OPH by Mannion & Co review: Former police house in Easingwold is now a restaurant - with the cells still there

I reviewed both and have visited them frequently over the years. Both establishments have an incredible following. I believe the success is not just the delicious food, the deli counters and the astonishingly great bakery goods they make but their relaxed atmosphere and the brilliant staff that have also made it work.

He recently opened a third venue in the run-down old police house overlooking the marketplace in Easingwold and called it OPH by Mannion and Co, which separates it slightly from the other two. Like York and Helmsley, Easingwold is awash with cafés, sandwich shops and bakeries, but as OPH is quite different to anywhere else, it should hopefully fit well.

Andy has also slightly changed the offer here by opening early evening on Fridays and Saturdays from 6pm – 9 pm for supper. A friend in the town informs me this is apparently causing a flurry of interest as there aren’t that many places there offering food in the evening.

Alongside Andy, wife and business partner Lucy has been busy turning the curious building into a stylish bistro across two rooms on the ground floor and a private dining room upstairs. The main rooms have beautiful wooden floors, soft, muted colours, dark wood bistro chairs and tables, and a lovely bar.

Many original features have been kept, including two police cells, with one now in the kitchen, and from the bar, the chefs can be seen working away in the small space. It does look rather funny, and I am sure there will be an abundance of wisecracks heading their way from customers.

Outside, the once-dark frontage of the building now sports a very jolly striped awning with a couple of chairs and tables squeezed in nearby. Inside is bright and airy, and at lunchtime very, very busy.

We managed to bag a table in the window from where we could watch the comings and goings in the marketplace and have easy access to the two menu boards, one boasting brunch and lunch dishes, the other some rather delicious-sounding specials.

Mannions is renowned for its great Yorkshire portions, so we feel safe in ordering starters and mains to share, as frankly, there's so much we both want to try. Among the brunch menu, there's a full English; Turkish eggs and warm pitta; smoked salmon and scrambled eggs with guacamole; eggs Benedict and truffle hollandaise; or Portabello mushrooms on toast with fried egg, whipped sumac feta and hazelnut Dukka. The sandwiches sound equally mouthwatering, from slow roast pork belly, salt and pepper hake with Asian slaw, and Merguez sausage hot dog to a regular good-old bacon or sausage sandwich.

A fillet of smoked mackerel on toast with caper butter and lemon sets things off, and I am glad we had decided to share. There's a thick slice of sourdough with a fabulous piece of fish perched on top and smothered in tiny capers, finely diced tomatoes, and micro herbs and the whole is drenched in melted caper butter. When squeezed over, the grilled half lemon on the plate helped cut down any fattiness from the butter and oily fish. We devoured it silently, savouring every bite, and seriously, mackerel had never tasted this good to me.

We headed to the four dishes on the specials board next. For me, a classic Panzanella salad with burrata seemed lighter after the fish. I am a massive fan of this beautiful Tuscan dish made to use up stale bread with fresh summery ingredients like tomatoes, peppers, olives and, in its home, glugs of peppery olive oil and a little vinegar for acidity. Here at OPH, the Panzanella was good, but unfortunately, it also had pesto, which it would never typically have as it is not a Tuscan ingredient. Pesto is also a devil for swamping a dish; it overwhelmed a lovely creamy burrata here.

Across the way, he ordered Thai-style fishcakes with bang bang sauce, rice noodles, Thai pesto and peanuts, a rather eclectic dish with pesto rearing its head again. However, on this dish, it would have a fight on its hands to overwhelm anything. Nevertheless, the fishcakes were excellent, and there was a lovely heap of chopped salad, herbs, onions, and sauce, making this a beautiful plate of food with a good balance across all the flavours.

There are no puddings as such on the lunch menus at OPH, just a selection of super patisseries made in-house. However, as we could barely manage another mouthful, a delicate chocolate delice and a squishy slice of orange chocolate cake made their way home with us, and we ate them later with a cup of tea and they were superb.

So, Andy, Lucy and the team at OPH have cracked it again with their winning formula. Right now, it is such a hard time for many hospitality businesses, and opening a new place during it all is such a risk. But Andy has worked hard on his formula for the past ten years, and I’ve seen several tweaks as he has honed the two Mannions to what they are today. All that experience will hopefully have paid off with this slight variation of the old police house in Easingwold. So, keep on doing what you do so well, Andy and Lucy, and I am sure you will have success in your hands one more time.

OPH by Mannions & Co, The Old Police Station, Market Place, Easingwold, York, YO61 3AN Tel: 01347 823200

Open: Wed & Thurs: 9:00 am - 4:00 pm, Fri & Sat: 9:00 am - 2:30 pm, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm, Closed: Sun and Tues