The Yorke Arms, Ramsgill, North Yorkshire, 28th December 2013

Apparently Yorkshire has the more Michelin star restaurants than any other county outside London. Trying to decide on somewhere to eat whilst visiting a friend up in Yorkshire did however present a couple of problems: Yorkshire covers a relatively big area and a lot of good restaurants close over the festive period. On the plus side this did at least mean there weren't any difficult decisions to make-The Yorke Arms was the only Michelin starred restaurant that was open and not too far away. After the reservation had been made I noticed that it had been voted number three in the Sunday Times top 100 restaurants, so I was hoping for a good meal. After overindulging slightly on Christmas/Boxing day I'd even made an effort to not eat too much and go to the gym the day before the trip.

It was a reasonable drive away, but luckily there had been a pause in the horrible weather and the car journey through the Yorkshire countryside was very pleasant. First impressions were very good-a lovely building (an old hunting lodge) in a very pretty location, with a great Christmas tree in the doorway. We were shown through to the dining room which also had some nice festive touches.

The lunch menu had about four choices for starters and the main course and there was a good selection of reasonably priced wines by the glass. Whilst we were perusing the menus we had some very nice crisps and a mini cheese tart each. Then came an amuse bouche of pickled herring. 

Pickled herring

I'm not entirely sure what to say about the starter, what I am now sure of is that I don't like fois gras. From the description of the dish I was hoping it wouldn't be the predominant feature so I was a little concerned to see a relatively large chunk of it on the plate. It wasn't quite as bad as my first experience, this time there were at least some other nice components (pheasant terrine and persimmon) and as well as a small brioche there was a selection of breads to eat it with (although maybe I should have been braver and just left it and really enjoyed the bread?) So whilst I don't have particularly fond memories of the starter this is essentially because of personal taste.

Slow cooked pheasant press, fois gras, persimmon, gooseberry and brioche 

Selection of breads

For the main course I'd gone with sea bass with shrimps and a red wine reduction. I was initially slightly disappointed because my friend had gone with the duck and it looked very good (I'd been put off by the mention of liver). But I was very happy with the sea bass-it was cooked very well, the sauce was tasty and the portion size was very good. I was also please with my choice of wine-a glass of pinot blanc.

Crisp sea bass, papaya and lime, shrimp dauphine, ginger, red wine reduction

The dessert was the star of the show and one of the best I'd had in 2013-a selection of spiced chocolates and other treats-the dark chocolate balanced really well with spices and lighter offerings. I liked the idea of retiring to the lounge for drinks and opted for an interesting tea (orange and jasmine I think) and managed to find just enough room for the petit fours.

A plate of Asian spiced chocolate Szechuan, coconut bavarois, passion fruit jelly, ginger meringue, sorbet, macadamia nut crumble

Tea and petit fours

Overall we had a lovely lunch and it was a very nice last michelin-starred meal of 2013. The lunch menu was a pretty reasonable £35 and you could get a glass of wine for £6. I found out during some googling that The Yorke Arms and L'Enclume (see earlier blog) were two of the restaurants Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon visited during "The Trip"-I wonder what they thought of it...

http://yorke-arms.co.uk/index.php