I’m occasionally asked if I find it limiting just sticking to restaurants in York as people assume that the title of the website somehow precludes me from leaving the city boundaries. Thankfully though this is an autocracy and I am in the lucky position of being able to pick and choose where I do or don’t go. Over the years I’ve turned down many invitations on the basis of my being unwilling to spend money travelling to an event that would be roughly equivalent to the cost of the offered meal but recently one popped up that really did grab my attention. Nigel Haworth is a big name in hospitality in the North of England thanks to his association with Northcote where he held a Michelin star for many years, but these days his focus is on The Three Fishes at Mitton, where the menus were tempting enough for me to justify a 2+ hour journey in each direction.
In truth my interest was most piqued by the plant-based dishes on these menus which read as much more interesting than the token efforts sometimes associated with this sort of offering. After braving the drive, which featured an interminable amount of roadworks as half the A59 seemed under reconstruction, I found myself facing a handsome building with a large kitchen garden behind it, with little time to appreciate it as I hurried in thanks to those delays. The dining space is airy and light, all the better for taking photos if you’re of that persuasion, as I obviously am. I was lucky enough to get to try the plant-based and meat-based options on the “Farm to (York on a) Fork” menu which comes in at £59 for five courses on the Friday lunch time of my visit. Starting off with bread can be a trap in to which you fall, preventing you from having the appetite to finish the main event, but the cheese buns delivered here made for superb vehicles to enjoy the black pea hummus and parsley pesto as well as super smooth salted butter. That opening formality bested, it was on to starters in the form of scallops or mushrooms for the respective seafood or plant-based options. The chunky scallop was topped with pearls of trout caviar that burst refreshingly in the mouth along with a slight sharpness from lemon foam with bay and chicory to backdrop the experience. As one would expect the scallop was cooked to perfection and perfectly soft with just the right amount of char relieving the sweetness. The plant based equivalent centred around barbecued mushroom and used puffed rice for texture as well as accents of aioli and kimchi to make for a layered and complex experience.
Next up was another plant based dish, this time showcasing red beetroot against a backdrop of wild garlic risotto with was accented with a balsamic reduction. The pungent wild garlic made a great pairing with the earthy beetroot that had notes of bbq from having been cooked over fire, while nutritional yeast nudged a bit more complexity into this beautifully executed dish that found the rice at just the perfect texture. The meat based centrepiece of the menu used pork fillet as a main element, predictably cooked perfectly, and surrounded it with charred hispi cabbage as well as a wonderfully smooth chorizo-laced potato. A sauce featuring celeriac tied all this together and everything worked very neatly with the chorizo and pork making a particularly lovely partnership. Hispi cabbage had been subjected to just the right amount of charring to give it character without distracting from its own flavour. The plant based equivalent used paprika as an effective substitute for chorizo and fennel in place of the pork which had been braised and allowed to really show off the gentle liquorice flavours very well. Alongside these dishes a bowl of chips so oversized as to be faintly ludicrous were as crispy externally and soft internally as they were intimidatingly large.
Moving onto sweet things, I quickly polished off a shard of chocolate with ice cream and raspberries that had the tiniest amount of fresh mint scattered across it, really making the point that the simplest thing can have the biggest impact. The final flourish came in the form of a crown prince semifreddo, again plant based and presented with rhubarb and blood orange as well as toasted pumpkin seeds for texture. This is certainly one of the more unusual desserts I’ve been served over the years and visually it was remarkable, lustrous and shiny. I may not have much of a sweet tooth but I know a well executed dessert when it’s put in front of me, all the more so for presenting this plant based version of one that would typically use dairy.
The title of this menu being Farm to Fork speaks of the commitment to growing one’s own produce in the beautiful kitchen garden here as well as a responsible approach to sourcing elsewhere. That ethos really shines through at every bite throughout this menu and the plant based variants that had piqued my curiosity so felt no less well resolved than the dishes featuring meat, fish and dairy. It’s also hard to fault the value on offer too for the standard of food delivered, The Three Fishes at Mitton deserves to be packed for every service. I may be a bit fussier about what I travel for these days but this one was absolutely worth the drive.
