Shaun Rankin at Grantley Hall
Ripon, North Yorkshire
The grand Palladian mansion near Ripon was once a further education college and was converted in 2019 into a luxury hotel and spa for a staggering £70m. For this kind of money, you get extravagance and theatre all the way – from the worsted-suited commissionaire who greets you to the expensively landscaped gardens, clipped hedges, manicured lawns, floodlights, fountains and sculptures. If you are not staying in one of the 47 bedrooms or enjoying the state-of-the-art spa, you can still dine in one of five restaurants ranging from the pan-Asian Eighty Eight to the Orchard – a marquee on the west lawn serving small plates and grills. The flagship, though, is chef Shaun Rankin's self-named restaurant, where starched white linen, chandeliers, thick drapes and heavy velvet chairs are matched by old-school service that’s 'fully informed, professional and charming'. The 10-course 'Taste of Home' menu is based on Rankin’s Yorkshire roots, using ingredients sourced within a 30-mile radius of the restaurant. It begins with a series of snacks, then bread served with an intense smoked bone-marrow butter and a teapot filled with a rich consommé that they call 'beef tea' (with a touch of Yorkshire irony). Then it’s on to a succession of exquisite courses one after another: crab; asparagus with a delicate tart of sabayon and sea buckthorn; turbot wrapped in a cabbage leaf garnished with caviar. Aged sirloin is finished with wild garlic, goat’s cheese comes with a flapjack, and finally it's time for a pair of desserts: one of strawberry ice cream and elderflower; another of cherry blossom served with a feather-light Bakewell sponge. Coffee is taken in the drawing room, where chocolates are tweezered from a fancy wooden cabinet. Grantley Hall is opulent and it’s pricey (especially if you dip into the prestigious international wine list), but ‘for a blowout dinner, it absolutely delivers’.
Dining Information:
Accommodation, Private dining room, Separate bar, Wheelchair access, Parking, Electric car charging, Credit card required
Grantley Hall, Ripon, North Yorkshire HG4 3ET
01765 620070
