Highfield House, Driffield: The former Yorkshire country club turned into boutique hotel and restaurant

A few years back, Andy and Lindsey Lampard, a married couple (from Birmingham and Pocklington respectively) who met while working as designers in London, were looking for somewhere to raise their family in Yorkshire where they could also base their very successful architectural design practice. They snapped up Highfield House (12 bedrooms, eight acres of land, gardens, woodlands, orchard, huge greenhouse, tennis courts, actual river) for roughly the price of their two-bed flat in Peckham.

A while after moving in, Andy and Lindsey demolished some fencing surrounding their property and subsequently found people merrily wandering across their garden looking lovingly at the house. In conversation with a few of the well-meaning trespassers, they learned that Highfield was – from the late ‘50s to the ‘90s – run as a country club and wedding venue and the happily-married of the parish were taking the opportunity to reminisce about their big day.

This discovery (along with the restrictions of lockdown) lead the Lampards to decide that Highfield House should become not just an architectural design practice but also a boutique hotel, wedding venue and, now, restaurant. It’s a labour of love and every inch of every surface is carefully considered and curated by Andy and Lindsey, right down to designing the wallpaper. It remains, primarily, their home and they apply the same aesthetic rigour to the public spaces they would their private living room. I can’t vouch for the bedrooms (though the photos I’ve seen bode very well) or anything else on offer at Highfield but the restaurant is excellent and a most welcome addition to the East Riding dining scene. Almost without caveat.

There are seemingly several dining spaces – including a great hall with a truly beautiful, ornate fireplace - but we were seated in a perfectly comfortable colonial style room with a most-welcome log fire, gorgeous walnut tables and wide-hooded Orkney chairs. It’s a fine and opulent place to eat, with antique furniture but a definite modern feel. Often this can be done badly but here it’s done very well.

Service is keen and friendly and, before we know it, we have starters of scallops with chorizo butter, chorizo crumb, samphire and saffron (of course it’s good. It’s scallops and chorizo, it’s bound to be good) and breast of pheasant, braised leg bun, blackberry gel and puffed rice. The leg bun - because I know you’re wondering – is a kind of meat-filled bao. That and the puffed rice lend new textures to a recognisable classic.

Mains of halibut, artichoke, truffled dauphine and crispy skins and venison loin with gooseberry and juniper glaze, parsnip puree, butternut squash and beetroot are necessarily bolstered by sides of cabbage, chestnut and bacon and cauliflower with chilli, pine nuts and pomegranate, which arrives (somewhat unexpectedly) as a whole head. All were great. The meat, fish and vegetables are all sourced locally and cooked to perfection. The crispy skins with the halibut were of particular note.

So far, so good but, after two courses, a theme began to emerge.

The food is excellent, but not amazing. I really, really wanted it to knock my socks off but it never quite did. Our starters were £11 and £12 and mains were £30 and £33, with sides of £4.50 each, so the bill is racking up. Is it unfair to expect amazing for those prices or is excellent acceptable? That’s something that the Lampards and their potential clientele may have to consider.

If the restaurant is intended to operate solely for hotel guests, it far exceeds expectations and is better than such requirements dictate; but if Andy and Lindsey are hoping to convince the better-heeled gastronauts of Yorkshire to journey to Driff, I think some sock-knocking-off amendments may be required.

Puds, too, were grand, a mulled pear tart with egg nog ice cream was perfectly juicy and crunchy and sweet. And I can happily declare that the deliciously boozy rum baba with apricots, coconut crumb and coconut ice cream was the best rum baba I’ve ever eaten. It seems unfair to mention that this may be because it was also the first rum baba I’ve ever eaten, so I won’t.

I really, really like Highfield House and any and all criticism must be tempered by the fact that the restaurant only opened a few months ago. From absolute scratch to where they are now is truly amazing work. Andy and Lindsey deserve much praise. They are affable, diligent, hard-working and talented folk and are already proving a welcome presence in Driffield and beyond. I have absolutely no doubt that they will succeed in their new venture, just as they continue to in their previous one.

I hope to return to Highfield in the not-too-distant future for another opulent meal and find the food tweaked up just a notch so it moves from excellent to amazing. The Lampards and their brilliant staff are more than capable of amazing and they don’t seem the types to let excellent be good enough. They’re at ten, the only way to go next is to eleven.Highfield House, Windmill Hill, Driffield, YO25 5YP Tel: 01377 256231 www.highfieldhouse.com