With my minimal baggage deposited safely in the room, I took myself for a stroll around town, settling in a local pub with a book for half an hour before returning to Tsuchi at The Black Bull to take my seat for dinner in a dining room that was minimalist without tipping into austerity. A number of dishes on the menu piqued my curiosity and offered elements rarely seen in this kind of setting. First up though the usual trio of canapés, this time featuring a cheese fritter showcasing Mrs Kirkhams, a lamb tartare tartlet and a grilled Lindisfarne oyster. The first two of these were exactly the sort of preamble one would want before embarking on the rest of the menu, but I was struck in particular by the sweetly dressed oyster which had benefitted hugely from exposure to heat. Oysters are very much a take or leave item for me but this was a very pleasant surprise. Bread and butter up next presented the the usual test of restraint as I tried not to fill up while slathering it with the delightful cultured butter.

The first “proper” course used mushroom as a carrier for kombucha and was livened up with a few petals to break up the pallette. On eating there was an intelligently measured spice that earned fulsome praise from another couple who were dining that night, a sentiment I would echo. A distinctive and strong start that was followed by an optional scallop dish which I couldn’t resist when I noted it was served with gooseberry and kohlrabi. This was another unique pairing that I hadn’t come across before and could have ended up earning such euphemistic praise as being “intriguing” but thankfully was just plain tasty and perfectly executed. The gentle earthiness of the kohlrabi offset the indulgent sweetness of the scallop neatly.

Next up was another new one to me in the form of teal which had been cured. This small duck had a deep and slightly gamey richness that made great friends with the Jerusalem artichoke accompanying it and a generous splodge of caviar for seasoning; a great introduction to this meat for me. More meat came next in the form of a perfectly presented piece of beef served with “Tokyo Turnip” and Nori seasoning. When I posted this one to Instagram, someone commented on what a perfectly cooked piece of beef this was and I can’t agree more, with rich braised beef on the side too. The dainty turnip was just as memorable with a lovely delicate flavour to show off and accent the beef.

Sweet dishes were no less accomplished with yuzu and matcha represented across the brace of courses that also used meadowsweet for an aromatic accent somewhat reminiscent of marzipan. These striking dishes were a perfect exclamation point to end a very special meal that also came with thoughtful wine pairing; the plum sake with desserts working particularly well to elevate both elements. This meal was within the first two weeks of Tsuchi being open but there was no sign of a concept being bedded in or any early teething problems, just a quiet confidence in the dishes and the people serving them. The marriage of quality local produce to elements that represent the chef’s character can be a compelling one and it really is so here, with clever accents brought to the dishes and a polished front of house keeping things ticking along nicely.

Breakfast the following day took place in the same comfortable dining area with mackerel and scrambled egg setting me up well for the return to York after a night in that tremendous hotel room. Tsuchi at The Black Bull is a destination worthy of a journey and the opportunity to stay in such a well appointed establishment afterwards is a compelling combination worthy of your time and money.

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Legacy at The Grand remains just the refined, cool and comfortable space you would expect with plenty of attention to detail in evidence. I particularly appreciated the bespoke printed welcome card on the table complete with York on a Fork logo! There are three variations on the menu which range from £100 to £130 per person, of these we went for “Steel” which is named in honour of the rail industry coming to York and playing a key role in the history of The Grand, which was built as railway offices. This menu plotted a route through many courses of which three required some input from me, while my companion opted for the vegetarian version, making an interesting contrast throughout the evening. As is customary for this style of dining, we kicked off with a trio of snacks presented on bespoke tableware before a soft pillow of bread arrived with flavoured butters that packed in The Grand’s own honey from hives on the roof given a twist by black garlic, as well as a cultured butter dusted with seaweed powder. All this was an effective prologue to the meal alongside a glass of sparkling wine before the first course arrived bringing together bream tartare and jalapeno sorbet with notes of bergamot. This one was packed with clean flavours and neatly presented with some pops of colour from edible flowers to break up the appearance. An intimidatingly large scallop was next across my palate topped with a generous topping of caviar and an earthy backdrop of turnip to bring counterpoint to that sweet scallop.

