24-27 December
Packages from: £395 pp
Christmas Eve: Afternoon tea will be served on arrival from 3 pm for you to recover from your journey followed by a five course, French-themed dinner. Christmas Day: Start the special day with a light continental breakfast in the dining room. A four-course lunch of traditional British fare will be served between 1-3 pm. In the evening there will be a festive buffet from 8.30 pm.
Boxing Day: A full breakfast will be served until 10 am. Lunch from 12.45-2 pm (optional: £40.00). And in the evening a six-course dinner of Italian festive favourites featuring wild mushrooms, truffles and seafood. Sunday 27 December: A full breakfast menu served from 8.30 am before your journey home.
Christmas lunch menu (until 23 December): £35 pp (3 courses)
A “love-it-or-hate-it” refurb a couple of years ago (most reporters love it), complete with “numerous alterations and extensions” (and the installation of a “flashy bar”) has zhooshed up the North West’s most prominent country house hotel. Nigel Haworth’s and Lisa Allen’s “effortlessly delicious” seasonal cuisine (“so intense it makes you drool!”) is matched with a “tremendous” and “constantly evolving” wine list, and served “without undue formality” by staff who “couldn’t be more helpful”. Top Menu Tip – “the table d’hote lunch is simply stunning value”.
Northcote also has Christmas break options and private dining areas (including their chef’s table) available for festive parties. Find out more.
Yorke Arms, Ramsgill-in-Nidderdale
“A marvellous setting, in the middle of Nidderdale” provides a “lovely” backdrop to this rural but “classy” old inn, in a “beautiful Dales village”. Frances Atkins is one of the country’s most renowned female chefs, and “local game is often to the fore” in her “unfailingly impressive”, “incredibly intensely flavoured cooking”, which ranks in the UK top-20 this year.
The winter months are an ideal time to visit The Yorke Arms to enjoy a range of tempting winter warmer offers. Find out more via the links below.
- Luxury Lunchtimes
- Champagne Afternoon Tea
- Tasting Menu Getaway
- Festive Two-Night Stay
- Sunday Lunch
- Christmas Celebrations
- Boxing Day
Yalbury Cottage, Lower Brockhampton
2-23 December
Christmas lunch menu: £27.50 pp
Christmas dinner menu: £37.50 pp (3 courses) and £32.50 (2 courses)
“The food will blow your taste buds” at Ariane & Jamie Jones’s “beautiful, homely and intimate cottage restaurant” (with rooms); it continues to inspire nothing but the highest of praise, and it’s “in a beautiful area too”. It’s all about Christmas lunch at Yalbury Cottage, however if you prefer to go for dinner, they will offer the daily menu with a seasonal twist. Lunch includes canapés, an amuse bouche and three courses with tea or coffee. They’ve got a four bird roast on the menu: Turkey, duck, pheasant and partridge wrapped in smoked bacon with bread sauce, roast potatoes and buttered sprouts.
Christmas menu available until 23 December.
Lunch Wed-Sat: £19.95 (2 courses), £24.95 (3 courses)
Dinner Tue-Fri: £36.50 (3 courses)
Special Menus on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Eve.
“Where would you want to have your last meal? Mine would be here!” – the Crépy family’s “wonderful, timbered building” enjoys “a lovely and quiet location” in arguably “East Anglia’s most beautiful village”, and provides “a unique and delightful marriage of France and Olde Englande”. All-in-all “it’s hard to find fault” – the classic cuisine “never disappoints”, wines are “superb”, the cheese selection “unrivalled”, and staff are “charming, discreet and efficient”.
5-24 December
Lunch and dinner (3 courses): £39.95 pp
“Unbeatable views of the Thames” are the standout feature of this “elegant” (if “rather dated”) traditional dining room in a “lovely, old, grand hotel”, near Richmond Park – a particular hit with its silver-haired clientele; service is “gracious” and “un-rushed”, and it’s just the job for a special family meal. The restaurant is closed for dinner on Christmas Eve and all day Christmas Day and Boxing Day. On the festive menu: Traditional roast turkey with all the trimmings, as well as roast pheasant, confit leg, kale, sweet potato fondant and redcurrant sauce.
“A delightful experience from beginning to end”; a “romantic” historically-housed hotel whose 15th-century hall makes a “beautiful” setting in which to dine; the food is usually “superb” too.
