Best restaurants in the Yorkshire Dales

UK, Yorkshire, Yorkshire Dales National Park, Gunnerside

Foodie experiences in the Yorkshire Dales

The Black Bull, Sedbergh

At the Dales’ western edge (next stop, the Lake District) this stylish inn excels with its chic rooms and chef Nina Matsunaga’s distinctive cooking. The Bull does the rural inn bit impressively (great roasts, Monday’s pie night) but Nina also cleverly channels global influences in dishes such as cured mackerel, ajo blanco, orange and daikon or Herdwick lamb with liver sauce and tomato salsa. For more tasty Sedbergh action, swing by The Meat Hook butcher, micropub The Thirsty Rambler and The Dalesman inn. theblackbullsedbergh.co.uk

Bar seating area at The Black Bull, featuring red banquette seating and small mismatched wall prints

Black Swan Hotel, Ravenstonedale

A destination since Victorian times, this attractive Westmorlandvillage inn has in recent years emerged as an award-winning stand-out. In summer, diners spread out into the courtyard and a riverside beer garden. Nifty pub classics (fish pie, double cheeseburger with gouda and bacon jam) are served alongside cheffier dishes such as scallops with preserved lemon and pancetta or a popular cheese soufflé made with goat’s cheese from local farm Piper Hole. blackswanhotel.com

The Black Swan's exterior with small patch of outdoor seating

The Sun Inn, Kirkby Lonsdale

The geography of the Yorkshire Dales National Park is such that several market towns – Kirkby Lonsdale a particularly charming example – fall just outside its official border but attract many Dales visitors. Spruce pub with rooms, The Sun Inn, is a good Kirkby base. Its dishes run from lunch salads and sandwiches to sophisticated mains such as braised beef with creamed potato, celeriac and pancetta sauce. Also in town check out excellent butcher Dales, the Kirkby Lonsdale Brewery tap The Royal Barn, and The Milking Parlour, home of cow to cone gelato-style ice creams made on the nearby dairy farm. sun-inn.info

Chocolate dessert with ice cream on a grey plate

The Sandpiper Inn, Leyburn

Jonathan Harrison, a 90s Roux Scholarship winner, is part of that generation of pioneering modern British chefs whose dedication to skilful scratch cooking revolutionised UK food. That approach has for more than 25 years made this gorgeous inn an essential for dishes as diverse as crab tagliatelle or crispy duck leg, mango salad, sauté potatoes and Asian dressing. Breads and ice creams are, of course, made in-house. thesandpiperinn.com

Two Dales Bakery, Reeth

Two Dales is a real bread advocate creating A1 sourdoughs, buttermilk-enriched sandwich loaves, patisserie and lush bakes. In the modish café you can brunch and lunch on french toast, serious sausage rolls, homemade soups and jazzy egg dishes, with smoked salmon or halloumi and pesto. Thursday’s takeaway pizzas are a hit with locals and holidaymakers. twodalesbakery.co.uk

Counter at Two Dales Bakery, including pasties, pies, cakes and brownies

The Blue Lion, East Witton

A handsome rural retreat that impresses, whether eating Isle of Mull cheddar rarebit at lunch in the bar (flagged floors, beams,
local ales) or lingering over three courses in the restaurant. The menu is a classy crowd-pleaser in dishes such as homemade tagliatelle carbonara with guanciale (from ace charcuterie maker Cobbled Lane) or glazed pork belly with boudin noir, apple, charred Hispi and pickled mustard seeds. thebluelion.co.uk

The Blue Lion interior, including flagged floor, dark bark wooden seating and a chalkboard sharing the menu

Hansom, Bedale

Restaurant geeks have long tagged Ruth Hansom as one to watch and at her intimate restaurant, launched last year, this talented chef is cooking up something special in plates of, say, cured sea trout, kohlrabi, cucumber and smoked hollandaise or a Wensleydale cheese bread ’n’ butter pudding that is pressed, sliced and pan-fried in butter. Hansom’s centrepiece seven-course tasting menu changes constantly in reaction to peak seasonal, regional produce. hansomrestaurant.co.uk