This was all an impressive start before the pressure shifted onto me to make a decision between spiced monkfish with Thai red curry or pasta with Baron Bigod, which being one of my favourite cheeses proved too hard to resist. The candy shaped pasta was topped with a foam and slices of truffle, an indulgence that didn’t take me long to polish off. Next up, another branch in the decision tree came down to braised King Edward potato or sweetbreads cooked over charcoal. It’s a while since I’ve treated myself to a Thymus gland (actually let’s stick with sweetbread, much more appetising sounding) so I went in that direction and was rewarded with a lustrous sauce covering a tender piece of meat that carried the kiss of smoke from a Konro grill. The penultimate decision came down to Halibut or Lamb loin, with the former garnering my allegiance this time, thanks in part to the promised pickled mussel and fennel notes that would accompany it. This was one of the stars of the evening with perfect fish cookery complemented by a rich fennel cream and a gentle prickle of sharpness from the mussel.

Moving through to sweet dishes the pre-dessert found me presented with Annabel’s Strawberries which are always a thing of beauty, brought to life by ginger and vanilla here with a citrus zing. Finally I went for chocolate with a suitably lustrous touch of gold leaf matching the indulgence of the environment, making this a lovely end point, fittingly giving me the choice to choose chocolate over cherry, which is something I’m not a great fan of. This rather proved the concept of the hybrid Tasting/A la Carte concept which I thought was executed superbly, with well thought through choices and some interesting dishes with produce not seen often enough….I’m looking at you Thymus! It’s also noteworthy that my companion felt like the vegetarian version was no poor relation, with potato, beetroot and celeriac all featuring to great effect. I’ve noted before that Legacy at The Grand seems to have overcome the slightly tainted perception that seems to attach itself to restaurants in hotels outside of London; this is further evidence that Ahmed and the team are continuing to build on an already strong offering with a winning blend of innovation and common sense.

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The approach to Swinton Park on the Swinton Estate is suitably grand and features quite improbably picturesque herds of deer calmly surveying the scene while admiring one another’s splendid antlers, one assumes. Post meal we would get a tour of the wider establishment but first up we made our way over to the site of the Cookery School to make our acquaintance with Josh. It’s a relaxed space with a wide central island giving us plenty of space to sit side by side with a great view of the action. Before taking those seats we made ourselves comfortable in a snug corner area for snacks accompanied by a glass of local cider. The snacks were a puffed piece of beef fat coated in wild garlic and a dainty lozenge of salsify, both great precursors to the plates to come and more than enough sustenance to fortify us for the dozen steps to our seats.

We were greeted at the counter by a course that Josh had kindly thrown in and didn’t feature on the menu we’d been given. I’ve never been warned before to not eat something all in one go and as such was a little trepidatious as I breached the delicate sphere I’d been told held raw fish. What I didn’t expect to emerge was a puff of smoke! I’m not averse to a touch of theatre and the kiss of smoke wasn’t powerful enough to overwhelm the fish making this memorable and surprisingly well balanced. The first dish as we embarked on the menu was Lincolnshire Poacher with a leek veloute that pushed the cheese into a Dairy Lea like consistency for a tinge of nostalgia coupled with the formidable taste of the cheese, relieved by the alium sauce. Next up a pearlescent chunk of monkfish contrasted by XO sauce with kohlrabi and a sliver of pickled red cabbage to make up another punchy plate defined by delicate cookery and original flavour combinations.

The meat course showcased beef, with carrot and cabbage also on the plate along with a delicately constructed leaf and accents of both wild garlic and lovage. Again everything was allowed to reach its full potential but the starring touch was a lustrously indulgent beef sauce that used chunks of slow cooked beef tendon to give it a uniquely characterful richness. Tendon might not sound like the most indulgent ingredient but you’ve got to admire Josh’s boldness in leaving that word on the menu and not coming up with something more palatably euphemistic.

The first sweet dish was a mochi paired with kombucha and raspberry while a touch of luxury and salinity came from a dab of caviar. The texture of some mochi can be a touch gelatinous and unpleasant but this was a perfectly executed example, hardly a surprise at this stage of the proceedings, which set the stage for a final sweet dish. The use of savoury in desserts has picked up momentum over the last few years so the appearance here of chicken of the woods is less of a surprise than it might once have been, the mushroom notes rounding out the sweet milk ice cream and touch of bitterness from shards of brittle biscuit to come up with a truly impressive and original final course.

At £60 this lunch has to be one of the best value hospitality experiences of this nature in Yorkshire right now, not sacrificing the quality of the dishes in favour of showmanship or letting the environment compromise them. The menu was confidently put together and executed to perfection in front of us, with Josh never being knocked off his stride by our steady stream of questions. Chef’s Table by Josh Barnes deserves to be one of the key pillars of Swinton Park on the Swinton Estate’s appeal.

