Colne Restaurant Guide

“The best… a real pub, with good ales and wine and unbelievable food!” – Gareth & Laura Ostick’s “fabulous” boozer looks just like a normal pub but chef Tom Parker’s cuisine is anything but and “incredible value”. “Glorious seasonal fare is served by a young and enthusiastic team and washed down with interesting wines” either from a four-course menu for £65 per person; or a five-course selection for £85 per person. Some dishes – Herdwick Lamb with olive oil mash – are founded in tradition, but the vegetarian option in particular is a far cry from it, with dishes such as Pickled Cucumber with Wasabi, Buttermilk and Dill.

Opinions are somewhat divided this year on this famous pub with rooms in the Ribble Valley, where chef Steve Smith departed in mid 2024 for the bright lights of Manchester. Fans say its production of “Michelin-starred service, wines and food, all without the aspirations and fuss”, continues unabated and feel “you don’t get much better than this for quality and value”. But it also inspired a couple of disappointments this year, including amongst former fans, who perceive “a lack of heart or passion” to recent meals, or who have found some dishes “uninspired and poorly prepared”. Hopefully teething problems?

2023 Review: “Simplicity” combines with “top quality” at Carlow-born Breda Murphy’s deli-restaurant, a popular destination in the Ribble Valley since 2006 for her Anglo-Irish home-style cooking. “At first it feels overly conservative, but every dish is perfectly cooked, often with a small and interesting twist such as thick-cut lime and soy-cured salmon.”

Even in the foodie hotspot that is the Ribble Valley, chef-patron Michael Heathcote’s well-known destination stands out for its “relaxing pub atmosphere, great real ale and copious pub fare at fair prices”.

Adam Frontal and Aussie chef Brayden Davies nowadays own and run this famous Northern establishment, which is located in one of the town’s oldest buildings, has been a restaurant since 1962 and which has cultivated a reputation over the decades as the ‘Gavroche of the North’, having been the launchpad, back in the day, for the stellar rise of Marco Pierre White. The main five-course menu is £115 per person and offers quite a mashup of tastes and culinary inspirations (a recent version includes Tartare of Westholme Wagyu Bavette and Tortellini of English Corn, while revolving around a relatively conventional Yorkshire wood pigeon dish). Some positive feedback this year, but too limited for a full rating: reports please!

Something of a scattergun of reports this year on this light-filled dining room – a much-windowed, conservatory style building with good country views of the Bolton Abbey Estate and which creates a contemporary dining space at the Duke of Devonshire’s plush country getaway. The best reports say its “great food and service with regular wine tasting experiences” are excellent all-round and another highlight is breakfasting here (“a real treat to start the day”). But there’s also the odd more middling review or disappointment (“Afternoon tea was meant to be a real treat as part of a spa day. There was just so much of it… it didn’t feel like a nice indulgence… better with just the bits they did well: scones and little sandwiches”).

2024 Review: 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.

“Deservedly regarded as one of the country’s best gastropubs” – this nowadays legendary pub in the Forest of Bowland is one of our top-40 most commented-on venues outside of London in our annual diners’ poll, and has risen to fame by acting like “a real pub serving locally sourced fare prepared and presented with love and respect. No foams. No smoke. Just great dishes. And arriving here on a journey north from London is like coming home to a big, warm Lancashire hug”. Chef Stosie Madi’s food is “quite simply exceptional. She can do classics (say a terrine of local game, a simple Dover sole, a pie – well anything with pastry! – and the best chips in the North West, or a rum baba) perfectly. She has an unerring and utterly enviable encyclopaedic understanding of how to cook seemingly anything so that it impresses”. Meanwhile “front of house supremo, the indefatigable AJ’s welcome is never less than the warmest and his dog treats are always available for four-legged guests”. One visitor after several years found “everything raised a notch… a bit less rustic but still a pub with a good food vibe that still feels like good value”. “The rise of Ribble Valley dining continues!”. Top Menu Tips – “there are pies… and then there are the Parkers Arms pies”… “the neighbouring table swooned over a chicken and wild garlic version”. “Sweet unctuous ox heart with red wine and excellent chips, half lobster in bisque reduction and carrot puree, Sea bass with sea herbs are all hits”. “Anything with a Lebanese or African influence is worth making a beeline for on the menu, and indeed one of the most memorable meals at Parkers is a Lebanese feast menu. But then the annual Good Friday ‘Fish Fest’ is a highlight of the eating year”.

Victor Yu’s enjoyably flash Cantonese pub conversion in the Ribble Valley guarantees a “perfect night out with good food” – and is “just as brilliant as ever” after 22 years. He opened a spin-off in Manchester last year, Choi Wan in the new House of Social food hall, inspired by Hong Kong-style street food.

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.

2023 Review: “Afternoon tea IS Bettys!". This old-fashioned tearoom is “always worth the queue” for its epic teas and fine spreads of pastries and sarnies. It’s also “a great place to meet over a very good breakfast. Coffee, understandably, is excellent!”

This award-winning curry house from Mohammad Ali continues to punch above its weight (geddit), having expanded three times over the years to its current 205-seater size; the Ribble Valley spot offers a “really nice atmosphere and lovely food” to match, with one fan who has “been going for over 25 years, so rigorous testing” (indeed) claiming that they have “yet to find one to beat” its Lamb Madras.

“Gosh, that was good!!” – Mark Kemp’s “relaxed small plates restaurant in Sowerby Bridge” (a converted boozer) excites nothing but full-on raves from reporters for its “welcoming environment” and “refreshing”, “unfailingly impressive” food at “incredible value prices”. One brave Lancastrian who “put his armour on and risked a trip to Yorkshire to sneak in a Wednesday lunch” only wishes his own county had somewhere like this – an unusual outfit which offers “randomly eclectic, tapas-y food taking in Spain, Yorkshire and Southeast Asia”. “Service is just how you want it” too – “never intrusive but at your elbow when you do”. Top Menu Tip – “Cauliflower and manchego croquetas were merely a foil to an eye-opening Worcestershire sauce caramel; Bahn me prawn toasts are a really superb dish; Moroccan spiced lamb is pulled and comes with pillowy maneesh bread, a rather heavy hummus, dee-licous giant couscous, lightly pickled onions and other stuff. Best posh kebab I’ve had in a long time”.

“Interesting up-and-coming new arrival” in a “converted Ribble Valley pub” (previously the Buck Inn, in a village near Clitheroe), “still with a small bar for locals but more a restaurant for a frocked-up clientele”. “Personable” chef-patron Bob Geldeard talks guests through “a very ambitious and well-executed seven-course tasting menu for £70 per person” (set, seasonal and Sunday menus are also available), while his partner Kiaja heads “well-drilled staff”.

“Called in for Sunday lunch after a muddy walk. Found a warm welcome and fabulous food” – this “lovely” pub, microbrewery and inn on the green of a village bordering the Forest of Bowland continues to inspire good feedback for its variety of menus: from a lunchtime sandwich and pub-grub menu to a more ambitious à la carte and tasting selection in the evening. “Not so much dog-friendly… they adore dogs!” Top Menu Tip – “brilliant goats’ cheese panna cotta”.