A seasonal tasting menu dish at Hansom restaurant

Grassington House, Grassington

This restaurant with rooms is a go-to for numerous reasons: from afternoon tea to a summer G&T on its terrace, on pretty Grassington’s cobbled village square. In the kitchen chef-owner John Rudden, an experienced hand, ensures quality. The high-flying restaurant menu ranges from, for example, king scallop with chicken and wild mushroom tortellini, celeriac, chicken jus and seaweed velouté, to beef mignon with rag pudding, carrot purée, cabbage faggot an dred wine jus. grassingtonhouse.co.uk

Rind, Austwick

A satellite of London’s Cheese Bar, Rind shares a site with The Courtyard Dairy, where it creates beautiful wood-fired pizzas using British and Irish cheeses. The margherita is dressed with Old Winchester and UK mozzarella, while an eggs florentine inspired pizza has a sheep’s curd base and uses County Tipperary’s Cáis Na Tíre cheese. A funky canteen-style space with amazing views of the verdant Dales. thecheesebar.com

The Angel at Hetton, near Skipton

A legendary restaurant with rooms, this 15th century inn has experienced a chic, modern makeover under chef Michael Wignall, both in its interior styling and food. Michelin-starred tasting menus make intelligent, original use of the finest ingredients. Dishes might include the likes of marinated Isle of Mull scallop, blood orange, English wasabi and fennel or cod, kombu, cuttlefish and smoked pike roe. angelhetton.co.uk

Foodie experiences

Black Sheep Brewery, Masham

On Nidderdale’s northern edge, Black Sheep’s visitor centre is a boon for beer fans. Drop in to sample classic Black Sheep cask ales at source or for greater insight into the brewery’s 30-plus years of history and the details of the brewing process itself – from the base mashing of malted barley upwards – take the brewery tour, available Thursday to Sunday. blacksheepbrewery.com

Elsworth at the Mill, Skipton

Husband and wife team Rebecca and chef Bruce Elsworth have worked in top-end Dales restaurants for years. Now, in an attractive event space at Skipton’s High Corn Mill, they run a busy programme of cooking demo with lunch sessions, personalised cooking classes and supper clubs, ranging from explorations of regional Italian cooking to collabs with artisan producers that celebrate the area’s vibrant food ecology. elsworthatthemill.co.uk

Elsworth at the Mill, an event space with wooden beams, twinkly fairy lights and wooden furnishings

Wensleydale Creamery, Hawes

Originating in a 12th century Cistercian monastery, crumbly Wensleydale cheese endures as the Dales’ most famous food export. Visitors to the creamery can, as part of the ticketed ‘cheese experience’, watch a cheese-making demo and enjoy a guided tasting, as well as delving into that history. The chance to get a photo with Wensleydale fans Wallace & Gromit (here, life-size recreations woven in wool) is a fun bonus. wensleydale.co.uk

Afternoon tea spread including mac and cheese, savoury tarts, cheese on fruit cake, cheesecake and cups of tea

Foodie town spotlight

Settle

This historic market town and the villages of surrounding Ribblesdale and Malhamdale are cultivating quite the food scene. In Settle, foodies are buzzing about the hip, crisply executed small plates at chef Iain Graham’s The Nettle restaurant. Elsewhere, refresh at High Street Coffee, micropub Millers @ Bar 13 or the Talbot Arms freehouse. For food shopping visit butcher and expert pie maker, Drake & Macefield, homewares store (and cute café) Car and Kitchen, Tuesday’s town market and Settle Artisan Market (second Sunday, monthly).

Heading into the surrounding countryside, Lay of the Land is a small garden centre whose café, led by chef Jimmie Lay, is much-loved by discerning locals. As is Town End Farm Shop, a crucial outlet for regional artisan foods, including owner Chris Wildman’s charcuterie.

Just a few miles from Settle, Austwick is home to the well-regarded hotel restaurant Th e Traddock and nationally significant food hub The Courtyard Dairy. The dairy retails up to 50 carefully matured cheeses from small farmhouse producers, houses a cheese museum and hosts events and cheese-making courses. It also shares its Crows Nest Barn location with pizzeria Rind, natural wine shop Buon Vino and artisan bakery Ambry.