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Thomas Carr at The Coast is twenty something covers across two small rooms with view out across the hills and, thanks to the weather when we visited, large opening doors that bring nature just far enough inside to be part of the experience, making a delightfully calming space in which to dine. Our server was quickly at our side with menus and water, and wine for the passenger in short order while we settled in and contemplated the dishes that would make this Friday lunch rather special. The Tasting Menu that we were being treated to came in at £65 a head and had some real star ingredients to easily justify that price. Bread came to the table first with a trio of flavoured butters comprising tomato and basil and beetroot as well as a rather more unusual mussel butter that reflected the seafood theme nicely. With that to pick at, we had a treat from the chef arrive to kick things off. Sweet and buttery scallops with a hazelnut crust alongside brown shrimp with a watercress sauce and sweet hints of white onion and a little kick of wild garlic resolved into an light, well balanced and beautifully executed dish that set the tone very well.

Rhubarb-cured salmon came next, a dish that could easily fade into contemptuous familiarity but here accented by sharp hits of lemon with pickled rhubarb and salmon pate to serve as points of difference and crispy salmon skin for textural interest. This pushed the boundary of a familiar concept just enough to make it memorable without straying too far from what makes it such a rightfully common combo. Next up was a chunky piece of stone bass with crab and fennel, an easy combination to elevate into something truly special that’s done so here with panache. The fish was beautifully cooked with the flesh flaking and skin crisped and all the other elements were as confidently put together. Fennel with an aniseed tang lifted the adjacent portion of white crab while richer brown crab flavoured a rolled centrepiece to the dish and a bit of samphire gave it more of a touch of the sea.

Monkfish was next up in this parade of seafood greatest hits with a bacon sauce underpinning it in lieu of the more common pancetta or similar wrap treatment. Asparagus and baby leek gave a freshness and a splash of green to the place while texture was taken care of by a generous shard of crisped chicken skin. What really pushed this one to new heights was a lightly spiced piece of chicken sausage that livened up the plate even further, with a gentle Coronation chicken spicing that was in perfect harmony with the other elements on the plate. Dessert was anchored by passion fruit with textures of meringue and a crunchy base, a light and zingy finish to the meal.

Thomas Carr at The Coast is offering something quite distinctive, a seafood heavy set menu that doesn’t make heavy weather of being a “Seafood Restaurant”, with all the constraints implied there. Every dish showed off the quality produce to its greatest impact with original twists that added to the experience without starting to feel forced or contrived. It must also be said that £65 for a menu executed this well featuring such a broad spread of high end seafood is great value too, with service up to par too. This really deserves to find a broad audience and is well worth the drive from York!

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Arriving at The Grand needs to, and does, feel like an occasion with a line of Bentleys, Aston Martins and so on sitting outside as super-expensive window dressing as well as a rather handsome Ford Mustang which I think looked like the 1967 model. Things hardly cool off when you make your way through the hotel reception with the scale and furnishing perfectly in keeping with The Grand’s standing as York’s 5 star hotel. Legacy at the Grand can be found at the end of the main ground floor corridor where we were greeted by a hostess who took our coats and remained attentive throughout the evening. The space itself is anchored around a large, central wine station from which Restaurant Manager and sommelier Derek Scaife would be serving drinks throughout the meal, and which felt cool without being contrived. First from that wine station was a glass of Nyetimber Classic Cuvee, always a good starting point for a meal and a great accompaniment to a chat with Ahmed as he came out to introduce the trio of canapés which would start the journey. Following Ahmed’s advice I started with one of my least favoured treats, an oyster. I’ve enjoyed these as tempura and ice cream but always struggled a touch with the texture when they’re unmolested. This, though, was given real punch by a verjus dressing that imbued it with a strong, almost vinegar punch along with a refreshing smack of ginger. Next up was a little whipped cod’s roe cone for a refreshing and clean tasting start that didn’t last too long before finishing with a ham hock and gherkin tartlet. This one was livened up by dehydrated and grated gherkin along with delicate pearls of piccalilli puree and was a fantastic end to this scene-setting prologue.

