North Yorkshire, Fish & Seafood Restaurant Guide

This quirky fish specialist, with exotically styled bedrooms in the 18th century Crab Manor, certainly has an “original ambience” (“if Victoria Wood’s Acorn Antiques ran a restaurant”, it might look like this, replete with assorted “sea-fishing paraphernalia”); there was the odd blip on the service front this year, but also continued praise for some of the “best seafood around”.

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!”

This “amazingly busy” Montpellier Quarter veteran (est. 1971) is “just as good as it’s always been” – credit to Ray & June Carter, who’ve overseen it for a decade (and have also run the Sportsman’s Arms, Wath-in-Nidderdale, for three). The “very interesting and delicious menu” spotlights “fish cooked absolutely right” – “try the queenies (aka queen scallops) followed by fish pie”.

“Hidden away on one of York’s least-photogenic streets” (their words), and spread across “several cosy rooms”, this decade-old establishment revolves around “very tasty steaks” featuring flavoursome and ethical beef from ex-dairy cows sourced in England, Galicia and France. The owners also run The Stone Trough Inn in Kirkham Abbey.

In a “superb setting in the Dales”, father-and-son team Lewis & David Moss are behind this quintessential gastropub-with-rooms (including one room with a James Bond theme). “The team is superb, and the food (including seafood) speaks for itself as getting a table at short notice is extremely difficult”. NB – canines will love it (“the most dog-friendly pub I’ve ever visited!”), down to getting their very own sausages for brekko.

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’.