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The Old Deanery is a surprise; a contemporary and stylish interior inside a very old and interesting building. The food is well-served, excellent local produce and not a bit pretentious, you can even go there outside lunch and dinner hours for coffees and drinks. There are log fires in the winter in the bar and restaurant, and tables in the garden in the summer. Don't worry; there is no religious hush in the welcoming bar! Even better you can stay as long as you like in one of the eleven bedrooms. Not what you would imagine there either, not a chintz curtain in sight.

Immediately opposite the superb Cathedral, the almost equally handsome Old Deanery offers a very warm welcome to its customers. The menu has a good range of dishes, all with a familiar ring to them. During the day there is a bar snack menu alongside the more traditional set lunch in the restaurant. Pre-concert the Old Deanery welcomes Cathedral-goers to early bird dining.

In the evening, olives are part of the bar offering along with your pre-dinner drink or cocktail. The chef always provides an amuse - a little taste to whet the appetite for the two or three courses to come. The table is yours for the evening, no enforced second sittings there. Choose from a menu of speciality coffees or a cafetière with petits fours, to round off the evening at your table or at the bar. The atmosphere is candlelit, warm and comfortable.

The George at Wath, situated in the beautiful county of North Yorkshire, offering beautiful scenery and a stunning coastline is an ideal spot for a relaxed Sunday afternoon or a night out with friends. Try this very country pub with the log burning stove and a mix of oak and flag stone floor featuring a cosy and relaxed atmosphere where you can enjoy a pint of beer. If you are looking for more of a formal set up, you can venture a step into the elegant and intimate restaurant serving an imaginative menu of pub classics, and enjoy a wonderful meal.

The exciting options on the menu include mini tarts of ratatouille, basil buerre Blanc, and poached eggs for starters. For main course you might like to order homemade Waterford House steak pudding, sherry sautéed lambs' kidney sauce, cauliflower cheese puree, and pan fried potato cubes. The dessert menu offers triple layered iced chocolate parfait, served with homemade shortbreads.

Comfortably nestled in the Yorkshire Dales is The Black Swan Public House, at Fearby near Masham; the restaurant is part of a 17th century setting, with a warm and serene ambience. In the hands of the McCourt family for three generations, it offers diners warm home-cooked meals made from the freshest produce and reflecting the changing seasons.

Traditional meals include a wide variety such as local pork sausages, wholegrain mustard mash, peas and onion gravy; wild burger with mozzarella and bacon on ciabatta bun, and even vegetable and Yorkshire blue crumble, hand-cut chips and vegetables for those who prefer a meat free option.
There are also a range of other menus for different occasions with the well stocked bar playing host and serving varieties of lagers, bottle beers and soft drinks.

With a view overlooking the Burn valley and the local moors and a number of sight-seeing places, guests will never find themselves bored for want of things to do.

The recently refurbished Galphay Inn is situated in the picturesque village of Galphay near Ripon, it offers a range of delights, you can dine in the restaurant or alternatively just relax with a pint of traditional ale or a glass of wine in front of their cosy log fire in the snug bar.

Lunch offers especially good value with a two course meal at £12.95, offering dishes such as chicken liver parfait with granary toast and Cumberland sauce or smoked haddock fishcake with a lemon and dill sauce, followed by traditional steak and kidney pudding or pan fried lambs livers and crispy bacon set on mashed potato with onion gravy.

Evening menus are a touch more sophisticated with mains like pan seared tuna steak with a lime crust and citrus sauce or half a roast Gressingham duck served with an orange, honey and pink peppercorn sauce.

Swinton Park's restaurant, Samuel's to you, is the much-prized centrepiece to this stately Yorkshire home, home also to the Swinton Park Cookery School where Rosemary Shrager holds sway. In the Castle itself Andy Burton is king among the stoves and nothing is done by halves at any point, three rosettes from the AA are testament to the excellence of his cuisine.

The formality and quality of the dining room is the first impression, with the feeling that the Cunliffe-Lister family have never transformed their home into a luxury hotel. The terrine of Swinton Park game with a Sauternes jelly establishes contact straight away with a name that is invoked throughout the menu, or rillettes of duck with orange and coriander salad might equally appeal.

Main courses follow much the same pattern with roasted halibut, crab and ginger served with a cucumber and lobster broth, or more locally Wensleydale wild boar wrapped in prosciutto, served with butternut squash and bubble and squeak. Each main course comes with a helpful wine recommendation, even if some of the prices are slightly breathtaking.

For puddings the choice is equally breath-depriving. Hot banana pudding with clotted cream ice cream gets high marks, but the Swinton Park Trio refers not to the Three Graces, but rather the three falls from grace. To make matters even more enjoyable an interesting range of pudding wines is also recommended, but the coup de grace is without doubt the selection of cheeses, both local and from further afield, with a range of port and Madeira that leaves absolutely no room for denial.

Dish's Cafe Bar & Bistro provides excellent quality homemade meals and cakes at very reasonable prices. The surroundings are contemporary and the atmosphere they create is thoroughly friendly and welcoming so you can happily take the whole family along with you. They sometimes open in the evening for special bookings or pre-race meetings.