Looking for something a bit fancy? White tablecloths, complicated plates and tasting menus your thing? Perhaps a little natter with the sommelier about the virtues of Burgundian Chardonnay? Maybe you just want to put a shirt/frock on and show off a little. No matter what the reason, below we’ve listed the 20 best fine dining restaurants in the North West.
The sea buckthorn is fantastic this year, don’t you think?
Want to be the first to receive all the latest news, tips, articles, guides and updates from Confidential Guides? Subscribe here.
See our guides to the top 40 tasting menus in the North West and the region’s best vegetarian fine dining restaurants.
-
Book Now Georgian Quarter
The Art School
Liverpool’s award-winning, fine-dining restaurant The Art School brings together inventive Modern British cooking and an impressive historic setting.
-
Book Now Cumbria
L’Enclume
L’Enclume is Simon Rogan’s three Michelin-starred restaurant located in the Lake District village of Cartmel, which is widely regarded as one of the UK’s leading dining destinations. The restaurant is situated in a former 13th-century blacksmith’s workshop.
-
Book Now Cumbria
Rogan & Co.
Situated in an atmospheric 14th-century building beside the pretty River Eea in Cartmel, Rogan & Co is the home of Simon Rogan’s Michelin-starred neighbourhood restaurant.
-
Book Now Manchester City Centre
Skof
Skof is the first restaurant from chef Tom Barnes who, as head chef at Simon Rogan’s L’Enclume, helped it win its third Michelin star.
-
Book Now Georgian Quarter
Vetch
There’s a bonhomie and a sense of welcome at Vetch, marking it out as a friendly neighbourhood restaurant and simultaneously one of the best fine dining establishments in Liverpool.
-
Manchester City Centre
Adam Reid at The French
Culinary rock and roll from Simon Rogan’s protege, Adam Reid, and head chef Blaise Murphy, formerly of Mana. Enjoy fine-dining in Grade II Listed Victorian surrounds – with a side order of Mancunian attitude.
-
West Yorkshire
The Box Tree
While there’s been a restaurant on this site for more than 50 years, owner-proprietor team Simon and Rena Gueller keep things firmly up to date at Ilkley’s picture-perfect The Box Tree. Expect a contemporary take on classical French cooking at a restaurant which has seen famous chefs like Marco Pierre White behind the pass.
-
Cumbria
The Forest Side
Michelin-starred restaurant and hotel The Forest Side, owned by Lakes hotelier Andrew Wildsmith, is built on the foundations of the cooking of former L’Enclume forager, Kevin Tickle.
-
South Yorkshire
Jöro
Offering Nordic-inspired fine dining inside a shipping container, Jöro has secured accolades galore, including a clutch of AA Rosettes and Michelin Bib Gourmand.
-
Cumbria
Lake Road Kitchen
A wild-maned toddler of a restaurant, bound for great things, Lake Road Kitchen is an exciting place to eat. Now the holder of Michelin Star, it’s the baby of former Samling chef James Cross and is one of the leading lights in the Lakes foraging trend.
-
Manchester City Centre
Mana
Michelin-starred restaurant Mana is the brainchild of chef patron Simon Martin who mastered his trade at the renowned Noma in Copenhagen. At Mana, Martin has succeeded in carving his own path – one which confuses and delights people in equal measure.
-
Aughton
Moor Hall
Mark Birchall, ex-head chef at L’Enclume, is chef-patron of Moor Hall, an outstanding, two Michelin star, five AA Rosette restaurant with rooms.
-
Langho
Northcote
Northcote is where chef-patron Nigel Haworth earned his stripes as an instigator of contemporary British fine dining. Today, Michelin star chef and one of BBC2’s Great British Menu winners, Lisa Goodwin-Allen, heads up the kitchen.
-
Cumbria
Old Stamp House
Head to Ambleside’s Old Stamp House for regional cooking in a heritage space by one of Cumbria’s most promising chefs.
-
Cumbria
Pentonbridge Inn
Pentonbridge Inn is a former coaching inn in the rolling countryside of North Cumbria, near the Scottish Borders. If that sounds a bit remote for dinner, it is the perfect place for a weekend break with snug and stylish rooms to stay over and self-catering apartments at Netherby Hall just a few miles away.
-
Aughton
Solo Restaurant
Rocking up in the picturesque village of Aughton in West Lancashire, renowned chef Tim Allen (whose Flitch of Bacon bagged Essex’s only Michelin star in 25 years) loved the sandstone building and sunny terrace of the former Seafood Pub Company Wine Bar, and sō-lō was born.
-
Stockport
Where the Light Gets In
With no menu and esoteric wines, Where the Light Gets In doesn’t adhere to the typical fine-dining formula. But it’s been a success for Stockport, thanks to chef-patron Sam Buckley’s belief in doing things his own way.
-
Burnley
The White Swan at Fence
Some folk in the village still refer to The White Swan at Fence as The Mucky Duck and you can still order a pint of Timothy Taylor’s at its very pubby bar. But over recent years The Swan has established itself as a destination fine-dining spot thanks to young chef Tom Parker from up the road in Burnley.