Getting into the menu proper, bread arrived at the table in a couple of different forms with a Parkerhouse roll which had been sculpted to ease its dismemberment and subsequent lavishing with cultured butter or goat’s butter with chive. The other side of the table received sourdough as a substitute as the friend with whom I was dining suffers from an egg allergy, which was dealt with perfectly throughout the meal. Next was a Jersey Royal veloute given a shot of character from pieces of cooked potato as well as slightly burnt cheese and a touch of sherry, topped with a pleasingly intricate leaf of chicken skin for extra seasoning and visual appeal. Properly excavating the dish to make sure each element featured in a single mouthful without any single one overwhelming showed a reassuring sense of balance: each element given voice but none drowning out the other. After that strong start we moved onto a langoustine course that put a langoustine ravioli alongside chunks of the star ingredient and amongst a langoustine broth with a few discs of carrot and some micro herbs to finish. Derek was keen to make the point that all the parts of the langoustine that would otherwise be wasted were used in the making of the broth, a nice touch to underscore the point that this style of dining isn’t simply about throwing more and more at a dish and doesn’t necessarily imply huge wastage. Whatever process had gone into it though, this was another successful dish that showcased the best of its star attraction that left us eager for more.

Celeriac is one of my favourite ingredients and often features at the core of plant based dishes thanks to the unique flavour that can be teased out in different ways with different techniques and partners. This dish also leant on a hefty dose of truffle to signify indulgence while a glaze of black garlic punched through along with a hazelnut pesto that gave context to those strong flavours before we moved into a fish course of halibut with cauliflower. A rich Mousseline sauce reminded us that this was a high end experience as did a few dots of caviar while the cauliflower took things back down to earth and a couple of mussels underscored the seafood theme. It’s worth noting again that the Mousseline was omitted from my egg-allergic friends plate in favour of a beurre blanc, making sure that he wasn’t missing out.

Lamb was the backbone of the final savoury course and presented in three ways with a cutlet being joined by sweetbread and sitting on top of more slow braised meat along with cubes of turnip and a sauce with an accomplished sheen. The cooking of lamb cuts such as this are always a balance between pleasing those who’d like it pretty much raw as well as those who’d happily desecrate the meat by cooking it through. Ahmed and the team hit the spot with this one though making sure the seasoning was spot on while fat rendered and the meat pink but unintimidating; an appropriate piece of punctation to end this chapter of the meal.

Strawberries from Annabel’s Strawberries were first amongst a brace of sweet dishes, fleshed out by an aerated chamomile top with hints of lavender that refreshed your palate after those previous indulgences and began the process of livening one up with a shot of sugar toward the end of the experience. The final course featured ice cream and pannacotta with an intricately formed sweet honey comb topping and a single petal to break up the colour palate, another well resolved and visually striking dish on which to end….or not as an unscripted final cheese course emerged! Amongst the cheeses was one of my favourites, Baron Bigod which originates from Suffolk and is a match for any French brie, but the star of the cheese course was actually a section of honeycomb that had come directly from the roof of the hotel which has had beehives installed in the preceding year’s expansions.

A hotel restaurant which wants to rely on more than the inertia of residents who may or may not want to venture out, but has the ambition of counting itself amongst the best in the city needs to have a sense of identity, hit or exceed the standards across the rest of the city and take advantage of the resources afforded it by being part of a wider business. Ahmed, Derek and all the team at Legacy at The Grand have achieved all of those things and immediately announced themselves as one of the best fine dining options in York. This is obviously not a cheap experience but £120 a head represents fair value for this style of food served in this environment and is slap bang in the middle of similar experiences in York, and the wine pairing at £60 was generous and with some unusual inclusions. The menu is thoughtful, well-paced, beautifully presented and served in a tasteful environment that imbues occasion while feeling representative of the hotel. Its own identity and touches such as their own honey elevated the experience further.

Disclaimer, complimentary visit for PR purposes.

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Adam Jackson is a name with which anyone who’s serious about eating out in York is familiar, having been Head Chef at The Black Swan at Oldstead when it was awarded its Michelin Star, before opening his own restaurant. Latterly Adam has undertaken a stint leading the kitchen at The Feversham Arms in Helmsley but his appointment to The Bow Room Grays Court feels like a perfect fit for all concerned. To do a building such as this justice, dinner here was always going to be a high end affair, which is reflected in the price of the tasting menu at £100 per person, with the matched wines demanding a further £65 contribution. Those might sound like big numbers, and in isolation they certainly are, but a little digging shows they stack up with comparative experiences in York which occupy less storied buildings. I also note a number of price rises being signposted by fine dining restaurants in the city too, a situation which doesn’t look like easing any time soon in the current global context.

