8 Best Restaurants in Yorkshire, England

With one serving a night and one fixed-price menu that changes seasonally, dining in this small (six tables), family-run restaurant is more like eating in someone's home. If you get tired of Whitby's ubiquitous fish-and-chips, Ditto offers more fine-dining alternatives like pan-fried pork loin with chorizo and root vegetable puree or poached duck breast with beetroot, cauliflower, and a soy and honey dressing. Desserts include a white chocolate and whiskey bread and butter pudding. Be sure to book well in advance.

Cars belonging to diners at this chef-owned country inn often fill the hidden away hamlet of Hetton five miles north of Skipton, such is the reputation of this highly regarded, Michelin-starred gastro-pub par excellence located in an early-18th-century building with contemporary decor and views across the Dales. Specializing in locally sourced seasonal food, such as beautifully prepared roast lamb, beef, and seafood, the restaurant features three-course fixed-price menus for lunch (£85) and a seven-course tasting menu for dinner (£95). The ancient stone barn conversion across the road has five well-equipped guest rooms, with another four contemporary bedrooms in a more modern building along with six bedrooms above the restaurant.

Modern and buzzy, with friendly service and tasty food, this brasserie in a converted grain warehouse has two dining rooms, one with wood tables and terra-cotta walls, the other more formal, with white tablecloths. The seasonally changing menu includes elegant main courses like portobello mushroom stuffed with goat cheese and nuts on a butternut squash and wild mushroom risotto. Arched windows overlook the river in both dining areas, and in summer there's a deck for alfresco dining. There's also a special gluten-free menu.

The Harvey Nichols department store's roaring success is partly due to the lure of this stylish café, a standout for food, city views, and dramatic, high-tech design. The well-crafted Modern British menu changes bimonthly, but is sure to have imaginative dishes like pan-fried turbot with a roasted pepper purée, herb gnocchi, and samphire, or honey and rosemary glazed duck breast with duck leg and potato terrine, carrot and star anise purée, and confit fennel. There's also a separate plant-based menu. Irresistible desserts include Maple syrup cheesecake with blueberry compote. It's not cheap, but a three-course set menu plus a Champagne cocktail for £25 offers better value.

This family-run restaurant in what was once a Victorian shop uses locally sourced Yorkshire produce to create a seasonal, highly imaginative take on Modern British cuisine. Selections include a girolle tartlet with barbecued sweetcorn and truffle; sea trout with asparagus, whey and roe sauce, and kombu vinegar; and summer squash with Comté veloutée, hazelnuts, and truffle pesto. Dishes are available as a five-course tasting menu or two- or three-course fixed-price menus (three courses for £65 at dinner, £38 at lunch). A 10-minute walk from Clifford's Tower, Melton's has an offshoot bar-bistro called Walmsgate Alehouse and Bistro on, unsurprisingly, nearby Walmsgate.

This book-lined, below-ground bar, restaurant, and pizza place serves homemade burgers and hot dishes like steak-and-ale pie or mushroom risotto along with artisanal pizzas. There's a quiz night on Wednesday and a DJ on Friday and Saturday.

With a Michelin-starred chef whose family farm is right down the road, this former drover's inn has a high reputation among foodies that belies its secluded location in a small Yorkshire village. Menus, which feature unusual combinations and esoteric ingredients, are based on what is available from the nearby garden or can be foraged locally; even cocktails include fruits and herbs made into alcohol with wood sorrel replacing lemons and limes. The 12-course dinner tasting menu changes daily but might include mains like halibut with razor clams and Oscietra caviar or scallops with turnips and fennel pollen and desserts like Jerusalem artichoke with white chocolate. There are no à la carte options, although there is a smaller tasting menu at Saturday lunch. You can stay over in one of the nine comfortable bedrooms, although only single-night bookings are available.

This gastro-pub's weekly changing menu emphasizes fresh, seasonal ingredients, with meats sourced from local small farms' rare and native breeds (much of it cooked over a charcoal grill) and fish delivered from nearby Hartlepool, plus a good selection of gluten-free and vegetarian options. The downstairs bar evokes a snug Georgian tavern with its wood-paneling and open fire, while upstairs is an elegant Georgian dining room that features several antique clocks made by John Barraclough, clockmaker to the Brontës, who lived in this building. There are special vegan and children's menus, too.