Brearton Restaurant Guide

“A real Harrogate stalwart, with excellent Italian cooking” – this town-centre venture has won a decent local reputation over four decades – “kids are kept happy with pizzas and home-made ice-cream”, while the menu covers the classics from stuzzichini and antipasti to pasta and secondi piatti, and there’s a “mainly Italian” wine list that explores the regions.

2021 Review: “A very traditional Yorkshire chippie” which doesn’t offer anything fancy but “just good fish ’n’ chips” (the former “huge and well-battered”, and “you can go for more exotic if you wish”); “a little tip – avoid early evening when the ‘pensioners’ special menu’ is served – it will be heaving!”

2023 Review: This “quirky café with wonderful cinnamon buns and waffles” offers a “real taste of Scandinavia in Harrogate”. It’s “very popular with yummy-mummies in the morning so can get a little loud, but you can buy all the baked goods from their shop just by the theatre”. Owner Paul Rawlinson’s Scandi restaurant Norse is still missed, five years after its closure.

The owners of this Cantonese spent an eye-watering £1.5m on its conversion and, while “the food is almost incidental to the splendour of the surroundings” (a “Victorian spa – full of wonderful tiling and soaring arches”), nevertheless “it’s not bad”, being “a notch above standard Chinese fare”, with the added joy that “they have a number of large round tables, so all the diners can enjoy the fun of working the lazy Susan”.

“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.

“A true beacon in the North” and a “great Harrogate fixture” – this “classic fish restaurant” has been a feature of the Montpellier Quarter for over 50 years (est. 1971) and has been run by the Carter family since 2013. All the many reports we receive (it’s one of the top-100 most commented on places outside London in our annual diners’ poll) say it “always delivers high quality and a very reliable menu choice”: “I keep thinking it must start to fail, but each time we go, it’s just as good as always. Been going for years and never fails to impress with the delicious seafood and the friendly helpful service”. Top Menu Tip – “always good oysters”.

“Not what you expect to find in a small boutique hotel” – “delicious pan-Asian cooking, with exceptional dishes hailing from Japan, Thailand, Malaysia etc.” have established this local favourite over two decades of operation (it opened in 2001).

“A local establishment offering consistent Italian dining” – this family-owned fixture has survived the passing of chef-patron Stefano Lancelloti, who died suddenly in 2023, shortly after celebrating the 25th anniversary of the restaurant he named after his hometown in Emilia Romagna. His son Nico is now part of the kitchen team looking after his legacy. Top Tip – “great for celebrations”.

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”.

“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”.

Launched in early 2024 above Sukhothai, an “ambitious newcomer” from young chef Varun Khanna (ex-of Sat Bains’ acclaimed venue in Nottingham), whose Asian background inflects this high-end British fine-diner; by early reports, “the food is really good, the tasting menu is excellent and the lunchtime menu is an absolute bargain” (three courses for £29).

“Increased in size” – this “dog friendly” bar/café/kitchen is “still best in class locally despite the new look and expansion” and makes “the perfect location for working, socialising and relaxing”. Expect “Darkwoods coffee, great value breakfasts and brunches, and the friendliest service” plus a selection of beers (10 craft keg taps and 6 cask hand pulls on the bar), pizzas and poutine (Quebec comfort food mixing chips, gravy and cheese) but with a Yorkshire twist.