Arriving at Grays Court is an event in itself as you duck along some of York’s quieter streets to find a courtyard festooned with fairy lights across an avenue of trees before descending a couple of steps to be welcomed into the building. From there it’s up to a gallery style bar area in which to enjoy a pre-dinner drink and amuse-bouche. This is one of those spaces that seems automatically to imbue one with a sense of calm as things slow down and you’ve time to take in your surroundings, enhanced in this case by a glass of sparkling wine and a charmingly light Lincolnshire poacher and truffle gougère to start things off. After polishing those off at a leisurely pace we were on our way through to our table in the dining room complete with personalised menu. Before the menu kicked off in earnest we were to enjoy a couple of snacks and a bread course that set the tone for the evening quite perfectly, with a venison tartare tart emboldened by capers and hazelnuts accompanying a venison ragout served under a celery foam also spiked with capers. This coupling was served across a striking bowl of foliage that, when arriving at the table, used dry ice to snake tendrils of spruce scent around us as we confirmed the balance of the snacks was as well resolved as the sense of occasion. Wild garlic is bang on season at the moment so not wholly unexpected cropping up to enhance a white onion butter that was served with a tiger bread, another exercise in restraint as neither garlic nor onion flavour dominated while both were present in quantity.

Having enjoyed that preamble, we started on the menu itself with a first course of cod, cucumber and a fennel element along with a champagne sauce, all of which harmonise beautifully to continue the sense of balance, before our next fish course of Sea Trout. This one was served with a beetroot and wasabi as well as a partnering piece of sushi giving a greater sense of scale. I’ve always admired Adam’s delicacy of touch with heat and the wasabi cutting through the rich fish was judged to perfection here, all underpinned by hard working beetroot and a scattering of nasturtium for presentation and a little extra pep.

The meat course in a menu like this needs to be a show stopper so fillet of beef is quite an appropriate indulgence, served here with watercress as an emulsion and potato obscured by an equally appropriate quantity of truffle. A couple more nasturtium leaves helped to temper the extremes of indulgence from the beef and truffle along with a punchy sauce spiked with green peppercorns.

At this point we were feeling the impact of all this indulgence before embarking on desserts but a good hit of sugar from the first sweet course quickly kickstarted our digestion and had us back on track. This was another dish of two parts with an apple cake in the lid of the serving vessel giving way to ginger and rhubarb in the bowl. Our last course balanced bitter dark chocolate with armagnac and prune sandwiched between two sugary crisp sheets with a flourish of edible gold for good measure. The wines that went along with each dish were a an original selection featuring an orange wine, a Georgian wine and a particularly well matched Hungarian Tokaji to bring out the best of the ginger, apple and rhubarb course.

Repeating that these dishes are well resolved, balanced, refined and generally executed with precision, detail and maturity has become a bit of a theme throughout this piece and sums up the experience nicely. There’s a strong sense of unity between space, location, service, approach to sourcing and cooking that speaks of a team working well together in a space that elevates an experience that already feels special. Many times in the history of York buildings, spaces and concepts have struggled to integrate with one another into something cohesive but The Bow Room at Grays Court is the antithesis of this. It can very happily count itself amongst the very best the city has to offer already, with a sense of more to come too.

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The General Tarleton was built in the 18th Century as a coaching inn in Ferrenby, just a bit North of Knaresborough, and is just the type of establishment that one wants to see as the heart of village life. Ferrenby is a small village so it’s easy to overshoot your destination, but equally easy to execute a swift u-turn thankfully and rectify the error, as we may or may not have had to do. The bar into which one arrives is a welcoming space that would be very easy to slip into on an almost daily basis as a village resident, so we paused there briefly to kill the few minutes that had been unexpectedly liberated by light traffic. We then moved through to the separate fine dining restaurant in which to enjoy the tasting menu that’s available in the evenings from Wednesday to Saturday.

This fine dining restaurant is in a bare stone walled room with low ceilings in a secluded part of the building, with a wooden floor and a wood burner to keep us nice and snug. Smartly laid tables accented the higher end nature of this dining experience which looked to be great value at £55 for 7 courses with a generous wine flight doubling that to a still perfectly fair £110. First up was, predictably, that staple of a tasting menu, canapés! This time in the form of arancini, fish and chip bites and cured mallard blini amongst which the cauliflower arancini really stood out with a solid whack from the headline ingredient relieved by a parsley aioli. With a glass of Champagne to go alongside, I was well and truly ready to settle in for as much as could be thrown at me after a long day listening to builders working on our house.

