07-05-2025
11 of the best restaurants in York
Nine million tourists visit York each year to marvel at the Minster, walk the city walls, go trainspotting at the National Railway Museum and travel back in time at the Jorvik Viking Centre. Increasingly, some just come to eat. The city of York can trace its history back almost 2,000 years to when the Romans set up camp by the confluence of the rivers Foss and Ouse, but its status as a foodie destination is rather more recent. Over the past ten years, nationwide chains and staid tearooms have been edged out of the city centre by independent restaurants and quality street-food vendors.
Of course it helps York's food scene that the city sits within England's largest county, with access to wild game from the North York Moors, meat and cheese from the Yorkshire Dales, and fish and seafood from the North Sea coast. But there's more to eating out in York than Whitby scampi and Wensleydale cheese, and today local ingredients are likely to end up in everything from charcuterie to shakshuka as ambitious chefs look for inspiration beyond their county's borders. And you can still find a 'reet proper' Yorkshire pudding too. These are some of the city's best places to eat.
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1. The Star Inn the City, Lendal Bridge
££ | BOOK AHEAD | BAR | Best for alfresco dining with a view
Andrew Pern's Michelin-starred the Star Inn at Harome is such a Yorkshire institution that when a fire devastated the thatched building (now rebuilt), the Archdeacon of York phoned the chef to offer condolences. This brasserie spin-off offers gastropub-style cooking with local ingredients to the fore, with dishes such as Whitby crabcakes, North York Moors venison, and Yorkshire rhubarb and almond tart. The star attraction, however, is the view through wraparound windows of the River Ouse and medieval city walls, which is best appreciated in fine weather from the suntrap terrace. The landmark you can't see is the Minster, but that's on full glorious show from the terrace of Pern's other York restaurant, the York Minster Refectory.
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2. Bettys, St Helen's Square
£ | BOOK AHEAD | Best for grand afternoon teas slap-bang in the centre of town
Opened by the Swiss immigrant Fritz Bützer, Bettys has been at the centre of York life in every sense since 1937. Be prepared to queue outside in all weathers for a seat in the Café Tea Room for savouries and sweets such as Yorkshire rarebit and vanilla slices. The full-works afternoon tea is served upstairs in the bookable Belmont Room, where tiered stands of finger sandwiches, fruit scones and exquisitely wrought patisserie are brought to the beautifully laid tables by staff in interwar-style attire while a pianist tinkles in the background. The palpable sense of local pride (Bettys' five outposts are only in Yorkshire) means that the experience feels authentic, not ersatz. Don't forget to take something home from the shop afterwards: the chocolates are just as good as the cake.
3. Roots, Marygate
£££ | BOOK AHEAD | Best for Michelin-starred wizardry from one of Yorkshire's top chefs
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If Cornwall has Rick Stein and Cumbria Simon Rogan, then Mr Yorkshire could well be Tommy Banks, the farmers' son who turned his family's produce into Michelin-starred gold. If you can't make it to his duo of outposts on the edge of the North York Moors (the Michelin-starred Black Swan at Oldstead and the Abbey Inn gastropub opposite Byland Abbey) then Roots serves up a feast of foraged and family-farmed ingredients a short walk from York railway station. Two tasting menus follow the seasons in visually ravishing plates such as lamb with morels and sheep's yoghurt, while pickles, ferments and charcuterie fill any gaps in the farming year. Wine pairings are just as thoughtful as the food, and come in either grand and classic or experimental and adventurous. For the higher-end Signature Menu, figure on upwards of £145 a head without drinks — pricey, but well worth it.
4. Pearly Cow, Bootham
££ | BAR | Best for glorious Sunday roasts
In boutique hotel No. 1 York — part of the small hotel chain GuestHouse — Pearly Cow is well worth a look by non-residents. (Although the tall Georgian windows of its bright and inviting dining room may already have you considering checking in for the night.) Seafood served on ice and meat cooked over flames are the two specialities, and on Sundays you can enjoy two or three courses that tick all the boxes. Start with a round of North Sea oysters ahead of a roast such as 45-day salt-aged beef sirloin, but also roast chicken or a wild mushroom and butternut squash Wellington. Expect a mound of trimmings, including fluffy Yorkshire puds and crisp roast potatoes to drown in gravy. If you somehow make it a triple, then bread and butter pudding with custard will all but guarantee the weekend finishes with an afternoon snooze.
