The Old Deanery, Ripon
The Old Deanery, opposite Ripon Cathedral, has always had an excellent reputation as a fine restaurant for many years. Back in the seventies and eighties, the restaurant was run by the Bleikers, who now run the Malt Shovel in Brearton as well as a very successful Smokehouse in Nidderdale.
About five years ago, the Old Deanery was extensively renovated and eleven rooms were made available for accommodation. It is now run as a hotel with a high quality restaurant that offers an exquisite lunch and dinner menu. The Old Deanery quickly established itself as the place to stay and eat in Ripon and featured in the 2005 Good Food Guide and was awarded an AA Rosette.
Dinner is served at the Old Deanery Monday to Saturday and costs £24.50 for two courses and £28.50 for three courses. We dined on a Friday evening and were treated to some very good music from an excellent Jazz pianist playing live in the bar before our meal.
For the meal, I chose scallops on a pea purée to start which was followed by Sirloin of Nidderdale Beef. The scallops were delicious and surprisingly complimented the pea purée very well. The steak was ordered rare and the chef did not disappoint. It was a superb piece of meat and the chips and grilled vine of cherry tomatoes with a small bowl of Bearnaise sauce was all that was needed with the meat on my plate.
The extremely smooth Argentinian Malbec red wine ordered with the meal was perfect with the steak and the cheese which followed for dessert. Coffee and Petit Fours rounded off the evening meal and the whole experience was thoroughly enjoyable.
I have eaten at the Old Deanery three times now in the last twelve months and if you are looking for an evening out which is just that little bit extra special then I can recommend it.
For more information visit their website
This entry was posted on Sunday August 17th, 2008 at 8:21 AM and is filed under Places to Stay. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response.
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