ROBERT Cockroft chooses his six of the best restaurants reviewed in the Yorkshire Post Magazine over the past year. Here is also his Best of the Rest.
Restaurant of the year:Dawnay Arms, Newton-on-OuseSome of the most exciting cooking in Yorkshire is being done in rural pubs; here's another born-again boozer to underline the trend.
Chef Martel Smith, who trained wi
th Marco White, established his credentials with No 3 York Place in Leeds. The latest platform for his talent is the Dawnay Arms, subject of a £100,000 makeover this summer and the setting for classy dishes like terrine of confit guinea fowl, Whitby haddock risotto and possibly the best belly pork in the county. Don't be deceived, however, by the pub's rustic decor. Expect metropolitan fare for city slickers at modest prices. An impressive newcomer.
Dawnay Arms, Newton-on-Ouse, North Yorkshire. 01347 848345.Best Bistro of the Year:Korks, OtleyHead chef Martin Pickard trained at George V in Paris and managed a spell with Joel Robuchon, a superchef renowned for the quality, unlikely thought, of his mashed potato. Pickard, not surprisingly, is no slouch with mash and it appears in several guises on a menu that prizes good produce, from roast loin of Gloucester Old Spot to smoked haddock fillet with bubble and squeak.
This is simple, friendly food built on strong foundations and delivered with good humour in surroundings that could not, by any stretch of the imagination, be called contemporary. Owner Chris Paine, a big personality, looks after the front of house – and a splendid wine list.
Korks, Bondgate, Otley, West Yorkshire. 01943 462020.Best Pub of the Year:Devonshire Arms, Beeley.Local ingredients are prominent on a menu of British tone at an enterprise owned and refurbished by the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire,
and within strolling distance of Chatsworth.
If the intention was to create a relaxed, country dining pub of democratic ideals, the plan worked. Food is served in the low-ceilinged inn or the adjoining contemporary brasserie. Food ranges from sandwiches to a perfectly grilled organic T-bone steak, from the Castlegate Farm Shop at Stoney Middleton. Factor in peppy service and a first-rate wine list, and this is one of the Peak district's treasures.
Devonshire Arms, Beeley, near Matlock. 01629 733259.Best Newcomer: Farmer's Boy, Shepley, Huddersfield.Who ate all the pies? Customers at this village inn. It was shrewd of chef-owner Darren Milner to include a meat and potato pie among his main courses and shrewder still to make it such a glorious construction, with crimped short pastry, excellent meat, mahogany gravy and mushy peas.
The restaurant, a converted barn at the back of the pub, has grown in confidence since it opened in August. Food inclines to the traditional – lively caesar salad, parfait of foie gras and chicken liver, duck confit with lentils, superb braise of oxtail – with modern and eastern flourishes. Lively atmosphere, friendly service.
Farmer's Boy, Marsh Lane, Shepley, Huddersfield. 01484 605355.Best Café: Perk Up, RiponThis enterprise began as a café when owner Annette Lyons arrived in the city and despaired of finding good coffee. It developed into a sandwich outlet, then a café and then a four-nights-a-week restaurant. Perk-Up embodies the sprightly cooking and attitude to be found in its compact dining room in Ripon market square.
A short menu and on-view kitchen suggest that care is taken over the ingredients and cooking, and so it proves in dishes like loin of pork with black pudding and sweet potato; grilled rump of beef with béarnaise and breast of duck with dauphinois potato. A café with personality? That's quite something.
Perk-Up, 43 Market Place South, Ripon. 01765 698888Best dressed restaurant of the Year:Brasserie Blanc, LeedsThe world and his femme must now know that French chef Raymond Blanc took over Leodis and transformed it into Brasserie Blanc, part of a national chain. Some transformation. In went £1m, out came a chic dining room that wouldn't look out of place in the Marais. At lunchtime, it's the most handsome place in the city; as dusk gathers and candlelight warms the honeyed brick, it's also the most romantic.
The menu, unsurprisingly, takes in several French staples, and the consistency of cooking is not quite the worry I thought it might be on my first visit. For a glass of wine, a salad, a pot roast and some serious crowd-watching, it's hard to beat.
Brasserie Blanc, Sovereign Street, Leeds. 0113 220 6060.Best of the restBest Indian: Indya, HolmfirthChef-proprietor Chanda Bhalla brings a home-cooked style of Punjabi food to this converted Victorian stable block. Outstanding among meat dishes is keema and peas, but vegetarians arguably have the best of it in items like vegetable bhuna and the smoky allo ghobi.
Indya, Stable Court, Holmfirth. 01484 681200.Best front of house: Severed Head, HorsforthGood food can be ruined by bad service, yet not enough restaurants concentrate enough on the crucial interface between kitchen and customer. Here's one that does. The food and drink in this sparky bar-restaurant are served by a team that acts like one.
Severed Head, 8-10 Town Street, Horsforth, Leeds LS18 5LJ. Phone: 0113 259 0110.Best appetiser:Chester's, Sowerby Bridge"Haddock and chips for two," announces the restaurant manager as she puts down a plate containing two small battered fillets, four chips and smudge of tomato sauce. And this is just the appetiser. This touch is an indication of the warmth and character of this pleasing new family-run bistro.
Chester's, 5 Wharf Street, Sowerby Bridge, Halifax. 01422 834824.Fish dish of the year: Cragrats, HepworthHigh in the Pennines, chefs Richard Shaw and Matthew Craven are turning out some bright food. Among their summer repertoire was a grilled fillet of halibut with sauté Jersey Royals, broccoli and a seafood and garlic cream. Fine ingredients intelligently handled and thoughtfully served.
Cragrats, Sheffield Road, Hepworth, Huddersfield. 01484 683775.Best Russian Restaurant: The Russian Restaurant, BradfordThe owners claim this as the only Russian restaurant in the North-East, so my nomination may not seem much of a contest. Yet there is quality among the swirly carpets and fretwork partitions. The home-style cooking is first-rate and for winter warmers, few things can beat borscht, stroganoff or goulash or stuffed pancakes.
The Russian Restaurant, 15, Manor Row, Bradford. 01274 733121.Best Restaurant outside Yorkshire: Mirazur, Menton, south of FranceArgentinian chef Mauro Cola-Greco found a magical setting in a clifftop lemon grove for his restaurant. The glass sided dining room overlooks the Bay of Menton, one of the best settings on the riviera, and the food – questing and technically fastidious – has deservedly earned him a Michelin star. Lunch, about £40, is the bargain. World-class service.
Mirazur, 30 Avenue Aristide Briand, 06500 Menton. 00 33 4 92 41 86 86Biggest Loss of the Year: Kaye Arms, Grange Moor.In the mid-1980s, chef Adrian Quarmby turned a roadside inn that served chicken-in-a-basket to one of Yorkshire's earliest gastro pubs. While diners ordered burgers in the main room, he would serve a small menu of classics to a small audience behind a curtain in the snug. Gradually, those dishes spread to the whole restaurant and its reputation, not least for quirky service, spread.
A couple of months ago, the family-run enterprise was bought by a pub group. It continues in business but, sadly, an era ends.
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