will be like this we suspect.

So, trying to ignore the bingo numbers listed against every item – and thankful that we didn’t have to check out the calories as well – we made our choice of two starters and two mains from a Sunday lunch menu priced at £27.95 for two courses and £33.95 for three.

Sylvia’s prawn and crayfish cocktail with pickled cucumber, slow roast cherry tomatoes and gem lettuce (allergy code numbers 1, 3,4, 5, 9, 11 and 14) was very serviceable if not exactly wow. Plenty of seafood, a little short on the Marie Rose she reckoned.

I certainly got wow with my pigeon breast, sweetcorn puree, watercress and bacon (7, 13 and 14). The breast was cooked through (unlike the last time when I had pigeon at a Carpenters’ game dinner a few years ago when I reckoned the bird’s heart was still beating). Very lightly gamey flavour combined with the crunch of the crispy bacon and the smoothness of the puree was a memorable combo.

Our chicken supreme and roast beef mains (2, 4, 7, 9, 11, 13 and 14) were top notch – moist and tender chicken, well-aged, flavoursome sirloin, served properly pink.

The Yorkshire puddings were plump, light and perhaps little too crispy in places. Controversial point this I know: does the perfect pud have an element of just-cooked soft batter to soak up more gravy? Discuss.

There was plenty of rich gravy and the vegetables (mashed carrot and swede, kale, cabbage and green beans) were all perfectly cooked, particularly a small pot of golden cauliflower cheese, served separately.

Dessert menus were proffered and sure enough right at the top was sticky toffee pudding.

Many of you will know what I think of STP – the Japanese knotweed of dessert menus as my colleague Chris Lloyd so memorably described it in this column a few weeks ago.

I never choose it because of its ever-present nature. But, perversely, I did on this occasion – and didn’t regret it. Light, rich, sticky sauce, vanilla ice cream, I think most STP aficionados would say it more than passed muster.

We lingered before settling our bill (£80.16 which included a 0% bottle of lager, a G&T and a small glass of Montepulciano). The accommodating and attentive staff were happy to let us do so despite our early arrival (12.30) and the other guests pouring in to fill what had been a rather empty if stylish dining room – part of a major modernisation and extension of the Carpenter's Arms when Provenance Inns purchased it a good many years ago.

The garden, the source of many of the vegetables and herbs used in the kitchen, is a delight as is the view across the broad expanse of the Vale of Mowbray to the Yorkshire Dales beyond, more or less (give or take a few hundred feet of altitude) the same view that Alf Wight, aka James Herriot, described as the finest in all of England.

This is a very fine Sunday lunch venue and, thanks to the dining by numbers menu, a banker for those who have to know exactly what they are getting.

The Carpenters Arms

Felixkirk, Thirsk YO7 2DP

Tel: 01845 537369

Web: thecarpentersarmsfelixkirk.com

Open for food: Mon-Tues noon-2.30pm, 5-8.30pm; Wed-Thurs noon-3pm, 5-8.30pm; Fri-Sat noon-3pm, 5-9.30pm; Sun noon-3.30pm, 6-8.30pm

Disabled access. All diets – and allergies – catered for.

Ratings (out of ten): Food quality 9, Service 8, Surroundings 9, Value 8