The first more substantial course crowned a disc of gingerbread topped with pear to balance a lustrous chicken liver parfait which was paired with Sauternes, rather unusually featuring early on in a meal and bringing impact to the early stages of the meal before the fish course of seared sea trout. This neatly presented dish used pumpkin a couple of ways for a seasonal accent of sweetness along with some fondant potato and an appealingly glossy herb oil. The mouthful that really elevated this one though was a single tempura mussel that vanished with a deeply satisfying crunch, and a tinge of sadness that it wasn’t one of many.

Beef is a classic choice for a meat course on this style of tasting menu which was executed here with flair as sirloin and cheek were presented with celeriac fondant and puree. With a bold Rioja, they came together as a real crowd pleaser, a bit of cavalo nero taking on the jus nicely too. Next up came “Chefs Cheese on Toast” composing strata of fig, Tunworth cheese and brioche that was as indulgent as the port with which it was paired. All that remained were a brace of sweet courses that started with a lemon syllabub with champagne jelly and finished with a bitter chocolate mousse with brambles and a pistachio cake, both of which were beautifully presented and continued the themes of indulgent ingredients presented delicately.

The popularity of tasting menus has ebbed and flowed in recent years, taking a bit of a dip as a few high profile chefs moved back to a la carte only, but these days they seem as widespread in fine dining as they’ve ever been. In all honesty, my enthusiasm has always remained as strong as any other style of menu, the opportunity to let a chef run riot contrary my perceived preferences remains a unique way for a kitchen to express itself. Ralph’s Tasting Menu at The General Tarleton is a great value introduction to this kind of experience, sacrificing none of the details of the fine dining experience despite hitting that £55 price tag. The standard was high, featuring a few real stand out courses that stood comparison with the best, and the wine pairing was engaging and good value. It’s particularly pleasing that this style of experience could be found in the same building that also offered what looked to be solid casual dining as well as a comfy village pub.

(Disclaimer – PR invite)

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Paolo’s has been subject to a few tasteful upgrades over the last few years and the frontage is now dominated by a broad expanse of bi-fold which offers plenty of, currently rather desirable, ventilation. The character of the place remains intact though with the large oil painting of the proprietor still staring down at you and the ever-present football on television still featuring prominently in the Paolo’s experience. The chairs are packed in so navigating amongst the efficient and determined can spice up the experience but we were quickly situated at a window table with glasses of a Campari based aperitivo in hand ready for our first courses to arrive. The Il Paradiso del Cibo Tasting Menu experience starts with a selection of meats and cheeses along with olives, lightly pickled vegetables and light shards of a crisp bread that was to feature throughout the meal. The inclusion of olive oil and balsamic in which to dip this bread was noteworthy inasmuch as this seems unfashionable these days, but no less enjoyable for its increasing scarcity.

With snacking and chatting progressing apace we soon got down to the seafood elements of the meal with mussels and clams preceding king prawns, both presented with more shards of that bread which seemed able to retain its structure while also absorbing big hits of flavour. The mussels and clams were cooked in a tomato sauce with a healthy kick of garlic and a delicate edge of white wine that let them show off their best without ever threatening to overwhelm, before a small armada of king prawns then took over. These had been cooked with plenty of rosemary and sun-dried tomato as well as another hint of that Vernaccia white wine. It was a predictably messy job to extricate the prawn meat from the shells but an entirely worthwhile endeavour that rewarded yielding, perfectly cooked meat. The subsequent pasta course also leant heavily toward its seafood precursors too, filling a squid ink pasta parcel with grouper, prawns and mussels then surrounding it with a lobster sauce with a jaunty prawn sitting atop it.

By this point we were well embedded in the evening having happily enjoyed the plentiful wine that helped us chuckle at the pasta shape in the next dish being mischievously compared to maggots. Irrespective of comparison, the pasta shape did all that was needed of it, letting the accompanying lamb ragu cling to it while retaining just the right touch of al dente resistance. The second meat dish was pork belly served with braised broad beans, which we were told would aid our digestion, as well as pancetta with another slice of that crisp, thin bread soaking everything up. The care that had been lavished on the meat was readily evident as was the care in its raising, with a diet of milk, acorn and sweet corn forming the basis of its nutrition.