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5. Cresci Pizzeria, Piccadilly
£ | BAR | Best for authentic pizzas to please the whole gang
Pizza is a no-brainer for keeping the whole family happy but at this Italian-run independent you can also be happy that everyone is getting the genuine article. Not only is Cresci owned by the southern Italian natives Armando Imparato and Berardo Caggiano, but it is the only pizzeria in York certified as true Neapolitan pizza by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana. That translates as pizza cooked in the open kitchen's wood-fired oven, with sourdough bases and toppings such as fior di latte cheese, San Marzano tomatoes and sweet Napoli salami. Ingredients are sourced from Italy, adding to the authentic charm of a buzzy, light-filled local around the corner from Jorvik.
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6. Coconut Lagoon, Bootham
£ | BOOK AHEAD | Best for South Indian curries on a backpacker budget
If you ever want to know where to eat, ask a taxi driver — which is how three of the city's Keralan cabbies came to open this restaurant after the umpteenth request for an authentic south Indian in York. Vibrantly spiced vegetarian dosas can be sampled alongside veggie, meat and fish curries, plus regional specialties and all the parathas and puris anyone could need to mop up every last drop of creamy coconut sauce. If you can't find a table here, try sibling Kalpakavadi in the centre of town, and be thankful that neither restaurant requires forking out for a taxi to get to.
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7. Skosh, Micklegate
££ | BOOK AHEAD | Best for fun fine dining and top-notch mixology
Neil Bentinck's tightly packed dining room defies categorisation. It serves small-plate fine dining, but instead of a no-choice tasting menu, guests can mix and match their meal from the 30 or so dishes prepared by the chefs tweaking and tweezering in the open kitchen. What's more, the influences are as likely to be Asian or Mexican as they are British or European, and possibly all colliding on the same thrilling plate: try the Whitby crab tostadas with avocado, blood orange and radish. Nearly all the wine list is available by the glass and there's a bar for diners too, mixing cocktails every bit as creative as the cooking. The overall effect is of a restaurant serving serious modern food that also happens to be one of the most fun nights out in York.
8. 22 Yards, High Petergate
££ | BAR | Best for global flavours
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Grab a seat by the window at 22 Yards, a wine bar, shop and restaurant that offers first-class food pairings, and soak up the view of York Minster. It brings a soupçon of the Parisian bistronomie movement while serving a menu of globally influenced small plate and sharing dishes. Choose from over 70 wines by the glass — from everyday easy-drinkers to boutique champagne and vintage burgundy — to go with local Haxby Bakehouse sourdough and a plate of cheese or charcuterie. Or uncork a bottle from the 150-strong list to partner torched mackerel with hollandaise, picanha steak and cauliflower curry. Small but perfectly formed, 22 Yards takes its name from both the length of the venue and a wicket, say the cricket-loving owners.
9. Partisan, Micklegate
£ | Best for brunch amid art and antiques
While much of what you see at Partisan is available to buy — from the art on the walls to the antique furniture on the floor — much of what you eat comes from the talents of the Argentinian chef Florencia Clifford and her partner Hugo Hildyard's farm on the edge of the Yorkshire Wolds. All the brunch classics at this quirky, daytime-only spot are present and correct — from bacon sarnies to a full veggie — but it's with the international outlook of dishes such as shakshuka or chicken shawarma that the kitchen excels. There's a short wine list, but Monmouth coffee suits Partisan's breezy brunch vibe better. The couple also own Brancusi restaurant a few doors down, a breakfast, lunch and suppertime spot with a similarly globetrotting attitude.
10. Los Moros, Grape Lane
£ | Best for North African cooking by way of North Yorkshire
The Algerian owner of Los Moros, Tarik Abdeladim, still runs his original North African street food stall in Shambles Market but has expanded to this bricks-and-mortar site. The name means 'the Moors' in Spanish and while the tiles and archways call to mind a chic souk, produce comes from closer to home: a Yorkshire equivalent of halloumi made in Huddersfield and flecked with za'atar for a lunchtime small plate, say, or the Yorkshire Dales Meat Company for a supper of chicken tagine heady with saffron. Pickles and lemon are preserved in house and the merguez sausages and chermoula made by Abdeladim himself. Wash it down with a Los Moros Pale Ale made specially by the craft brewer Brew York.
11. Robinsons, Bishopthorpe Road
£ | Best for gut-busting breakfasts
Bishopthorpe 'Bishy' Road is where to go for a taste of York without the tourists. Just beyond the city walls south of the centre, this indie enclave is home to Flori bakery, Trinacria gelateria, the Good Food Shop deli and Robinsons café, easily identifiable by the queue snaking along the pavement. If the line of would-be diners makes you worried that you won't eat until lunchtime, fear not — it moves quickly and the wait is definitely worth it. Healthy options of fruit-topped granola or smashed avocado hit the spot, but more is more is the menu's mantra — and the banana and caramel pancake stack is the stuff of Yorkshire legend, basically a banoffee pie in fluffy batter form. And you've got all day to walk it off after.
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