Most Exciting Food Destination of 2024: Helmsley & the Howardian Hills Published 23 February 2024
Among the rolling lowlands, country estates, and crumbling abbeys, you'll find Helmsley and the Howardian Hills - The Good Food Guide's Most Exciting Food Destination of 2024. Nestled in one of Britain's National Landscapes (previously Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) it's a picture-perfect patch of rural North Yorkshire with a rich natural larder to inspire seasonal and locally-led menus. Dive into the dazzling cooking at Myse, soak up the views from The Owl at Hawnby, or relax into the proper Yorkshire hospitality at Tommy Banks' Abbey Inn. Here are the best places to eat in the area.
Hugely impressive on-trend cooking in a converted village inn
Joshua and Victoria Overington opened Mýse (pronounced 'meez') in the summer of 2023. It's a converted inn snuggled in a sleepy North Yorkshire village, but with ideas that lift it way out of the country-pub norm. The name … Read more
Joshua and Victoria Overington opened Mýse (pronounced 'meez') in the summer of 2023. It's a converted inn snuggled in a sleepy North Yorkshire village, but with ideas that lift it way out of the country-pub norm. The name is the Anglo-Saxon word that denoted ceremonial dining at table, though that shouldn't lead you to expect a mýse-hrægel (tablecloth). Formerly head chef at Le Cochon Aveugle in York, Joshua leads a team that is single-mindedly dedicated to the principles of modern sustainable cooking, with foraging, fermenting, pickling and infusing high on everybody's skill-set.
Nibbles set the tone: Ripon roe deer in fermented plum sauce topped with smoked Exmoor caviar in a little charcoal tartlet; a hay-vinegared quail's egg on mushroom parfait; a twig brochette of ox cheek braised in ale, then deep-fried in Yorkshire-pudding batter – layers of flavour and stunning richness rolling out even before you have reached the dining room. An Orkney scallop is very lightly poached in sea-urchin butter and served in the shell on a bed of seaweed. The thrift principle extends to turning last year's squash seeds into a 'miso' which is used to garnish a soup of this year's squash, its texture firmed up with a little pumpkin-seed granola.
A crown of duck is introduced by being carried regally about the room, and now begins its culinary act. After a presentation of duck charcuterie with a crumpet of liver mousse, plus a richly spicy broth flavoured with walnut and orange, comes a thick slice of the breast served with game sausage, confit beetroot and black-walnut relish. A pair of desserts is interspersed with the petits fours, which makes them less of an afterthought than usual – the finale being a flourless fig tart with an ice cream of fig leaves from the garden. Overington himself comes to the table and fires up the dish with flaming Yorkshire rum, harking us back to the dear old flambé days of our gilded youth.
The food is matched by an excellent drinks list, which takes in inspired non-alcoholic sodas and kombuchas, imaginative cocktails and a decent selection of wines in small glasses, from a mere £5 for a quality Vinho Verde. Bottle prices ascend rapidly, but the choices are exceptionally good, through to a Georgian Saperavi and Peloponnese Agiorgitiko.
After four years at the helm of the Rattle Owl in York (now closed), Tom Heywood and Laurissa Cook are now to be found in a charming 16-seater venue in the centre of Helmsley. On offer is a four- or eight-course tasting menu (lunc… Read more
After four years at the helm of the Rattle Owl in York (now closed), Tom Heywood and Laurissa Cook are now to be found in a charming 16-seater venue in the centre of Helmsley. On offer is a four- or eight-course tasting menu (lunch and dinner) that begins with what Heywood calls 'wastage' – a series of little dishes using offcuts from other courses. Produce comes in part from the much-heralded Helmsley Walled Garden, a charity providing therapeutic horticulture. Our 'wastage' began with a cup of juice from apples, pears and cucumber followed by a chilled green soup garnished with flowers and herbs – although the star was toasted soda bread with crab mousse.The menu proper opened with an intensely flavoured tomato gazpacho, then soda bread served with salty butter and a velvety chicken liver pâté. Next up, a tender beef cheek, slow-braised in Helmsley beer, paired with pickled cucumber, pickled wild garlic and a deep, rich wild plum hoisin sauce finished with leek oil. To conclude, mushroom millefeuille made an unusual dessert: a delicately flavoured ice cream with the gentlest of fungal notes, plus lacy tuiles sandwiched with soft coffee caramel alongside. Further optional additions are scattered throughout the menu – beef tartare, 'exceptional' wild brill with mussels and an outstanding fig-leaf ice cream with a base of crunchy rapseed and a topping of honey mousse. Meals take place in a simply furnished room with chunky wooden tables (sourced from a redundant Nando’s), comfortable leather chairs and artwork depicting Conopodium majus, the delicate white flowers of the pignut – a member of the celery family with an edible tuber resembling a chestnut that is hard to find and even harder to prepare (according to Laurissa Cook). There are wines to match each course as well as a short, mostly European list starting at £28. For light meals and pre-dinner drinks, head to the comfortable upstairs lounge.
