Twelve of the best places in the North to eat wild game

Fischers Baslow Hall delivers fine Michelin-starred dining with local foraged aspects in homely, romantic surrounds. Using the fruits of the region when everyone else was importing from abroad, Fischers stuck to its guns and now does it arguably better than anyone else in Derbyshire.

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.

Home in Leeds is the brainchild of MasterChef finalist Liz Cottam, and business partner Mark Owens, formerly head chef at Ilkley’s The Box Tree (also in our Top 100). 

A fine-dining restaurant inside a casino with a celeb chef name above the door? Alarm bells. Yes, James Martin has his name across the massive billboard outside, but this is not an ostentatious venue.

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.

The River Restaurant at The Lowry Hotel is Manchester’s classic fine dining restaurant. Huge names that have run the kitchen include Marco Pierre White, while diners have included Jose Mourinho and Kylie.

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

The Ox Club offers sumptuous, grill-based cooked from the Belgrave gang.

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.

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.

The eponymous restaurant of Simon Wood, MasterChef winner and local lad from Oldham, is an accomplished affair. The décor – muted natural tones in a glass-clad new build – places the focus of any meal on the fine, Italianesque (yet often locally sourced) food and wine on offer.