Winsley Restaurant Guide

“Oozing luxury (as it should do at this price!), but a tremendous experience, especially if you stay over” – Shaun Rankin wins exemplary feedback for this “stunning” and stately venue. The centrepiece of the experience is a “great taster menu” running to 14 dishes for £160 per person, produced with “real class and taste”.

“Chef Frances Atkins has found her mojo again at this lovely garden centre” near Harrogate – and her legion of fans, still mourning her 2020 departure from the legendary Yorke Arms, are thrilled: “I can’t believe how exciting it is to watch Frances Atkins in the open kitchen preparing my lunch!”. What you get is breakfast, lunch, tea and occasionally supper of “Michelin-quality food in interesting combinations, using quality ingredients, but without the pretensions of a star”. It’s “a simple, clean and tidy venue”, “peaceful and efficient, with a good ambience” – “this is how you run a restaurant”.

“Trying very hard in a fabulous location” – the traditionally decorated dining room is part of an impressive country-house hotel and spa – a 17th-century manor in the Yorkshire Dales relaunched with little expense spared five years ago (and the AA Hotel of the Year in 2022/23). This luxe brasserie – with steak, lobster, chicken and other fare from the Josper grill – “maintains high standards” although the odd fan feels that it’s “good, but has further to go”. (See also Shaun Rankin at Grantley Hall).