Seriously appealing modern pub food in a dreamy setting
With forested hills sloping onto fields of grazing sheep and the Gothic remains of Byland Abbey towering over the entrance, this pub with rooms is a dream ticket – no wonder it was snapped up by chef Tommy Banks (the Black S… Read more
With forested hills sloping onto fields of grazing sheep and the Gothic remains of Byland Abbey towering over the entrance, this pub with rooms is a dream ticket – no wonder it was snapped up by chef Tommy Banks (the Black Swan at Oldstead is nearby). Inside, there’s a little bar with a snug for those wanting a drink, but the main action takes place in the three dining rooms, one of which is the former piggery – an expansive room with beams, giant flagstones and a double-facing log-burning stove, all illuminated by a conservatory-style skylight. The mood is relaxed and staff stay on top of their tasks, while cute details in the handsome finishes speak of Tommy Banks’ pedigree.
The food also makes a connection to the Banks family farm (without labouring the point), and chef Charlie Smith serves up a procession of seriously appealing, modern pub-style dishes – an incredibly original Dexter steak tartare, perhaps, cut into uniform nuggets resembling translucent rubies decorated with grated wild horseradish, fermented peppers and smoked bone marrow. Elsewhere, there might be a light, elegant plate of smoked Pablo beetroot with ewe’s curd, preserved Yorkshire rhubarb and linseed crackers for texture. Some of the meaty main courses such as a pork rib chop with fermented mushroom béarnaise could do with a little finessing, although fish dishes hit the spot – judging by a pitch-perfect serving of cod with a splendid mussel cream sauce and purple-red potatoes on the side.
Everything is executed with flair, professionalism and a deep respect for local ingredients – and that extends to the dazzling roasts served for Sunday lunch (check out the rare-breed Berkshire pork and Herdwick lamb from the family farm, just two miles away). If you're looking for real value, however, order the mighty Dexter cheeseburger with fries, plus a pint of Yorkshire-brewed ale and a shared dessert – say a soft-serve sundae topped with Douglas fir, blackcurrant and white chocolate. Aside from real ale, drinks include seasonal cocktails, homemade libations and a short but decent selection of wines with plenty by the glass.
Reconfigured Yorkshire inn excelling at 'farm to fork' cooking
A shining beacon on the edge of the romantically desolate North York Moors, the Black Swan is a stone-built inn, now more obviously a regional restaurant with rooms. Inside, it has been daringly reconfigured for its contemporary p… Read more
A shining beacon on the edge of the romantically desolate North York Moors, the Black Swan is a stone-built inn, now more obviously a regional restaurant with rooms. Inside, it has been daringly reconfigured for its contemporary purpose, with spare modern furniture and unclothed tables against a backdrop of thick stone and heavy beams.
Former civil servant Alice Power is the latest incumbent in the Swan's kitchen, disposing over two acres of kitchen garden, overseeing a tireless foraging operation, and maintaining the format of a lengthy taster of around a dozen stages – a menu structure that crucially depends on robust endurance. That said, there is no sense of overload about these dishes, largely because they don't go heavy on carbs.
First nibbles evoke excited first impressions, from smoked eel and oscietra caviar with fennel pollen to a bite-sized chunk of truffled roe deer with celeriac. Foraged ingredients provide the haunting aromatics in dishes ranging from scallop and leek with spruce to lobster with salt-cured rhubarb and lemon verbena. A thrifty approach to meats might find locally shot partridge served first in a broth, followed by its heart and liver with chestnuts, a leg with elderberry and fir, and finally the roasted breast with Pablo beetroot and bread sauce.
An innovative approach to desserts ensures that the latter stages of the production are among the most memorable: mushroom-dusted chocolate ganache with meringue and chocolate/honey pieces, as well as yoghurt ice cream with wood sorrel and Douglas fir oil applied at the table. The rather over-rehearsed mood of service – often a feature of the tasting format – would benefit from relaxing a little.
Three levels of wine flight are offered to accompany the cavalcade of flavours, ranging from ‘experimental and adventurous’, through ‘grand and classic’ to ‘rare and exceptional’, depending on depth of pocket. The first might embrace a Naoussa Xinomavro with that partridge, the second a 2009 Beaune premier cru ‘Les Epenottes’, the last Calera's 2008 Pinot Noir from Sonoma, California.
Crowd-pleasing food in a handsomely revitalised drover's inn
Tucked away in a remote valley in the southwest corner of the North York Moors National Park, Hawnby is an estate village of mellow sandstone, with a church, a pub and a village store. John Wesley visited here in 1757 calling it &… Read more
Tucked away in a remote valley in the southwest corner of the North York Moors National Park, Hawnby is an estate village of mellow sandstone, with a church, a pub and a village store. John Wesley visited here in 1757 calling it ‘one of the pleasantest parts of England’ – and we agree. Surrounded by forest and the heather-covered Hawnby Hill, it is a beautiful spot attracting walkers and shooting types who pay handsomely for a day on the estate’s grouse moor. The Owl (a former drover’s inn) sits at the top of the village and gives a commanding view over this stunning countryside.
