Masham, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

“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”.

More solid reviews this year for the 40-seat restaurant within this attractive old inn, situated in a market town: “really enjoyable” modern bistro cooking wins praise as does the “great service” (including with kids in tow).

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”.

Stewarded by father-and-son duo David & Lewis Moss for two decades, this “fantastic Dales inn” (notably friendly to doggos) has a prime setting in the national park, and combines “friendly service” with “great food” that (despite the name) is notably fish-centric. If you want to make a night of it, they have pleasant themed rooms (including one dedicated to 007, to assuage fans irritated by the long delayed next instalment) and a private two-bedroom cottage just a few steps away.

“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).

“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”.