Unfortunately we weren’t able to enjoy the final couple of dishes but the evidence presented suggests they’d have continued the theme of quality produce presented with care and affection, not to mention a dash of limoncello as is traditional at the end of a El Paradiso meal! Over a decade or more ago the off-menu tasting menu was a rare treat but as both York and Paolo’s have matured and grown, their reputations both have taken the next step in formalising and refining their offerings. At £70/head including wine the Il Paradiso del Cibo Tasting Menu represents a great value way to spend a whole evening being inundated with great food in an environment constructed solely for conviviality. I can’t wait to see what the dining scene in York and Il Paradiso looks like in another decade or so and how this offering reflects it.

(Disclaimer – PR meal at no charge.)

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The food at Vice & Virtue is the creation of Jono Hawthorne, who’s come up with eccentric masterworks in the past such as cheeseburger spring rolls and the insta-friendly “Hangover Cone” that counted brownie, ice cream, ready salted crisps and pretzel amongst its ingredients. The food at Vice & Virtue has dialled back these excesses in favour of more classical dishes but it’s still very much of its own mind and recognisable, with striking plating. As with so many other of our favourite hospitality businesses, V&V have had to do some thinking on the hoof about how to proceed and have come up with a version of their tasting menu to plate and enjoy at home.

As a restaurant, there are obvious issues to address with trusting the public to cook your food. The crux of which being that we specifically go out for food experiences that can’t replicate in the domestic setting. A lot of the at-home options we’re seeing remove as much personal responsibility from the process as possible, mitigating again enthusiastic amateurs mucking up lovingly prepared ingredients. V&V’s approach puts a bit more faith in you though with cooking that requires some judgement and intricate plating to have a stab at. Speaking personally, this seems like a much more experiential approach that’s bound to bring to mind those questions I posed earlier.

Preparing for a meal like this really shines a light on the quality of your tableware, or lack thereof. Each of us would need 12 plates to get through the experience along with associated cutlery, not to mention a few glasses and pans. Spare a thought for the kitchen porter whenever we’re able to enjoy restaurants again! Thankfully the standard of the food exceeded the standard of the plates it was served on. (I’m pretty sure one was from the Kitchen Reject Shop in Cambridge ca1997.) First up came snacks, parmesan doughnuts and black pudding to nibble on while warming through a wild garlic veloute, into which I microplaned cured egg yolk before scattering hogweed flowers over the surface and drizzling with rapeseed oil. Feeling almost like a proper chef after that flurry of (low skilled) activity, we tucked in and immediately felt like this really was as close to a restaurant experience as possible at the moment, the combination of flavours and textures whetting our appetites for the next courses.

Plating the next course involved encasing a portion of whipped chicken liver pate in beetroot, burnt watermelon and cereal and then finishing with torn raspberries. This one really played with texture, the crunching cereal really accentuating the depth of flavour in the pate and the earthy tones of beetroot. Next came a fish course of gin and tonic cured trout dressed with yarrow and buttermilk and coupled with bold spikes of flavour from capers, elderflowers, and discs of cucumber to throw in some crunch. The dressing brought this one together with real flair, underpinning the texture of the fish and letting the bombs of caper detonate pleasingly.

The meat course required a bit more prep, with some portions of aged striploin beef to be finished in a pan having already been subjected to a waterbath. The extent of the cooking needed depended on the diner’s preference for rare meat so being confident in my ability to cook a steak, I showed the meat to the pan for a brief sear before resting and plating. After moving the meat through the pan, I wilted dandelion leaves to underpin the meat while simultaneously warming a jus and some aubergine puree. The dish was finished with petals, strawberry and a dusting of vadouvan which reminded me of currywurst spice more than I suspect was intended. Arranging this on the plate and coordinating the elements’ arrival was genuine fun and the result was as delicious as it was striking.

Finally, and perhaps visually the most arresting dish was a sweet dish of vanilla and tonka-accented goats cheese. Around this, there were positioned studs of rhubarb before the whole lot was encased in tiny meringues dusted with tarragon. It’s very unusual for sweet dishes to feature in my favourite memories of a meal, but this has really struck in the mind, perhaps thanks to tonka and tarragon being unusual notes on which to end a meal and the striking visuals.

