Top 40 tasting menus: the finest of fine dining in the North West

Liverpool’s award-winning, fine-dining restaurant The Art School brings together inventive Modern British cooking and an impressive historic setting.

Dakota Grill Manchester is the work of former Malmaison owner, Ken McCollough and it is as dark-hued and handsome as the successful boutique hotel chain. It’s an inviting place with flickering candlelight, very retro-sexy – sure to be the setting for many a first date.

The focus at Dakota is on steaks which are very good – all grass-fed, 28 day-aged, hand-cut Aberdeenshire beef cooked over hot coals.

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.

The MUSU Collection is a group of innovative modern Japanese dining experiences, all under one roof. With three AA rosettes, this is the cutting edge of Manchester’s restaurant scene.

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.

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. 

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’s highest restaurant, bar and terrace 20 Stories was the opening of 2018 and still maintains its status as one of the city’s most popular place to eat, drink, be snapped and be seen.

Ran by husband and wife team Eric and Florence Moreau, 63 Degrees is a classic chef-proprieteur French restaurant with roots in the refined cuisine of their home city of Paris.

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.

Allium at Askham Hall has a dedication to seasonality that is rare, for all the term is bandied about these days. The restaurant is almost entirely self-sufficient, relying on the produce grown in the kitchen gardens. The estate also farms rare breeds and local native breeds which are raised for their flavour not commercial profitability – the proof is on the plate.

Arkle is the feather in Chester’s foodie cap. The three AA Rosette restaurant, located in the grand Chester Grosvenor Hotel, is the hautest of haute cuisine in the city. It offers five and seven-course tasting menus as well as wine flights from some of the finest cellars in the country – as well as an appearance in the Michelin Guide, Arkle also has the AA Notable Wine Award.

Cooking goes from strength to strength at the Freemasons at Wiswell in Lancashire’s Ribble Valley. Roaring fires, cast-iron fireplaces and pictures of fantastically proportioned livestock lend a cosy vibe to the renovated cottages which make up what’s been described as the original gastropub.

Awarded with a Michelin star in 2023, Heft is the brainchild of chef, Kevin Tickle and his wife, Nicola.

Situated in the hills above Windermere, Holbeck Ghyll could easily claim a place in a list of the most romantic restaurants in the world.

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.

This small family-owned French bistro is tucked away in pretty Marton, near Macclesfield. Heavily influenced by classical French cooking, the owner of La Popote is Dutch, his wife Scottish and their first restaurants were in South Africa. But the blend of influences works.

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.

The manifesto at industrial-chic restaurant and “dine-at-wine-bar” Manifest is “seasonal plates and famous Liverpool hospitality”, with the Modern British menus regularly changing to reflect both local produce availability and the wines that will be matched to the food.

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.

Next Door is one of Cheshire’s most delightful restaurants. Housed in Frodsham’s timber-framed old butcher’s shop, it’s full of charm and is well-known locally for its superb cooking. It has a place in the Michelin Guide and has been awarded three AA Rosettes.

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.

Nova is a longstanding favourite for those looking for creative fine-dining on the Wirral. Ran by husband and wife team Moyo and Jana, it expanded into larger premises in 2021, thankfully without losing the warm, relaxing feel of the original restaurant.

Head to Ambleside’s Old Stamp House for regional cooking in a heritage space by one of Cumbria’s most promising chefs.

Oxa is the casual sister restaurant to the ground-breaking Restaurant 8 in Liverpool but it is by no means the poor relation.

Panoramic 34 was the UK’s highest restaurant when it opened in 2008, and although others have since taken that title, it still offers an impressive vantage point with a 360-degree view of Liverpool, the Mersey, and beyond to Wales. 

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.

Specialising in two distinct, contemporary cuisines, Mexican and Japanese, Peter Street Kitchen’s punchy small plates ooze luxury. There are several menus, from the sashimi, tataki and tartare of The Hibachi Experience to the pick n mix of the a la carte. Will you go all Mexican, all Japanese or mix up your tacos and tempura by grabbing dishes from both sides of the world?

Prashad is a Gordon Ramsay-rated thrill for anyone craving Gujarati vegetarian food. Since starring on Ramsay’s Best Restaurant show, the team have made the most of the exposure. Expansion, relocation and even a Sunday Times top 40 rated cookbook followed.

Chef and co-owner Andrew Sheridan (who you might recognise from Great British Menu) has uprooted Restaurant 8 from Birmingham and returned to the city of his birth. It’s a tough blow for the Brummies; the restaurant had built up a mighty reputation in the city, being awarded three AA Rosettes. But it’s excellent news for Liverpool.

Metamorphica is a modern British restaurant based in Rossendale that focuses on quality. It is an independent project run by Chef Steven Halligan.

Sexy Fish is no mere minnow in the UK dining scene. It’s brought to you by Caprice Holdings, the group behind some of London’s most glam dining spots. Think of it as more of a humongous mermaid – beautiful and ever so slightly improbable.

The “six” of Six By Nico refers to the six-course tasting menu, which runs for stints of six weeks only and of which there are just two choices: meat and fish or vegetarian. The “Nico” of Six By Nico refers to award-winning Scottish-Italian chef and owner Nico Simeone.

Source (previously known as HRiSHi) is a Michelin Star restaurant located at The Gilpin Hotel near Windermere in the Lake District.

One of the stars of TV’s The Trip with Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan – and awarded a Michelin star in 2021 – The Angel at Hetton is the original gastro pub with rooms.

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.

The Lake District has its fair share of places to make a food pilgrimage and The Cottage In The Wood is one of them. It has a Michelin Star, is officially one of the UK’s Top 100 restaurants, and has a great reputation.

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.

The Samling is a delightful lodge and fine-dining restaurant oozing exclusivity. A favourite of Hollywood celebs (like Tom Cruise), it’s easy to see why this charming collection of restored farm cottages is thriving.

The Three Fishes at Mitton is in the heart of the beautiful Ribble Valley in Lancashire. Expect an immaculate whitewashed listed building, a cross between an Inn and a country pub, a welcoming bar and an original slate floor all warmed by open log fires.

At Vice & Virtue, cocktails are a savvy delight, the tasting menus are a sprightly revelation – and it would be a sin not to appreciate both.

The Walled Gardens is a unique plant-based culinary experience from award-winning chef Eddie Shepherd. It takes place in an open kitchen in his own home in Whalley Range – and only eight guests can dine each night, making it one of the most exclusive restaurants in the city.

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.