The Homestead Kitchen, Goathland review: This family-run Yorkshire farmhouse is more than just a restaurant

Renowned chef Peter Neville and partner Cecily Fearnley upped sticks and took the daring step in an uncertain post-pandemic world to open their delightful family-run restaurant and self-catering cottage on the edge of Goathland. Cecily grew up in the village and still has family there, so being close to them with two young boys and a busy business makes sense.

Peter and Cecily’s premise was always to grow the Homestead into more than just a restaurant and holiday let; this is also where they live and want to raise their family, and who can blame them? It is a glorious location. They had said they wanted to follow their instincts with what they both feel passionate about: delicious food created with quality local ingredients in a warm and welcoming space. So, have they?

Walking into Homestead is undoubtedly a warm and welcoming place on this filthy day; there is a beautiful stove belting out heat, new since my last visit, as are the tables in the bar, which have added extra covers but the place still feels cosy yet spacious. We had booked the bar as this was the only table available, but a cancellation meant we could sit by the window and enjoy the view over the gardens and the moors beyond. It is here where I see the most significant changes, and they are outside. There are raised beds, a new edible hedgerow, and the start of the orchard and to the right, the beginnings of a foraging area. Cecily tells me there is also planning permission for an event space down the line, which all looks and sounds exciting.

We are delighted to find that, as always, the menu shouts Peter's premise of cooking uncomplicated food driven by the seasons and using as much as possible from the surrounding area. Dale End Cheddar (in a Gougère amuse bouche) and Moorland Tomme in with the pasta come from Botton Dairy. I get to taste an utterly delicious and new-to-me tangy artisan goat cheese from Abbey Farm Cottage, Rosedale, which I instantly want to buy to take home. Bax Botanics is in the aperitifs; flour for the bread is Yorkshire Millers at Spaunton. There's Whitby lobster in a tiny tart with the thinnest, crisp pastry I ever remember that we eat as an appetiser; beach herbs; pork from Cold Kirby; Moorland Roe deer; homegrown rhubarb with ginger parkin on the cheese board and even much of the gorgeous crockery is made by York potter Kath Cox.

Choosing isn't hard here as the menu is small, though I still want to eat everything. There are just three starters, and we pass on the Homestead pumpkin Agnolotti for Shetland mussels with caramelised onions, an organic cider cream and the mentioned beach herbs. This comes in a small, deep glass pot, and I dig down to find the mussels and the sweet onions and love every mouthful, which is beautifully seasoned with seaweed powder. Across the table, Moorland roe deer tartare with Exmoor caviar and on top the prettiest flower of petals of kohl rabi and a quail egg yolk on top, plus a parsley crisp at the side, are loved as much as my starter. Clean plates go back to the kitchen.

Okay, so Roscoff onions may not be from Yorkshire – still, they sure are good, especially the way they are cooked here as a sticky caramelised tart of the butteriest pastry served with fresh, slightly lemony curd made in the kitchen, pickled pear, golden beetroot, and truffled hazelnuts. What a combination, and my slight fear of it being swamped with truffle was unfounded. And melt-in-the-mouth pork belly from Cold Kirby – declared across the way as the best ever – with a livery of black pudding fagot, turnip puree and caramelised chicory was any meat lover's dream.

Pudding? Surprisingly, we are not going to miss the pleasure of pudding from this kitchen, so we share a brown butter cake with huge, fat caramelised plums, the smoothest of ice cream with a gentle spike of star anise and a brioche tuille perched precariously on the top. This pudding absolutely tasted as delicious as it sounds. Did I have any reservations about our meal today? Just one tiny one which I realised while writing this: I had caramelised ingredients (onions and plums) in every course, hardly anything to get worried about, though,

Peter is still running the kitchen with good friend and chef Peter Hall, and the two are certainly a great team, as are Cecily and her team out front. She is also the driving force for much of what now happens at The Homestead alongside the food. I follow her closely on social media – her Instagram is excellent - and I love the events she creates here. There are guided walks on the moors followed by lunch, seasonal workshops, special tasting dinners, and so on. Given all their plans, I have no idea where they get their energy from.

From this visit, I now get it that Homestead is not just a restaurant but is a home for Peter, Cecily, and their boys and also their dream and, as they say, deeply personal. They are nurturing the place slowly and carefully around them; it is beautiful now, and I look forward to watching it grow. And I can only imagine how lovely it will be.

The Homestead, Prudom House, Goathland, North Yorkshire, YO22 5AN

thehomesteadgoathland.com