Or you could try its sister country house and restaurant, The Ryebeck in Bowness-on-Windermere. Christmas break packages start from £885 and include three nights from 24 December. On Christmas Eve you will be served afternoon tea with mulled wine, later followed by canapés and a seven course dinner. Christmas Day includes breakfast with Buck’s Fizz, a four course Christmas lunch will then be served from noon, and if you still have room there’s a buffet in the evening. Boxing Day consists of breakfast, a private cruise on the Lake Windermere from 2 pm with a picnic and a four course dinner.
Dinner, bed and breakfast: £199 pp
Head to the Wye Valley in Wales this Christmas and you’ll find everything you need to ring in the festive season at this celebrated restaurant-with-rooms in a heavenly location. Guests can dine from the seven course dinner tasting menu, featuring ingredients foraged from the surrounding area by chef Chris Harrod and his team. Dishes include: Squab pigeon with cauliflower, rhubarb, charred kale and wild chervil and Cornish crab with charlock, horseradish and celeriac bark. For an additional overnight stay with dinner, bed and breakfast based on two people sharing starts from £390.
Christmas six-course tasting menu: £59.50 pp
Christmas lunch menu: £25 pp
Christmas dinner menu: £40 pp
Christmas Day menu: £105 pp
“The beautiful view of Christchurch harbour” is the crown jewel feature of Alex Aitken’s “thriving” favourite, but most reporters feel “the restaurant lives up to its location”, with “fabulous and fresh fish and seafood”. The biggest niggles? – “London prices” and “inadequate parking”. The Jetty has laid on a Christmas party tasting menu, as well as a Christmas party lunch and dinner menu. They’re even open on Christmas Day if you don’t fancy cooking. On top of the traditional turkey, guests can opt for whole lemon sole or sea bream or rare haunch of New Forest venison.
Christmas menu available until 23 December.
“A slice of France in the heart of East Anglia” – Pascal & Karine Canavet’s “fabulous” favourite, near the cathedral, “never fails to please” with its all-round combination of “wonderfully cooked fish”, “helpful and charming” service and “civilised and elegant” style.
Festive Five Course Tasting Lunch Menu:£38 pp (optional wine flight £18)
Three Course A La Carte Menu (with complimentary amuse bouche and pre-dessert): £48 pp
Seven Course Tasting Menu: £68 per person (optional wine flight £50)
Michelin’s brazen lack of recognition for this “superlative” venture, in the heart of Old Amersham is beyond comprehension – in fact the debate should not be whether or not it should have a star, but whether or not it should have two. The setting is perhaps “stark” but also “calming” and “romantic”; staff “are on a mission to make your meal enjoyable”; and “wow-factor is the norm” for the food from Laurie Gear’s “technically refined and creative” kitchen, which “displays more than just talent, but also innovation without losing sight of the basics”.
As well as its festive menus, Artichoke is hosting two Christmas Sunday Lunches (for which it will open specially) on 13 and 20 December. The tasting menu and à la carte will be available both days. There are also private rooms available for Christmas parties.
Restaurant Mark Greenaway, Edinburgh
Throughout December
Christmas lunch menu: £35 pp (£60 with matching wines)
Christmas dinner menu: £45 pp (£70 with matching wines)
New Town’s “innovative” townhouse-restaurant has extended its opening hours this Christmas. As well as normal hours it will also be open for lunch and dinner on Sunday 20 December, Monday 21 December, Sunday 27 December and Monday 28 December. On the festive menu for 2015: Loch Fyne crab cannelloni with smoked cauliflower custard, lemon pearls, herb butter and baby coriander; free range roast turkey with all the trimmings; and Christmas pudding with whipped brandy butter and cinnamon ice cream.
Roger Hickman’s, Norwich
December lunch menu: £30 (2 courses) £35 (three courses)
Christmas Eve lunch taster menu: £55
Christmas Day menu: £130 pp
“The go-to restaurant for Norwich and the southern half of Norfolk” – Roger Hickman’s “unpretentious” oasis of gastronomy provides a “comfortable and laid back” setting that’s “been hugely improved this year with a fresh and contemporary look (which= finally saw the back of the old, tired Adlard’s décor)” and installation of a bar. His very “inventive” cooking is “precise, with clear-cut and harmonious flavours”.
The Christmas Day menu includes: Champagne and canapés; Norfolk quail with celeriac, chestnut and apple; poached salmon with beetroot salad; rib of beef with Yorkshire pudding, shallot purée and horseradish; cheese; Christmas Pudding parfait with spiced plums and brandy snap; and coffee and petit fours.