Going back to those earlier questions, I felt like our plating stood up well enough thanks to the relaxed timing we were taking over it. I suspect it’d have been less successful had we been hit with the demands of a series of customers demanding repeated perfection. Does it replicate a fine dining restaurant experience? To a point. While the food exceeded my expectations and was beyond what I am skilled or equipped to produce at home, my conservatory (as fond of it as I am) doesn’t have the same atmosphere as a restaurant. Doing the washing up was a necessary side effect that could wait until the following day without detracting from the experience. This minor annoyance was more than compensated for by the experience of getting involved in putting the dishes together, which was to some extent an interesting insight into running service in a fine dining restaurant. Not that I’m suggesting it replicated the pressure in any way! As for whether or not it was the best meal I’ve ever eaten in my own home? The only comparison that springs to mind is the time a private chef came round to cook for a dinner party. Being on the premises gifted him the advantage but certainly nothing in the way of a decisive win. The experience of assembling dishes such as this was unique and fun, making the food as rewarding as it was memorable. This is a wonderful treat to give yourself in these trying circumstances that offers a little bit of genuine insight into the experience of preparing dishes like this while offering as close to a restaurant experience as we can get at the moment. That feels like a bargain for £35/head to me.

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You can read more about Chateaus de Mercues and its surrounding area in this previous post, but this was a meal with more elements than could be done justice in that piece. There’s an illicit thrill to be had from marching through a busy restaurant into what other diners must presume is the inner workings of the kitchen. In reality, this was the the secret entrance to Head Chef Julien Poisot’s den, part of which is a table tucked unobtrusively beyond the pass for lucky guests to enjoy a unique culinary experience with full view of the chefs at work. Predictably I was the first of the party to arrive, my compulsive punctuality and enthusiasm for food intersecting neatly to give me a few minutes solitary contemplation of the menu to come.

The group was a couple more people than the chef’s table at Le Duèze Cahors had been designed for so things were a little snug, but we were all on good terms so that was hardly a concern. With wine production taking place on the premises, you’d expect the drinks to equal the food, the sparkling Bellefleur we started with presaged a series of fantastic accompaniments that leant heavily on the region’s feted malbec.

The menu leaned as heavily as one would hope on local produce throughout the succession of dishes and started with snacks including brioche and a caper leaf containing steak tartare. Being a sucker for raw beef, I happily celebrated that particular mouthful before moving onto the first main courses. Smoked duck, Jerusalem artichoke and foie gras featured in the first dish, a take on a Pot au Feu that was lighter than those components might suggest. Incidentally, foie gras raised its head several times over the course of this meal; it’s not an ingredient they’re squeamish about around here.

Next up was the obligatory “textures of” dish, in this case an effective run through of Jerusalem artichoke before the chef started to really stretch his leg with one that made oyster and caviar the stars, stuffing them into a potato case. Oysters are never going to make a list of my favourites, but with a generous amount of caviar around too and a richly indulgent sauce, it laid down a marker to represent the indulgences to come.

Next up, more foie gras, this time both roasted and carpaccio along with ceps and a delicate broth ripe to be accented by a crunchy topping of bread crumbs which gave it a nice bite of texture. “Cyril’s snails” did its best to sell this French delicacy to our Anglicised tastes and, it must be said, was more successful at this than many of us expected. The crunchy potato basket and smoked garlic cream turned out a memorably simple presentation and the flavour of the title ingredient met a happier audience than the texture.

As I’ve said, this isn’t the place for you are squeamish about foie gras, a point underlined by its third appearance on the menu. This time paired with swede and poached pear, the least memorable dish of the evening. Scallops with artichoke and mushroom came and went, the scallop was cooked expertly and was well judged against the earthy artichoke… which was also the title of the next plate. “Artichoke” came stuffed with beef cheek this time and with white truffle thrown around to make sure there was no chance of forgetting the quality of the experience. Beef cheek rewards care and Chef had clearly lavished plenty of affection on this occasion to underscore the richness and indulgence of the menu so far.

It’s rare to come across a tasting menu featuring only one sweet dish, not something I would necessarily complain about given my preference for savoury. We worked our way back down to Earth with a passion fruit soufflé which reached skywards and which was good friends with fruit sorbet and “fresh fruit exotic salad”. Served elaborately to leave a dramatic final impression, these were remarkably fresh notes on which to finish a quite extravagent meal.

I always assumed that the backlash against tasting menus would be a passing thing and I think that’s proving to be the case, for reasons ably demonstrated by Le Duèze Cahors. This menu gave the chef the opportunity to highlight the local specialties that he obviously takes pride in working with, something that could be missed by ordering a la carte. Of course not every meal is going to benefit from giving a chef carte blanche to show off in the way they see fit but on occasions such as this, it’s entirely appropriate.

Disclaimer: This meal was included in a press trip.

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