Fifty Two Rudding Park: Inside The Restaurant With No Menu

Fifty Two Rudding Park in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, is shaking up the dining scene with an unseen menu, party atmosphere and conversation starters. Margaret Hussey reports.

Restaurant Review: Fifty Two Rudding Park, Harrogate

How often do you book a restaurant and plan ahead what you are going to eat way before you arrive? In my case, a lot. But at Fifty Two Rudding Park in Harrogate there is little chance of doing that: the menu changes seasonally, sometimes daily. And the only time you will see a written menu is at the very end of the night.

That’s what this North Yorkshire restaurant is all about. Forget pre-planning, Fifty Two is about fun, spontaneity and, above all, great food and drink. It’s led by head chef Adam Degg, who says he wanted to create an atmosphere of being at a dinner party, albeit with friends you haven’t met – not yet anyway. You may end up being best buddies by the end of the night.

Fifty Two is housed in five shipping containers in the grounds of Rudding Park, where the hotel has 90 rooms and suites and a spa. Looks are deceptive though as once you step inside the containers, you are hit with a warmth and welcome which belies their industrial exterior.

The evening begins with a walk around the impressive gardens: there are 52 beds in total, hence the name. With more than 500 varieties of plants, fruits, herbs and veg grown here, nothing on that front is bought elsewhere. Adam’s menus are built seasonally and sustainably with nothing wasted following conversations with his collaborator, Emma Pugh. She is the hotel’s resident gardener and has been nurturing the beds for seven years. When we visited, a glut of produce had been pickled and preserved and their brilliant plum and purple colours stood out behind the kitchen pass.

Fifty Two has just 20 covers with all seats facing the kitchen, Adam and his team of five. You can see them chopping, chargrilling and delicately placing edible flowers on dishes with precision. As you don’t know what is coming, there is a real sense of anticipation as your dishes evolve in front of you.

The 10-dish menu we sampled was preceded by snacks including moreish garden rhubarb with apple and shiso and Yorkshire pecorino with alliums. There was an apple blini with smoked roe and smoked haddock with Oscietra caviar. As I’m veggie, mine were substituted with cauliflower and fettle cheese. And what a fine fettle it was. 

Then came the most delicious homemade bread with cultured butters and course after delicious course from Duroc pork with lobster pil pil to salt-aged venison saddle with pumpkin. My veggie miso aubergine and a choux farci (French stuffed cabbage) of parsnip, cep and radicchio was next level.

In between courses Adam mingled around the tables talking to guests and answering any questions about the food. Keen to showcase the provenance of his dishes, he gave shout outs to local butchers, much to the delight of the people behind us. En route to pudding we had the most incredible dish of beetroot with milk ice cream and blackcurrant wood. Whatever sorcery – or should that be saucery – they performed, it was magical.

The night finishes with Dessert Island Discs where you are encouraged to make requests for the impromptu Spotify DJ set. We chose ‘100 Horses’ by Geese as the evening developed into a party atmosphere. The intimate setting means you get to talk to your culinary neighbours. There is also a pack of conversation-starting cards on each table with questions like ‘What did you want to be as a child?’ or ’Would you rather only eat your favourite food again or never eat it again?’

But the dishes and drinks are conversation starters in themselves anyway. Puddings were gooseberry fool with caramelised white chocolate and a brown butter custard tart, one of the few signature dishes on Adam’s menu, finished with warm Madeleines. And in between all these courses, the inventive drinks kept coming. We had a Black Velvet made with Tattinger, miso and stout and a Limon made in collaboration with the Cold Bath Brewery in Harrogate. There were wines from Georgia and Spain and a local Slingsby gin and rhubarb quencher.

Luckily we were staying over at Rudding Park and it was just a meander back down a path to our room. The hotel has exceptional amenities including a gym and its impressive rooftop spa has a sauna, hydrotherapy pool, plus sunlight therapy and oxygen room. Before we left, just like being at a dinner party, beautiful decanters were brought out for a help-yourself one for the road. As Adam presented us with a hand-signed menu, we poured a sloe gin over ice and said cheers to our fantastic evening and host. 

BOOK IT

Fifty Two Rudding Park is open from Wednesday to Sunday. Prices range from £85 per person for six servings to £190 per person for ten servings with drinks pairings. fiftytworudding park.co.uk