Luxury chef's tables and tasting menus worth planning a trip around

The consensus

Michael O'Hare — the chef behind Leeds' Michelin-starred The Man Behind The Curtain until its 2024 closure — opened In Lamentation in Boston Spa in February 2026. It's deliberately tiny: 16 covers in total, with four of those seats at a kitchen table that puts guests directly in O'Hare's line of sight as he cooks each of the four weekly services himself. The tasting menu runs to 16–20 evolving courses at £165pp, booked and prepaid through Tock rather than a conventional reservation, and the menu itself isn't published in advance — part of the format rather than an oversight. The Good Food Guide's early review called the cooking "a masterclass in laser sharp flavour" and praised the room's architectural warmth as a real departure from O'Hare's more theatrical earlier work. Reviewers also flagged that the headline price doesn't include extras — wine flights and caviar additions push the bill up further, and even the cheapest glass of wine sits at £13. As a brand-new opening, it hasn't yet had time to be assessed for a Michelin star in its own right.

Sourced from The Good Food Guide, The Caterer — how we rate venues

The consensus

Northcote has held its Michelin star continuously since 1996, one of the longest unbroken runs outside London, alongside four AA Rosettes, and remains a fixture of Harden's top-40 most-commented restaurants in the country. Executive chef Lisa Goodwin-Allen leads a kitchen built on Lancashire produce with modern technique, and the restaurant's genuine chef's-table format — a separate room with glass doors opening onto the working kitchen, seating up to 14, with direct access to the chefs during service — sets it apart from restaurants that just call a good table near the pass a "chef's table." Tasting menus run from around £120 to £145 depending on length, alongside seasonal, Sunday and gourmet menus available at the Chef's Table itself. Sommelier Craig Bancroft's wine list is consistently singled out as being as much a part of the experience as the food. Reviews are near-uniformly excellent, though a handful of recent ones note staff visibly under pressure on busy sittings and prices that sit firmly at the top of the regional market.

Sourced from Hardens, Visit Lancashire

The consensus

Newcastle-born chef Kenny Atkinson opened House of Tides in a restored Grade I-listed 16th-century merchant's townhouse on the Quayside, and it has held its Michelin star for twelve consecutive years since first winning it in 2016, alongside four AA Rosettes and a National Restaurant Awards top-20 placing. The building itself does real work for the experience — whitewashed walls, exposed wooden pillars and a ground-floor drinks room before the main dining room upstairs — and the cooking is described as classically grounded but far from boring, built around British ingredients through set lunch and dinner tasting menus served Wednesday to Saturday. The full Tasting menu runs £125 at dinner or £95 at lunch, with a shorter three-course Prix Fixe at £65 on Friday and Saturday lunchtimes only — a genuine lunch discount, not a token one, though prices here have risen noticeably even in the past few weeks and are worth checking directly before booking. It's Newcastle's only Michelin-starred restaurant, and reviews are strongly positive on the cooking itself, though at least one gift voucher review raised frustration over how a redemption was handled — worth confirming voucher terms before buying as a gift.

Sourced from National Restaurant Awards, NewcastleGateshead

The consensus

Chef Tom Barnes — previously at Simon Rogan's three-Michelin-starred L'Enclume and at Copenhagen's Geranium — opened Skof in Manchester's NOMA district in May 2024, and it earned the city's second-ever Michelin star in February 2025, alongside Best New Restaurant at the Good Food Guide Awards. The format is genuinely built around the kitchen: rather than a handful of premium counter seats, every table is rotated through the pass during the meal to eat a course while watching Barnes cook, which spreads the "chef's table" moment across the whole room rather than gatekeeping it. Tasting menus are offered at two lengths, with dinner running from around £130 up to £175 for the longest version, a shorter four-course Sample Lunch Menu at £55 served Thursday to Saturday lunchtimes, and wine pairings from £80 (non-alcoholic from £40) — prices have crept up over the past few months, so it's worth confirming the current menu before booking. A detailed review praised the tiramisu as "almost certainly the best" the reviewer had tasted and called the starters exceptional, while flagging one potato-and-cuttlefish course as the meal's weak point — a rare specific miss in an otherwise glowing write-up.

Sourced from Salty Plums, Time Out Manchester

The consensus

The Samling's cellar holds 500 wines and was rated three-star by The World of Fine Wine's world rankings, alongside an AA Notable Wine List Award — genuinely elite company for a Lake District hotel rather than a marketing claim. Head sommelier Robert Patla runs bespoke tastings from £65–£100pp, either built around a region, a vintage worth celebrating, or left entirely to his recommendation, and the cellar's Coravin system means even its most precious bottles can be tasted by the glass rather than committed to in full. The restaurant itself, under executive chef Robby Jenks, has regained 3 AA Rosettes on a kitchen-garden-and-foraged approach across the hotel's 67 acres above Windermere. The one real caveat worth being upfront about: the tasting is a guest experience, not a walk-in booking — it's only available to those staying overnight, so it's a wine occasion built into a stay rather than a standalone evening out. Guest reviews are consistently glowing on both the wine and the setting, with no substantive complaints turning up in independent coverage.

Sourced from Spear's, World of Fine Wine