Throughout December
Christmas restaurant menu: £37.50-42.50 pp
Christmas Bar & Grill menu: £27.50-£35
Niall McKenna’s city-centre fine dining destination has a range private spaces available for small and large parties this Christmas. On top of that, a Christmas set menu will be available in the restaurant and the Bar & Grill next door at lunch and dinner. Restaurant dishes include: Chilled Crab Lasagne, Lemongrass & Brown Crab Bisque; Hannan’s Corned Ox Cheek, Pickled Red Cabbage, Potato Crisps; Irish Turkey, Cranberry & Sage; Pheasant Breast, Hannan’s Guanciale, Mushroom Cream, Shaved Mushrooms and James St South Christmas Pudding, Brandy Sauce. The Bar & Grill menu includes: Prawn cocktail; Ham hock terrine with piccalilli + sourdough; Butter roast turkey, Belfast baked ham, sage stuffing + red wine jus; and Christmas pudding sundae.
Throughout December
There’s no set Christmas menu at this “very special Indian” which serves up a range of eclectic tapas style dishes. For the festive season they’ve got some delicious-sounding small plates on offer, like: Haddock marinated with lemon, green chillies, masala and topped with tomatoes and olives; slow-cooked lamb with ginger and garlic, simmered with leeks; and king prawns and monkfish pan-fried with root ginger, garam masala and dill. You can also bring your own bottle, corkage is £3.50 per bottle of wine and £6.50 for sparkling wine.
1-23 December
For further Indian feasting this festive season, try Karnavar in Croydon. They have two, 3-course Christmas menus available at lunch and dinner, priced £15.50-29.50 for lunch and £22.50-£29.50 for dinner.
For reservations please call 020 8686 2436 or email croydon@karnavar.com
Dolphin House Brazzerie, Plymouth
4-19 December
2 courses £22 pp, 3 courses £28 pp
This hidden gem in Sutton Harbour is best known for its fish menus, but this Christmas they’ve got local game on the menu too. Dishes include: Local game and chestnut terrine with brioche and house chutney; house smoked fish plate with root slaw; local venison with celeriac parcel, boudin noir and jus; free range duck, preserved plums, fondant potato, brussel sprouts and jus; and classic Christmas pudding with brandy butter flambé.
They are also open for Christmas Day lunch. Four courses, including a glass of prosecco on arrival, £59 pp.
Fazenda (Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester)
Christmas lunch menu: £25.50
Christmas dinner menu: £36.50
Or why not try something completely different this festive season and have a Brazilian meat feast instead of turkey or goose? Start off with some cured meats and cheeses, as well as Feijoada (bean stew with meat) and then move on to skewers of sizzling pork and beef. On top of the usual selection of meats, their Christmas menu includes a glass of sparkling wine and a dessert per person.
Throughout December
Christmas fayre lunch and dinner menu: £31.95 pp
Christmas Day special lunch: £69.50 pp (half price for children under 12)
There’s a great buzz (and the odd Man U player with WAG in tow) at this glitzy city-centre Italian. This December they’ve got a special set menu on, as well as a Christmas Day lunch. Both include the traditional Turkey with chestnut stuffing, but served with chipolatas wrapped in pancetta and Italian gravy, as well as Christmas pudding.
Christmas set menus: £21.95-£26.95
Tipped for its “excellent” curries, and service that’s “so friendly and efficient” too – a new outfit near the railway station, which bills itself as the city’s ‘First Authentic Kerala restaurant’. This December why not turkey Keralan-style with rice and bread, as well as a starter platter chilli paneer, thakarppan khozi, and meen chuttathu.
Thinking about ordering your own goose or turkey for Christmas at home? Rhug Estate’s organic birds are available to pre-order with UK-wide delivery. The organic, field-to-fork farm in Denbighshire, Wales, is owned and run by Lord Newborough.
Christmas orders are being taken now. Rhug Estate’s premium turkeys (weighing from 4kg to 9kg) range from £65.25 -£137.75, and geese (weighing between 4kg to 7kg) are priced from £74.25 – £107.25. Orders can be placed by calling the dedicated Christmas sales team at Rhug on 01490 413 000 Ext. 1 or online via www.rhug.co.uk. Alternatively, pick your bird from the counter at Harrods: www.harrods.com as well as organic retailer, As Nature Intended: www.asnatureintended.uk.com
*Free home delivery on orders over £100. £15 delivery charge for orders less than £100.
