Winsley, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

This “handsome old house” makes a “brilliant” showcase for Yorkshire-born chef Shaun Rankin’s talents, honed by decades in Jersey and London. Valeria Sykes spent £70 million converting the country pile into a hotel, and given its almost “intimidating” level of luxury naturally “you may need a second mortgage before booking” (“from the iron gates policed by a uniformed guard, along a coiffed drive, we found a forecourt occupied by four Rolls-Royces, a Lamborghini and assorted top-model Range Rovers!”). On all accounts, though, it’s “quite outstanding in all respects”, not least results from the ten-course ‘Taste at Home’ menu for £145 per person.

“The new venture from the old Yorke Arms team is absolutely perfect in every way” – “to see Frances Atkins preparing your lunch in the open kitchen is a wonderful experience”. Following the sad ending of her long tenure at the famous moorland inn, the first woman to earn a Michelin star in the UK is now wowing guests at a garden centre near Harrogate, alongside her trusted lieutenants chef Roger Oliver and manager John Tullett. There’s “a high-quality menu available throughout the day, while dinner is only on Fridays” (twice a month) – and it’s all “Michelin-quality food without the pretensions of a star”.

This ultra-opulent seventeenth-century country house was reborn as a hotel in 2019 replete with pool, snow room and altitude training chamber. Its many eateries include a haute operation by former Ormer chef Shaun Rankin – and this tartan-clad, baronial-style brasserie, praised this year for its “amazing welcome and lovely food” (especially patisserie, if you put your trust in Jay Rayner’s otherwise slightly mixed 2022 review).