Otley, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

2022 Review: A “very good value, high-quality place in Ilkley” where Joel Monkman’s large and small plates of British seasonal fare continue to win plaudits three years after its founding; also on the menu, lunchtime BBQ Buns and hearty Sunday roasts.

2021 Review: “Hockneys in view” as you dine are the most famous attraction of this noisy but atmospheric venue: a large, post-industrial space in the UNESCO-listed Salts Mill complex, open from breakfast on for a coffee or fuller meal (Saltburger, Caesar salad, etc).

A Yorkshire “legend” – “the epitome of an old-fashioned afternoon tea room, and with a great pianist too”. “You might have a long wait in the queue to get in, but it’s worth it” for the “delicious pastries and well-filled sandwiches” served at this flagship of a family-owned business founded in 1919, now with five venues across North Yorkshire. “Places that are described as an ‘institution’ are often a stuffy, stilted let-down – Betty’s is none of the above”: “even the fish ’n’ chips are stylish”.

2021 Review: A “bustling” ambiance that “gives a lift to the spirits” is the chief plus-point of this brasserie offshoot of the ever-expanding London luminary. Even fans concede it’s “expensive for what it is”, and “could be said to be a little formulaic”, while a couple of other reporters noted meals that were positively bad.

Attached to a luxurious spa hotel, this modern brasserie is open all day (with other options in the hotel being the more ambitious Horto, or afternoon tea in the Conservatory). One fan notes it as a good place for a relaxed business meal, but there is also the odd concern that its “good ambience can be let down by average results at excessive prices”.

2022 Review: This “lovely hotel” is so proud of its own produce that it named its main restaurant Horto, Latin for kitchen garden, and charged young head chef Callum Bowmer (who arrived for two weeks’ work experience in 2010 and never left) with the task of creating showcase menus from it. The resulting meals are “really enjoyable”.

The more casual (and vividly hued) dining option at this hotel owned by the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire turns out “good food” of a brasserie bent, featuring plenty of produce grown on the estate and in the hotel’s kitchen garden. A “great open-plan wine cellar” and terrace add to its charms.

This “vibrant and busy” basement venue with an “interesting French menu” is a “longstanding favourite”, whose “very good lunch” makes it an “ideal and consistent business brasserie”. Opened in 1991 and still run by founders restaurateur Robert Chamberlain and exec chef Andrew Carter, its many fans are happy that it has “not changed in 20 years”.

The “personal service” at Stuart & Jo Myers’ “fantastic small restaurant” in Mabgate – which they opened twelve years ago as a café called the ‘Greedy Pig Kitchen’ – is “the very definition of hospitality”. “The unconventional cooking is great”, too (including winning cakes). “It’s a 140-mile round trip for us but sooo worth it!”

2022 Review: This large, smart and impressive venue from D&D London, on the fifth floor of the new Trinity Leeds shopping centre, is enclosed in floor-to-ceiling windows with great views over the city, oak and marble interiors and an open kitchen. The cooking is generally considered “good” or better, with a decent set menu as well as more lavish à la carte and tasting menu options.

The “culinary theatre” of Michael O’Hare’s moody basement (to which it relocated a few years ago) has made it one of the UK’s better known gastronomic temples, and it’s become something of a standard-bearer for the city’s foodie credentials. But it put in a very mixed performance in this year’s annual diners’ poll. Even those who “love it and feel its place in the Michelin is well deserved” – and there are still many of them – can find it “witheringly expensive”. Meanwhile, skeptics worry that it’s becoming “all show and no go”: “I liked the first iteration, when it was located on the top floor of Flannels, but two subsequent visits to the current basement location have led me to conclude it’s just soulless, with food that’s OK but which has not moved on” (“putting a prawn on top of a telephone doesn’t make it taste better!”) and “an entry-level price for wine that’s ridiculous”. The message may be getting through, as – with much fanfare – in May 2023 Michael launched a ‘Menu Rapide’ in response to the cost of living crisis, providing four courses for £40 or six courses for £60 per person. BREAKING NEWS. Actually, it looks like the penny has completely dropped, as – in late October 2023 – Michael announced that the restaurant is to close at the end of 2023 and relaunch under a new name; and with a ‘more accessible’ (we think that means less expensive) format in February 2024. Don’t worry though: the style will still be ‘out there’ – it’s to be themed around a seafood surf shack, and called ‘Psycho Sandbar’.

This “wonderful canalside restaurant, flooded with light” was originally at Kirkgate Market, moving to the Mustard Wharf development two years ago, where it is “a great addition to Leeds” – “the food is delicious but the relaxed atmosphere is also a key to its success”. Liz Cottam, a MasterChef semifinalist, and Mark Owens (ex-head chef at the Box Tree) also run Home at Brewery Wharf.

“If you are looking for a truly haute cuisine experience this is the place to be” – Elizabeth Cottam’s strikingly black venture (black floor, black décor, black uniforms), which has been given a new lease of life since relocating to Brewery Wharf two years ago. “From the moment you arrive you are made to feel welcome” and “the attention to detail and quality of ingredients” showcased in the five- or eight-course tasting menus (sometimes served by the chefs themselves) make for “an absolutely wonderful experience from start to finish”.

“A real must-try with a lovely convivial atmosphere”, this historic former mill combines a “dining room and bar in heavy, dark wood that feels like it hasn’t changed much since the eighteenth century and the days of the BBC’s Gentleman Jack” (which was filmed here) with “food that’s much more modern (though retaining a Yorkshire heartiness)” from “very talented and inventive chef Will Webster”. There’s also a “fabulous wine list, with many offered by the glass”.

“An airy space with unusual dishes and great cooking” – this comfortable independent opposite the civic hall scored highly in this year’s annual diners’ poll. The focus is on small plates, some of them very original: who’s for ‘honey, soy and gochujang roast carrots, toasted sesame, with tahini satay’?

“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”.