Hardens Guide to the Best Restaurants in Harrogate
Hardens guides have spent 31 years compiling reviews of the best Harrogate restaurants. On Hardens.com you'll find details and reviews of 61 restaurants in Harrogate and our unique survey based approach to rating and reviewing Harrogate restaurants gives you the best insight into the top restaurants in every area and of every type of cuisine.
Featured Harrogate Restaurants
1. Sukhothai
Thai restaurant in Harrogate
17-19 Cheltenham Pde - HG1
With its “consistent quality” food, appealing decor and handy location on Cheltenham Parade, chef-owner Ban Kaewkraikhot's authentic Thai has become a “regular place to visit” – and one that boasts a Leeds sibling alongside the original Chapel Allerton branch.
2. The Bow Room Restaurant
British, Modern restaurant in York
Grays Court Hotel, Chapter House Street - YO1
A “beautiful setting” – York’s oldest inhabited house, host to knights and politicos in its day, and boasting a medieval walled garden – adds to the drama at this graceful 12-room hotel. In summer 2021, award-winning chef Adam Jackson (who helped Yorkshire pub The Black Swan to a star before launching his own venture) took over the head chef role, and early visitors were “blown away” by his “exquisite” and “creative” seasonal food, including six-course tasting menus. “An eating experience that creates memories.”
3. General Tarleton
British, Modern restaurant in Ferrensby
Boroughbridge Rd - HG5
This “quaint dining pub with lots of atmosphere” was smartly refurbed last year by new father-and-daughter owners Jonathan & Sarah Morris, and “is making a promising start under its new management”. It offers an “interesting”, globally inspired menu, and provides 15 rooms for overnight stays. Former owners John & Claire Topham ran the well-known Nidderdale venue for 24 years.
4. Samuel’s, Swinton Park Hotel & Spa
British, Modern restaurant in Masham
Swinton Park - HG4
“A grand setting for a special occasion” – this gracious chamber is part of a luxe country house hotel and spa, set in an estate of 20,000 acres and using game and fish from the estate as well as produce from the hotel’s very large kitchen garden. A succession of chefs has come and gone in recent times, but standards here seem to have been constant of late.
5. The Tannin Level
British, Traditional restaurant in Harrogate
5 Raglan St - HG1
For more than 30 years, the Tannin Level has been one of the most renowned and best loved Restaurants in Harrogate. Staunchly independent, it proudly sho...
6. The Ivy Harrogate
British, Modern restaurant in Harrogate
7-9 Parliament Street - HG1
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.
7. Bettys
Afternoon tea restaurant in Harrogate
1 Parliament Street - HG1
“You haven’t had afternoon tea ’till you’ve been to Bettys” – “a peerless institution” for over a hundred years, which “has not really changed” and where a visit “is likely to involve you in a long queue for a table (which says it all)”. “Go there hungry” to make the most of the brunch, sandwiches and cakes – all “beautifully presented in opulent surroundings”.
8. Drum & Monkey
Fish & seafood restaurant in Harrogate
5 Montpellier Gdns - HG1
“After so many years of excellence” this old-school Montpelier seafood destination “is pleasingly unchanged in its brilliance”. Run by the Carter family since 2018, it “can always be relied on” to deliver “superb results”. In particular, “nowhere does the classics better (fish soup, smoked haddock Florentine, fish pie, delicious oysters, perfectly cooked Dover sole…)”. All this, plus “sensible wine and pleasant service”.
9. Baltzersens
Scandinavian restaurant in Harrogate
“Pastries of the highest quality” elevate this Scandi-style café beyond the high street norm – “and they do a mean coffee”. Owner Paul Rawlinson’s other Scandi venture, the restaurant Norse, closed down after four years in 2018, but the café is thriving as it approaches its tenth anniversary this year.
10. Graveley’s Fish & Chip Restaurant
Fish & chips restaurant in Harrogate
8-12 Cheltenham Parade - HG1
2021 Review: “A very traditional Yorkshire chippie” which doesn’t offer anything fancy but “just good fish ’n’ chips” (the former “huge and well-battered”, and “you can go for more exotic if you wish”); “a little tip – avoid early evening when the ‘pensioners’ special menu’ is served – it will be heaving!”
11. Orchid
Pan-Asian restaurant in Harrogate
28 Swan Road - HG1
“All Asia is here”, at the longstanding and “wonderful” restaurant underneath the Studley Hotel – “from spicy Thai to Chinese and Korean”. Fans say there’s been “no drop in standards”, with favourites including many “outstanding noodle and rice dishes”. Top Tip: “if you like an open buffet, the Sunday lunch is always good (if you can make your way past diners going for second helpings!)”.
12. Sasso
Italian restaurant in Harrogate
8-10 Princes Square - HG1
Limited but very positive feedback yet again for Stefano Lancellotti and wife Sara’s traditional Italian of nearly a quarter century standing, where the cooking focuses on dishes from the Emilia Romagna region.
13. Clocktower Restaurant, Rudding Park Hotel
British, Modern restaurant in Harrogate
Rudding Pk, Follifoot - HG3
The modern brasserie at this Georgian stately home set in 300 acres (complete with golf course) didn’t inspire a huge volume of feedback this year, but all of it was positive. It’s open all day from breakfast, and in the afternoon you can enjoy tea in the adjoining conservatory.
14. Horto Restaurant at Rudding Park
British, Modern restaurant in Follifoot
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”.
15. The Malt Shovel
British, Traditional restaurant in Brearton
2019 Review: A “consistently good” rustic-chic inn dating back to the 16th century; “the food is well-presented and flavoursome” and there’s a “warm welcome” to go with it (backed up by the roaring fire).
16. Samsons
British, Modern restaurant in Harrogate
Cheltenham Crescent - HG1
An all-day dining space in the heart of Harrogate, serving up a "pan-European" menu; exec chef, Josh Whitehead, was a semi-finalist of the 2016 MasterChef: The Professionals.
17. Paradise Café at Daleside Nurseries
British, Modern restaurant in Killinghall
Ripon Road - HG3
Frances Atkins, one of the most prominent British chefs of the century and the first woman in the UK to earn a Michelin star, has launched a new venture, accompanied by chef Roger Olive and front-of-house manager John Tullett – her team for more than 20 years. Paradise café is in a garden centre near Harrogate, less than 20 miles from the Yorke Arms, the old coaching inn on the Yorkshire Moors where she made her name
View full listings of 61 Harrogate Restaurants
Popular Harrogate Restaurant Searches
Harrogate Restaurant News