Newly made 5 star, luxury hotel in Ripon, Yorkshire with flagship Michelin starred restaurant by Shaun Ranklin

Grantley Hall is a seriously swish 5 star hotel with all of the bells and whistles anyone could include. Bought in 2015 by Valeria Sykes and her husband Colin, it received several million pounds-worth of refurbishment converting from a private residence to luxury hotel, opening in 2019. It is not cheap as a result. We enjoyed staying over as a treat to enjoy the icing on its cake being its Michelin starred restaurant by Shaun Ranklin, formerly chef at Ormer in Jersey. The no-choice tasting menu at £145pp was a well-conceived menu catering for couples that need seductive and refined dishes in one for their stay which is successfully does. As a headline I did enjoy this menu a lot in terms of flavours and execution but it is a very steep menu which, the sheer overheads of this venue demand.

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First up was a blackcurrant meringue with chicken liver parfait and crispy duck ham. The parfait was sharp, but absolutely beautiful, and the dish as a whole was a great start to the meal. Next came the Whitby crab with crab apple gel and apple tartlet. This bite was superb. The flavors were perfectly balanced and the tartlet was especially noteworthy. Home made bread and butter came with beff dripping, and a lovely beef tea as another, enjoyable addition.

The first course was kohlrabi with lovage, kohlrabi purée, yeast flakes, and nasturtium leaves. The earthiness of the kohlrabi and yeast worked well together, and the emulsion added just the right amount of fat to liven up the juicy crunch of the kohlrabi. Next, came the the English Truffle Cruffin (a cross between a croissant and muffin) with a Yorkshire Pecorino veloute soup. While the soup was a bit too heavy and the truffle lacked real aroma, the cheese veloute was rich and silky – certainly not a chore to enjoy.

This was followed by Turbot with the commonplace Exmoor Caviar, cabbage, dill, and lemon verbena. The fish was quite salty but very succulent and overall this was enjoyable to have. The main itself was a Venison loin coated in Madeira sauce with blackcurrant gel, bbq celeriac, and venison ragout. The dish was perfectly cooked and the flavours worked very well together; no complaints on this and was a genuine pleasure.

Pre-dessert was a hen of the woods (mushroom) ice cream with meadowsweet gel, cep powder, and a Magnum bar. The ice cream resembled an old lion bar and thankfully the mushroom flavour was not too pungent. An unusual dish, but a good crossover as a pre-dessert encapsulating sweet and savoury well. (There are many crossovers that do not work). We then tried the Yorkshire Rhubarb soufflé with custard. This was a rose champagne mousse, rhubarb, and frozen custard. This was a novel idea and while it was a bit like frozen cream on top, it was still skilfully done as a soufflé and a refined dessert.

Lastly, I had the Sinodun Hill cheese with pine honey, pines Herbert (pine and honey from the estate), candied beetroot, bilberry flapjack, and bilberry gel. I felt the sweet and heavy flapjack and soft goat’s cheese didn’t quite work together, but the pine honey and pines Herbert were a nice touch.

Overall, this was a good meal which included lots of carefully prepared dishes, skilfully done with most of then creating genuine pleasure. I would absolutely recommend Restaurant Shaun Ranklin at Grantley Hall, but if you are mentally prepared to part with just under £1,000 for staying over for the night and enjoying the Michelin starred option with wines for two, this will help as well. There are a number of quality, other facilities to enjoy in the hotel and breakfast served in the room in the morning (which is also included in the room price which is a very good aspect) was very done as well. A very stylish and good option to enjoy for a romantic treat and short get away.

Food Grade: 81%