Wreathed in Humber gloom, Philip Larkin spent his first year as Hull University librarian lodging in Cottingham, a big suburban village on the city’s outskirts, and is buried in the local cemetery. What he would have made of Lazaat, Cottingham’s new explosion of exoticism, is anyone’s guess.

Lazaat, a Persian word meaning “an experience of all the senses”, bills itself as a “restaurant-bar-hotel” and may be the first Asian restaurant-with-rooms in the country. Certainly it’s the first on the road to Driffield.

Don’t judge from the outside. A former, much-extended redbrick farmhouse, it suggests a low-rise upmarket motel. Inside, however, we join a designer’s package tour of faraway places, with a carved Rajasthani door here, a Pakistani bench there and warm Moroccan yellows and oranges everywhere.

It works well: contemporary, welcoming, full of interesting fabrics and with the odd concept thrown in — “The Lazaat Ethos: To be instrumental in challenging perceptions”.

My bedroom — there are 13 — had walls at all sorts of cute (and acute) angles, a stylish geometry lesson cleverly defining sleeping, dressing and storage areas. There was a walk-in shower (but nowhere to put your soap and towel) and dimmer lights (too dim for reading in bed). The rosewood-furnished restaurant, with its screens of nightlight candles, generates a happy buzz.

The menu is full of modern takes on Asian dishes and strong on spices. After a perfectly judged Goan roast fish starter, I sat silently contemplating the Lazaat Ethos for so long that a waiter asked: “Has anyone shown you the dessert menu?” I pointed out I still hadn’t had my main course. It swiftly arrived: a potato, tomato and black lentil curry that was sparse, dry and over-salted.

These are early days for Lazaat and, for all its teething troubles, you can only applaud its imagination and atmosphere. Even Larkin wouldn’t have found much to grumble about.

Sampling the fare: Three-course meals about £19 per person (without wine).

Bottom line: B&B doubles from £85.

Access all areas: One wheelchair-friendly room.

Need to know: Lazaat (01482 847900, www.lazaat.com), Woodhill Way, Cottingham, East Yorkshire.

Room: 8 out of 10.

Food: 6 out of 10.

Service: 6 out of 10.

“Exotic ethos”: 9 out of 10.

Times recommends

• Win a Zeppelin flight over London
• A first timer's guide to... Morocco
• The budget guide to the French Riviera