Knaresborough, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

Attached to a luxurious spa hotel, this modern brasserie is open all day (with other options in the hotel being the more ambitious Horto, or afternoon tea in the Conservatory). One fan notes it as a good place for a relaxed business meal, but there is also the odd concern that its “good ambience can be let down by average results at excessive prices”.

2022 Review: This “lovely hotel” is so proud of its own produce that it named its main restaurant Horto, Latin for kitchen garden, and charged young head chef Callum Bowmer (who arrived for two weeks’ work experience in 2010 and never left) with the task of creating showcase menus from it. The resulting meals are “really enjoyable”.

“You can’t go to Harrogate without a visit to this Mecca of traditional afternoon tea” – a “quintessentially English experience that is not to be missed”. The flagship of a family-owned business launched in 1919 and now with four other branches across North Yorkshire, it also serves breakfast and lunch which nod to founder Frederick Belmont’s Swiss origins with a menu including bircher muesli, Alpine macaroni and potato rösti – but it is the “heritage and great bakery” which pull in the crowds. Top Menu Tip – “great fat rascals and Yorkshire curd tarts”.

2021 Review: A “bustling” ambiance that “gives a lift to the spirits” is the chief plus-point of this brasserie offshoot of the ever-expanding London luminary. Even fans concede it’s “expensive for what it is”, and “could be said to be a little formulaic”, while a couple of other reporters noted meals that were positively bad.

“Oozing luxury (as it should do at this price!), but a tremendous experience, especially if you stay over” – Shaun Rankin wins exemplary feedback for this “stunning” and stately venue. The centrepiece of the experience is a “great taster menu” running to 14 dishes for £160 per person, produced with “real class and taste”.

On a small, rural industrial estate – within a unit dedicated to the making of top-quality sauces and stocks – this industrially located chef’s table makes an unusual venue for one of the better meals in the country. Over five hours, you experience a 14-course tasting menu with the chefs on hand to explain the sourcing and techniques used at each stage. Feedback is not vast, but continues to rate it as “exceptional all-round”.

An “original ambience” contributes to the charm of this eccentrically decorated hotel-restaurant, bedecked in grandfather clocks, chandeliers, tubas and drums – and part of the 18th-century Crab Manor, where the quirky décor continues in five globe-trotting bedrooms. “Tasty” fish is the specialism, but there was also praise this year for the “nice game”. Service can still occasionally lag – “maybe short staffed”? In Summer 2024, they added a sun-trapped terrace, further amplifying the “nice surroundings”.

“Honest, hearty food which never disappoints” is on the menu at this “much beloved” outfit from “lovely people” – chef Stu Myers and his wife Jo – who have earned an enviable reputation in 12 years since taking over a tiny sandwich shop in Mabgate called the ‘Greedy Pig Kitchen’ (hence the name). Thanks to a successful crowdfunding campaign, they are scheduled to transfer to larger premises in suburban Headingley where they can expand their gastronomic horizons (but this location is already responsible for some reporters‘ best meal of the year in our annual diners’ poll).

This “very Gallic” and “traditional basement bistro” in the city’s financial district is just the job for schmoozing clients over a boozy lunch. Founded by Robert Chamberlain and Andrew Carter in 1991, “nothing has changed for many years” – “we weren’t there for business, but judging by the loud conversations around us there were plenty of others who were”.

2022 Review: This large, smart and impressive venue from D&D London, on the fifth floor of the new Trinity Leeds shopping centre, is enclosed in floor-to-ceiling windows with great views over the city, oak and marble interiors and an open kitchen. The cooking is generally considered “good” or better, with a decent set menu as well as more lavish à la carte and tasting menu options.

“Chef Frances Atkins has found her mojo again at this lovely garden centre” near Harrogate – and her legion of fans, still mourning her 2020 departure from the legendary Yorke Arms, are thrilled: “I can’t believe how exciting it is to watch Frances Atkins in the open kitchen preparing my lunch!”. What you get is breakfast, lunch, tea and occasionally supper of “Michelin-quality food in interesting combinations, using quality ingredients, but without the pretensions of a star”. It’s “a simple, clean and tidy venue”, “peaceful and efficient, with a good ambience” – “this is how you run a restaurant”.

“Trying very hard in a fabulous location” – the traditionally decorated dining room is part of an impressive country-house hotel and spa – a 17th-century manor in the Yorkshire Dales relaunched with little expense spared five years ago (and the AA Hotel of the Year in 2022/23). This luxe brasserie – with steak, lobster, chicken and other fare from the Josper grill – “maintains high standards” although the odd fan feels that it’s “good, but has further to go”. (See also Shaun Rankin at Grantley Hall).