Leyburn, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

More solid reviews this year for the 40-seat restaurant within this attractive old inn, situated in a market town: “really enjoyable” modern bistro cooking wins praise as does the “great service” (including with kids in tow).

“First-class” inn, set in the Yorkshire Dales, whose kitchen specialises in “exquisite, very fresh fish and seafood” – including a separate menu devoted to lobsters from Whitby – “if you’re in the area don’t miss it”. Reputed to have been a favourite watering hole of Yorkshire vet Alf Wight (better known as James Herriot), the Heifer is appropriately dog-friendly under the management of father-and-son David & Lewis Moss, owners for the past 20 years.

This “pretty village gastropub in the Yorkshire Dales” has a “really lively buzz to it”, with “great food and service however busy it gets” – it’s a “firm family favourite” and fans reckon it serves “the best roast dinner in North Yorkshire” (with signature leeks mornay on the side).

Darlington-born Ruth Hansom and her team have “the air of knowing exactly what they’re doing” at her new 16-seater in a picturesque North Yorks town, greeted by some early reporters as “the best restaurant in the area by miles” thanks to her “epic” cuisine. The Times’s Gilles Coren also waxed lyrical in his February 2025 review, with his ten-hour round trip to visit fully justified by a venue he described as “full of love and truth”. Overall the food rating in our annual diners’ poll sums to “very good” rather than “exceptional” though on reports of food that’s highly capable without quite discovering the “beauty and genius” discerned by Giles.