One thriving area is Helmsley and the Howardian Hills. Located between the North York Moors National Park, the Yorkshire Wolds and the Vale of York, it’s an area of forested rolling hills and farmland, pretty villages, landscaped parkland and country estates, including the mighty Castle Howard after which the Howardian Hills are named. In 1987 the area was designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and in 2024 was crowned Most Exciting Food Destination in The Good Food Guide Awards.
Helmsley, is a pretty market town overlooked by the ruins of Helmsley Castle, the location for the Helmsley Walled Garden, and the start of the Cleveland Way National Trail. Having had no notable restaurants to speak of for years, there’s now an abundance of choice. Mannion & Co Kitchen, Andrew Burton’s offshoot of his Mannion & Co in York, is a local favourite, a daytime café noted for great attention to detail, good service and beautifully prepared brunches and lunches. There's also top-class dining from Tom Heywood and Laurissa Cook (late of the Rattle Owl in York) at their restaurant Pignut, where four- and eight-course tasting menus make the best use of local and often foraged ingredients.
While Bantam in Helmsley sadly closed in spring 2024, chef Steve Varley - a Yorkshire lad whose CV records his time in Australia, London and Scotland’s Kinneuchar Inn - has shifted his focus full time to the Owl at Hawnby a newly rennovated pub in a beautiful patch of the North York Moors, just six miles away.
Three miles south of Helmsley is Harome, a village blessed with two beacons of country hospitality. The Star Inn, established by Andrew Pern in 1996, created one of the country’s first dining pubs. Rebuilt after a devastating fire in 2021, the Star has risen from the ashes to become, once again, one of the best pubs in the country. At the opposite end of the village, The Pheasant Hotel is a smart, country house hotel with 12 bedrooms, handsome public rooms, a cosy bar and a well-dressed dining room that provides a menu of modern British dishes, sourced from Yorkshire’s plentiful larder.
For elevated pub dining The Plough Inn, just two miles away at Wombleton, is where Richard and Lindsey Johns have settled after a spell running the nearby Hovingham Inn (now Mýse). Richard Johns has a good instinct for what people want and his menu is packed with dishes like slow braised venison with mash and gravy, cod with hasselback potatoes and pea purée, and dependable desserts such as sticky toffee pudding and passionfruit cheesecake.
But that’s not all for this corner of North Yorkshire. Three destination restaurants, all operating at the top of their game, are within just a few miles of each other. The Black Swan at Oldstead, the much-garlanded restaurant from Tommy Banks and the Banks family has been joined by their latest opening, the lovely, informal Abbey Inn, just a mile away and yards from the haunting ruins of the 12th-century Byland Abbey. And just six miles away is the majestic Rievaulx Abbey with Liz and Paul Jackson’s Hare Inn at Scawton close by. A former 12th-century inn, the couple have turned it into a finely tuned restaurant with four luxurious bedrooms, serving a multi-course tasting menu of creative dishes full of surprise and theatre.
Mýse (pronounced meeze), an Anglo-Saxon term that denoted ceremonial dining at table, is one of the latest of the fine dining restaurants to open in the area. Josh Overington closed Le Cochon Aveugle, York in 2022 and moved to the village of Hovingham where, with his wife Victoria, he has created a welcoming restaurant of some 24 covers where exposed stone, sheepskin throws, locally made furniture and a cosy log-burning stove create an informal setting – a contrast to the chef’s inventive, multi-course menu of small dishes, including his signature Orkney scallop with dried coral and sea urchin butter.
All this in one small, corner of North Yorkshire, each restaurant different and distinctive yet reflecting the commitment and enthusiasm of the people who run them. What they all have in common is a firm sense of place and provenance. They salute the best produce of the region and a quality of hospitality that stands up to anywhere in the country. Right now, Helmsley and the Howardian Hills is a truly exceptional and exciting place to eat.
