North Yorkshire, British, Traditional Restaurant Guide

2021 Review: “Splendid cafe/restaurant in a charming building overlooking Helmsley's picturesque stream that’s on another plane altogether from Helmsley’s other establishments”. Sibling to the York original it serves “delicious, wholesome café food”: “the selection, especially from the specials board, is always interesting, and uses lots of local seasonal ingredients”.

2021 Review: This extended fifteenth-century inn (nowadays with nearly fifty bedrooms) sits at the heart of this very attractive market town. Its Gallery Restaurant (named for its dual purpose during the day as an art gallery) has quite a reputation, and – despite sustained gripes over the years that it’s rather pricey – all reports rate it good or better.

2021 Review: “Honest Yorkshire portions of high-quality local ingredients” set the tone at this remote seventeenth-century inn near Pateley Bridge, run by Ray & June Carter for more than 30 years. They serve copious amounts of game shot in the immediate area, and have fishing rights on the River Nidd. The décor either “needs a refresh” or is delightfully old-fashioned, according to your taste.

Part of the Marquess of Downshire’s Clifton Castle and Jervaulx estates, this well-known eighteenth-century Wensleydale inn is, apparently, a favourite watering hole of King Charles III. “Well worth a drive” for its high-quality cooking – the kitchen team come into their own during the game season when “they demonstrate their mastery of cooking grouse, in the traditional and best way” – and it’s “dog friendly too”.

Marcus Bennett’s fifteenth-century village gastroboozer – a regular on ‘best’ UK gastropubs lists, and a consistent scorer in our annual diners’ poll – is a “very dependable” sort of spot, offering “beautifully presented food, especially game in season”; there was the odd quibble this year (“are prices higher” now?) but it still makes for “a good all-round treat now and again”.

This “beautiful hotel at Bolton Abbey”, the Duke of Devonshire’s classic country estate, is a well-known getaway, and its very posh and “very good” dining room has also proved a testing ground for exciting chefs (Michael Wignall, Peter Howarth). Chris O’Callaghan, who arrived in 2021, now oversees the British cuisine (afternoon teas and fancier fare), while the open-plan wine cellar feeds into the “superb and very extensive wine list”.

2021 Review: “Hockneys in view” as you dine are the most famous attraction of this noisy but atmospheric venue: a large, post-industrial space in the UNESCO-listed Salts Mill complex, open from breakfast on for a coffee or fuller meal (Saltburger, Caesar salad, etc).

2021 Review: Passed from Northcote’s Ribble Valley Inns group to Brunning & Price in 2018 (and promptly refurbed), this poshified gastroboozer is a “lovely place to visit” for its “agreeable surroundings with nooks and crannies” and “excellent food and service”.

Chef Josh Overington and his wife Victoria opened this new restaurant with three rooms in North Yorkshire at the end of June 2023 (well after our annual diners’ poll had concluded) in a converted old pub, formerly called the Malt Shovel (but still replete with beams, flagged floors and characterful details). Myse (which rhymes with cheese) is a follow-up to their Le Cochon Aveugle in York (which enjoyed stellar ratings in our survey) and provides a tasting-only formula, with fifteen courses for £125 and wine pairings from £65. Early vibes – for example from arch northern foodie Thom Hetherington – are very upbeat.

Peter Neville made his name in these parts with venues including The Pheasant in Harome, which he co-owns; in 2021, he and partner Cecily Fearnley upped sticks to her home village to open this converted farmhouse restaurant (plus on-site holiday cottage), and by all accounts it’s a “lovely spot” amidst the moors, whose “beautifully presented” local/seasonal cooking wins consistently high ratings.