The Terrace
Masham, North Yorkshire
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Swinton Park’s main restaurant, Samuel’s, is as grandly Victorian as the rest of the 18th-century turreted pile. This more casual and contemporary alternative is found in the same sensitively converted outbuilding as the hotel’s health club and, with its neutral colour scheme, patio doors and namesake terrace for fine-weather alfresco, has something of the same spa-like serenity at quiet times – though a bar mixing well-made drinks means that evenings are livelier than lunch. The menu deals in crowd-pleasing small plates to share (from 'garden and field, land and sea') as well as banquet-style feasting dishes, though after attempting with difficulty to divvy up an oblong of pork croquette among the table, we found the style of presentation lends itself rather better to three courses ordered individually. Either way, a plate of fried chicken with a gravy mayonnaise for dunking, cabbage slaw and baby gem (for a touch of greenery) should not be missed among the starters. To follow, an excellent fishcake comes topped with chunky tartare in a pea-scattered cream sauce, while a sweet-fleshed wedge of gammon gets a topping not only of fried egg but two crisp commas of pork scratching. None of this, admittedly, is particularly complicated, but it’s all made from decent ingredients, cooked with skill and elevated by elegant presentation: bangers and mash arrives as a pair of sausages with pomme purée and a frothy velouté-like sauce, while an essential side order of onion rings is stacked like a particularly delicious game of hoopla. There’s a children's menu, too – cod goujons, cheesy penne – while furry, four-legged family members are welcome in the bar (where the full menu is also served) and on the terrace itself when the sun shines.
