Hardens Guide to the Best Restaurants in Darlington
Hardens guides have spent 34 years compiling reviews of the best Darlington restaurants. On Hardens.com you'll find details and reviews of 8 restaurants in Darlington and our unique survey based approach to rating and reviewing Darlington restaurants gives you the best insight into the top restaurants in every area and of every type of cuisine.
Featured Darlington Restaurants
1. Origin Social
Fusion restaurant in Northallerton
2 Friarage Street - DL6
“A breath of fresh air for Northallerton” – this casual, modern bar/bistro brings with it a contemporary formula of small plates cooked over a coal-fired grill. “It’s great food from a menu that changes regularly, the staff are always really friendly and attentive and there’s a great drinks selection”.
2. The Orangery, Rockliffe Hall
British, Modern restaurant in Darlington
James Close with wife Maria closed his acclaimed Co Durham restaurant the Raby Hunt (a regular on our UK Top 100 list) after 14 years and relaunched in the Orangery of nearby Rockliffe Hall in mid 2024, after our annual diners’ poll had ended. Initially billed as ‘A modern bistro by James Close’, from October 2024 the site has launched new tasting menus – ‘Expresssion’ (£105 per person) and ‘Experience’ (£170 per person) – that aim to take the diner on a ‘global culinary journey’. The ultimate aim is clearly to establish the dining room as one of the best in the UK.
3. Stable Hearth Neapolitan Pizzeria & Enoteca
Italian restaurant in Darlington
Duke Street - DL3
2023 Review: “Great pizza menu served by lovely people” remains the verdict on this award-winning pizza-stop, whose numerous accolades and certifications promise a Neapolitan experience through and through: your selection is cooked at 400 degrees and will be ready in 90 seconds!
4. Oven
British, Modern restaurant in Darlington
30 Duke St - DL3
“Always buzzing”, this “family-run” fixture is very consistently praised in reports for its “great pizza menu” while also offering British and international classics. (After two decades, the owner-operators put it up for sale in summer 2024.)
5. The Bay Horse
British, Traditional restaurant in Hurworth
45 The Grn - DL2
“Outstanding” former coaching inn with a “great atmosphere” and versatile appeal – whether for a “cosy romantic evening around the log fire; at a beautiful table for two upstairs in the window”; for a “family get-together”; or for “a business meeting in one of the private dining rooms”. Built in the 1400s, it was relaunched by the owners in 2008, with a “tastefully decorated dining room”, a “fantastic walled garden”, and “food of an exceptionally high standard”, all with “great set-price menus available”.
6. Crathorne Arms
British, Modern restaurant in Crathorne
2023 Review: “It’s still as good as ever at Eugene and Barbara McCoy’s country pub” say fans of this destination, ten minutes from Middlesbrough. “It’s one of the few places that still hold a traditional Beaujolais Day in November and has a waiting list of people wanting to come!”
7. Bettys
Afternoon tea restaurant in Northallerton
189a High St - DL7
Afternoon tea is “a trip back in time” at this “consistent” branch of the much-loved Yorkshire tea room brand – the business has occupied fine Georgian premises in this county town of North Yorkshire for 55 years now. “Prices have soared, but it’s still lovely going here for a treat and their breakfasts are still the best”, while substantial lunches are also available. (Unlike some of its siblings, it does not open in the evening.)
8. TERRA by James Close, Rockliffe Hall
French restaurant in Darlington
Hurworth on Tees - DL2
James Close shut the Raby Hunt to become culinary director of this five-star property. Completion of a new 584 square metre pavilion with 36 covers is anticipated in the second half of 2026, but while you are waiting, you can sample his cuisine at various pop-ups around the resort, as well as at Café Terra. Reports on the temporary operation say it can seem “expensive in what is a temporary stop-gap location” with food that’s “very good, but not to Raby Hunt levels and difficult to justify at these prices and in this setting (but I expect the new purpose-built restaurant will be fantastic and reach the culinary hit lists)”.
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