Here Sam Varley, who previously ran Bantam in Helmsley, has created a welcoming retreat, a place to come for unfussy food and a comfortable bed for the night. Whether you eat in the stone-flagged bar in front of a warming stove, the dining room or the splendid terrace on sunny days, you'll find crowd-pleasing dishes such as chicken, leek and bacon pie or pork T-bone with roasted peach, green beans and pine-nut vinaigrette. Back in the day, cheap monkfish was often passed off as scampi; nowadays it’s a luxury fish and Varley’s monkfish scampi with curry mayo is fabulous.
Also expect devilled kidneys on toast, piles of hot, melting cheese gougères and cracking Sunday lunches – generously sliced aged sirloin of beef with horseradish cream, rolled shoulder of Yorkshire lamb or game birds in season (red-legged partridge or pot-roast grouse, perhaps). Puddings might be a refreshing grapefruit and Campari sorbet or a homely rhubarb sponge and custard. To drink, there are hand-pulled Yorkshire ales, while low-intervention wines figure prominently on a list that offers plenty by the glass.
Top-drawer pub food with big, bold flavours and bags of generosity
The village of Wombleton, four miles east of Helmsley, is where Richard and Lindsey Johns have settled for their latest venture – a village local complete with a substantial public bar and a separate beamed dining room. Seas… Read more
The village of Wombleton, four miles east of Helmsley, is where Richard and Lindsey Johns have settled for their latest venture – a village local complete with a substantial public bar and a separate beamed dining room. Seasoned restaurateurs, they have retained a strong following from loyal diners – some of whom are happy to travel across Yorkshire to enjoy what one supporter called ‘top-notch food’.
They come for dishes such as silky leek and potato soup, garnished with a vivid-green tarragon oil and snipped chives or treacle-cured organic salmon with prawns, given a dribble of marie rose sauce and an astringent hit of pomegranate seeds – a beautifully fresh and balanced composition. By contrast, rich and tender slow-braised venison is big, bold and generous, accompanied by sweet red cabbage and creamy mash (to mop up the gravy) – a sustaining plateful that is the hallmark of Johns' cooking. We were equally satisfied with a classic rendition of honey-roast duck breast and hasselback potatoes. Dessert might be a beautifully burnished crème brûlée or perhaps a lime and passion fruit sundae, in reality an inverted cheesecake with the crunchy crumb on top – the highlight of our visit.
Richard works single-handedly in the kitchen, always marching to his own drum, which invariably means a short, three-course carte stuffed with crowd-pleasers, plus a roast with all the trimmings on Sunday. Meanwhile, Lindsey runs things front-of-house, dispensing wines from an accessible list that starts with glasses of Chenin Blanc at a modest £4.75 rising to bottles of Pomerol at £65.
Back on form as one of the finest hostelries in the country, the Star is somewhere to come for a slap-up restaurant-style supper or a simple bar lunch. For all its fame – the walls are plastered with awards as well as photos… Read more
Back on form as one of the finest hostelries in the country, the Star is somewhere to come for a slap-up restaurant-style supper or a simple bar lunch. For all its fame – the walls are plastered with awards as well as photos of chef-owner Andrew Pern with celeb-chefs and King Charles – this reborn 14th-century inn is still Harome's village watering hole with strong local credentials on the food front. On the plate, Whitby lobster and organic salmon ravioli are just as worthy of attention as maple-glazed mallard. To begin, a snack of Yorkshire custard tart laced with honey from the pub’s hives and matched for sweetness by the golden raisins embedded in its savoury cream is an unabashedly rich introduction to the unusual flavour combinations to come. Pern’s signature starter is a slice of pan-fried foie gras sandwiched between two patties of grilled black pudding; to follow, there might be herb-roasted crown of red-legged partridge with haggis and a peat-whisky bread pudding, in which the metallic tang of the game is echoed by the iodine of the spirit. Banoffee pie, meanwhile, is successfully reinvented as a sort of chocolate gâteau flavoured with Blue Mountain coffee and Madagascan vanilla: a sugar-rush of sophistication. None of this comes cheap: the 10-course tasting menu costs £125, while three courses clock in at around £60. But the skill of the cooking is matched by the professionalism of a friendly team of Yorkshire youngsters out front, who are not only well-drilled on the finer points of the menu but are able to offer impressively knowledgeable wine advice. The surroundings are charming too, from the beamed warren of rooms filled with oak furniture crafted by Robert ‘Mouseman’ Thompson to the new lounge bar in the medieval eaves of the building where an engraving marks ‘The great fire of Harome’. If budget is an issue, a weekday menu offers two courses for £25: slow-roasted pumpkin soup followed by a steamed suet pudding of local venison, say. It’s served in the bar, which is where you’ll find the locals, pleased as punch to have their pub back at the centre of village life.
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