Inside North Yorkshire’s Top 3 Restaurants

Simon Bax embarks on a foodie trip to North Yorkshire, trying three of the area’s top restaurants: The Black Swan at Oldstead, Pignut and Moor Hall.

A Culinary Journey Through Yorkshire

The Black Swan at Oldstead

If you go down to the woods today… you might stumble upon a group of intent young foragers, delicately snipping wood sorrel, picking sprigs of sweet woodruff, or reaching for the citrusy green tips of Douglas fir. You’re not in a fairy tale, you’re in the North Yorkshire Moors, where chef Tommy Banks and his team at The Black Swan at Oldstead are reinventing what it means to eat locally.

Here, the forest and the garden are indistinguishable from the kitchen. Every leaf, flower, and berry is either growing in the adjacent garden, foraged from the surrounding wilds, or preserved in neat rows of jars – each one a time capsule of the seasons, lining the walls of what was once a humble pub and is now one of the UK’s most quietly extraordinary restaurants with rooms.

The restaurant’s aesthetic nods to the austere beauty of Scandinavia – think Faviken in its prime – but this is very much Yorkshire. Bare wooden tables, rustic crockery, and a dining room that hums with the quiet thrill of anticipation.

We begin with a playful yet elegant amuse bouche: a mini tartlet of fallow deer tartare topped with nasturtium and a tangy sour cream, and a feather-light brioche filled with goat cheese, walnuts, and fermented onions. It’s a whisper of the forest and a whisper of what’s to come.

The tasting menu (with a few optional diversions we politely decline) moves like a symphony. Langoustine arrives with preserved tomato and fennel pollen – delicate, bright, arresting. A dish of asparagus, wild garlic, and fermented grains plays like spring on a plate. Then comes the surprise star: a marinated lion’s mane mushroom swimming in a sauce so rich and umami-laced we shamelessly request more bread to mop every drop.

The main course, Dexter beef with smoked potato and foraged herbs, is a masterclass in simplicity and power. And dessert? Yorkshire rhubarb, raw milk, and wood sorrel, crowned by a glass of 1998 Château d’Yquem – a pairing so opulent it borders on outrageous.

After a dreamlike night in the garden room, overlooking the very vegetables that had graced our plates, we continue our journey with a stop at Castle Howard and a wander across the moors to the charming town of Helmsley.

Pignut

Dinner at Pignut, a tiny six-table gem on Helmsley’s main street, is a revelation. Soon to relocate to the atmospheric 12th-century Hare Inn at Scawton, this is a place where every detail feels handcrafted, from the hand-thrown crockery to the clever, often playful food.

We opt for the four-course tasting menu with wine pairings (and can’t resist adding an extra dessert). The opening dish, called ‘Wastage’, cleverly reimagines the trimmings and scraps from the evening’s other courses – a culinary statement on zero waste that’s as delicious as it is thoughtful.

A course of smoked haddock demands the homemade soda bread, crusty and warm, to ensure nothing goes to waste. Herb-fed chicken with asparagus and wild garlic is elevated by sharp little bursts of wild garlic vinegar. And dessert? Rhubarb and meringue dusted with dried nettles is followed by a show-stopping chocolate cake served with mushroom ice cream – earthy, dark, and utterly unforgettable.

The wine pairings are inspired, especially ‘Fruit of the Doom,’ a cheeky but excellent natural wine made from the Zweigelt grape by the Austrian Wine Mafia. It’s proof that serious wine doesn’t have to take itself seriously.

Moor Hall

Our final stop is the grand finale: Moor Hall in Aughton, just outside Liverpool. A thirteenth-century manor turned culinary temple, this two-in-one destination boasts both a three-star Michelin restaurant and its casual (yet still one-star) sibling, The Barn. Rooms in the main house channel northern chic: plush, stylish, and with no restraint. The garden suites promise the perfect escape for a romantic weekend.

Dinner at the main restaurant is an event. We’re welcomed into what feels like a lounge in a country estate, offered five perfect ‘tastes’ – among them, black pudding with pickled gooseberry, and an aged Kaluga caviar with chicken mousse and chervil that may have ruined us for caviar forever.

From there, we’re led through the garden to the kitchen (yes, really) and into the dining room, having been introduced to the ‘cast’ of ingredients laid out in a cornucopian diorama. Dining here is theatre, and the kitchen is its backstage, preparing to astonish.

A final amuse bouche of smoked eel with fermented garlic flowers sets the stage for an eight course tasting menu that builds like a crescendo. Highlights include a Louet-Feisser oyster with white beetroot and dill, and 80-day aged Devon beef with beetroot, mustard and shallots – each dish outdoing the last in finesse and depth.

The wine pairings, though elegant, don’t quite soar as high as those at Pignut or the Black Swan. That said, the Tyler Pinot Noir from Santa Barbara, served with guinea hen, morel, ramson, and white asparagus, was pitch perfect.

Dessert ends on a local note with Ormskirk Gingerbread paired with a 2017 Joh. Jos. Prüm Auslese – sweet, spicy, and sublime.

One Small Quibble

In each restaurant, we encountered the same strange oversight: the music. Eighties and nineties rock hits, while nostalgic, jarred against the otherwise impeccable attention to detail. If the plates, cutlery, wine, and linens are curated to perfection, should the soundtrack not be equally intentional? A thoughtful score could elevate the experience from exquisite to transcendent.

Final Thoughts

This culinary journey across the North of England, from forest to moor, village to manor, showcases not just remarkable food, but the rise of a deeply rooted, imaginative, and confident regional cuisine. At its best, it’s intimate, inventive, and grounded in place. Whether it’s mushroom ice cream in Helmsley or beef aged to perfection near Liverpool, the food tells a story – a story well worth the journey.

BOOK IT:

• The Black Swan at Oldstead: £175 tasting menu / £245 wine pairing, blackswanoldstead.co.uk
• Pignut: £60 four-course menu / £35 wine pairing (+ one extra dessert), restaurantpignut.co.uk
• Moor Hall: £235 eight-course menu / £145 wine pairing, moorhall.co.uk