Fine dining is pricy these days. This isn’t the most affluent household in York but in years gone by, we would happily pick out a Michelin starred restaurant while on holiday for a treat maybe even a couple of times a year. These days in a post-Covid/Brexit/low-inflation world the financial barrier to entry sits higher…
I’ve had a lot of tasting menus in my time and am now well acquainted with the flow and rhythm of plates that issue forth from esteemed kitchens. That’s certainly not meant as a complaint and when one is well executed it can be a fantastic thing, but some can feel a bit samey after…
In the decade or so I’ve been doing this, I’ve seen Tasting Menus go from dominant in fine dining through a period of mild unpopularity around 2018 as chefs such as Daniel Clifford voiced concerns at their restricted nature. Post-Covid though, fine dining seems, in the large, to have gently slipped back to this familiar…
I’m a big fan of pubs. They bring together people who would never otherwise connect, create all manner of social interactions as well as hosting diverse community groups, live music and so on. They truly are at the heart of communities across Britain. That being the case, I find it enormously frustrating when you walk…
(ad – pr) Another week, another country estate to familiarise myself with… life certainly has its moments! This time it’s Swinton Park up the A1 near Masham and Ripon with its formidable reputation to check out. My main prior knowledge of this place comes from a friend who assisted Rosemary Schrager in running the cookery…
(ad – pr) As with my recent visit to Ox Pasture Hall, I have to confess that Aldwark Manor was unfamiliar to me before I was kindly invited along to try out their new restaurant, Chartwell. Neither golf nor spa days appeal to me, so its appeal was previously limited, but the arrival of well…
(ad – pr) Thomas Carr at The Coast is a new restaurant in Ox Pasture Hall from Chef Thomas Carr who has previously held a Michelin Star for seven years at his two restaurants in Devon. Now though he’s relocated to just outside Scarborough and has set about making a reputation for himself in this…
(ad – pr) York has such a range of places to eat these days which fulfil so many criteria that it can be easy to get blinkered and not look further afield. Leeds is easy enough to train it over to but Harrogate takes a little more commitment thanks to the rather less refined rail…
(ad – pr) York has some pretty spectacular restaurants, with premises inhabiting noted buildings such as The Assembly Rooms and the former girls’ school on Low Petergate – now occupied La Vechhia Scuola – notably repurposing grand buildings for hospitality. This concept has been taken to an extreme now with the opening earlier this year…
This is a big one. Over the years it was open in York, Le Cochon Aveugle was pushed onwards by Josh Overington to be deserving of the highest reputation, with each passing year its lack of a Michelin star looking rather more inexplicable. Regardless of the standard and reputation though a natural limit to the…