Helmsley and the Howardian Hills have been crowned winners of the “most exciting food destination” in the UK at The Good Food Guide Awards 2024.

Additionally, Mýse in Hovingham was included as an “exceptional restaurant” at the latest awards ceremony.

Speaking about this year’s awards, The Good Food Guide said: “The days of numbered lists are over.

“After 15 years of publishing top rankings, we The Good Food Guide Awards 2024 supported by Resy presents a line up of restaurants leading in their field and the 39 Exceptional and World Class restaurants that deliver perfection at every service.

“Each restaurant has been carefully and anonymously inspected to earn their place here and we wholeheartedly recommend every one of them.

“We urge you to dip in, read the reviews and work out, according to your taste, which will be your favourite? In 2024, that’s how you choose a restaurant.”

You can see all the restaurants in The Good Food Awards 2024 here.

Why Helmsley and the Howardian Hills is UK’s most ‘exciting destination’ for food

The Good Food Guide commented: “In the rural heart of North Yorkshire, among forested hills, farmland, pretty villages and crumbled abbeys, you’ll find Helmsley and the Howardian Hills.

“Over the years the area has become richly populated with restaurants: Tommy Banks’ Black Swan at Oldstead joining The Star at Harome to deliver nationally notable dining destinations.

“In the past 12 months, we’ve seen the opening of the highly impressive Myse in Hovingham and a brilliant pub from Tommy Banks - The Abbey Inn at Byland - among many others, all of which are within a five-mile radius of Helmsley and in an area of outstanding natural beauty.”

See the full Helmsley and the Howardian Hills guide here.

What did The Good Food Guide say about Mýse?

Location: Main Street, Hovingham, North Yorkshire, YO62 4LF

Mýse in Hovingham owned by Joshua and Victoria Overington opened in summer 2023.

The Good Food Guide review said: “It's a converted inn snuggled in a sleepy North Yorkshire village, but with ideas that lift it way out of the country-pub norm.

“The name is the Anglo-Saxon word that denoted ceremonial dining at table, though that shouldn't lead you to expect a mýse-hrægel (tablecloth).”

When it comes to the food, the review adds: “Formerly head chef at Le Cochon Aveugle in York, Joshua leads a team that is single-mindedly dedicated to the principles of modern sustainable cooking, with foraging, fermenting, pickling and infusing high on everybody's skill-set.

"Nibbles set the tone: Ripon roe deer in fermented plum sauce topped with smoked Exmoor caviar in a little charcoal tartlet; a hay-vinegared quail's egg on mushroom parfait; a twig brochette of ox cheek braised in ale, then deep-fried in Yorkshire-pudding batter – layers of flavour and stunning richness rolling out even before you have reached the dining room.

“An Orkney scallop is very lightly poached in sea-urchin butter and served in the shell on a bed of seaweed.

“The thrift principle extends to turning last year's squash seeds into a 'miso' which is used to garnish a soup of this year's squash, its texture firmed up with a little pumpkin-seed granola.

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“A crown of duck is introduced by being carried regally about the room, and now begins its culinary act.

“After a presentation of duck charcuterie with a crumpet of liver mousse, plus a richly spicy broth flavoured with walnut and orange, comes a thick slice of the breast served with game sausage, confit beetroot and black-walnut relish.

“A pair of desserts is interspersed with the petits fours, which makes them less of an afterthought than usual – the finale being a flourless fig tart with an ice cream of fig leaves from the garden.”

You can read the full review on The Good Food Guide website.