We recently visited York for three nights for our honeymoon, and of course indulged in some great food while we were there.
We ate at:
Rustique - 28 Castlegate, York YO1 9RP
2 courses for £11.95 or 3 courses for £13.95, Monday – Thursday until 10pm
With generous pre-theatre hours like these, and such cheap prices, I can see why this is the #1 rated restaurant in York on Trip Advisor. We ate:
Breaded brie with summer berries
This is the kind of entrée to inspire full-on food envy. I really enjoyed this – so much so, I went back for seconds (it wasn’t my entrée!)
Homemade crab cake on spicy tomato salsa
This is found a bit disappointing – it arrived from the kitchen scorching hot and some of the delicate flavour of the crab was lost with the flavourings on the plate which clashed
Slow roasted leg of duck with dauphinoise potatoes, red wine and current jus
Now this was a main meal – the duck was tender and moist and the dish worked together really well.
Slow cooked pork shank braised with cider, with coarse grain mustard mash
For me, the mustard mash was too much but Graeme loved it.
Set rich chocolate cream with shortbread
Ever the chocoholic, you know you’re doing something wrong if Graeme doesn’t finish his dessert. This chocolate was on the too-bitter side of bitter to be enjoyable.
Crème brûlée
Again, a somewhat disappointing desert that lost all its appeal once I’d eaten the crunchy top
We enjoyed our meal at Rustique – while the food wasn’t perfect, it was a decent price for a nice restaurant in a quiet part of York.
The Cafe 68 on Gillygate - 68 Gillygate, York YO31 7EQ
We stumbled across this place by chance and popped in for lunch. At first, we were optimistic and sat out in the courtyard, but the skies darkened so we retreated inside. I really liked the casual, light airy feel of this cafe which was friendly, relaxed and easygoing.
We ate:
BLT
All of this was super fresh and really satisfying after a hard morning walking the city walls.
Ploughman’s lunch
Did I really need this much cheese? Possibly not – but wow I was impressed with the generosity and I really tried to get through it all. A good mix of cheeses which were all lovely in their own way. The relish was great – fresh, with plump sultanas/raisins and it worked really well with some of the cheeses.
Café No.8 - 8 Gillygate, York YO31 7EQ
Do you want our one “you must go here” pick of York? Well this is it. This place was am-a-zing. Seriously. I would even consider going back to York, just to go here. It is really understated – don’t expect anything more than café décor. The staff are super friendly, but dressed casually. Therefore, you might not expect too much, but this place is all about the food.
We ate:
Risotto – pea, mint and broad bean, with fettal
We ordered this to share – it could gone badly because we both loved it so much, but I drew a line down the middle – literally. This was a great combination of really simple flavours that delivered so much more than we expected. I could have eaten a whole bowl of this again on my own, quite happily.
Garlic bread with pasley, to share
Again, so simple but delivered so much in flavour.
Char grilled 21 day matured Wolds pave steak with dauphinoise potato, Unami mushrooms slow roast tomatoes and blue cheese sauce
This was one of the closest to heaven dishes I’ve ever eaten. Literally everything on the plate was perfect (including the mushrooms and they have to be really good to win me over). I never wanted to stop eating this dish. The potatoes had a beautiful crispy top – and then I discovered the bottom was crunchy too! The steak itself was perfectly cooked – closer to rare than medium rare but that was fine with me. The blue cheese sauce brought everything together in a harmonious, delicate way with a slight punch of the blue cheese.
Thai vegetable broth
At this point, we had to dash as we were doing the Ghost Hunt at 7.30pm – whatever could we do, I never wanted to leave this place! We did the only thing we could do – booked for lunch the next day.
At lunch, we ate:
Cheeseburger with chips and garlic mayo £10
With a huge, huge burger in the middle of this, it was a real challenge to get your mouth around. I went for the ladylike option of eating it layer by layer whereas Graeme tried to get it all in his mouth at once. A really yum burger and it was really great to be able to sample more of Cafe No. 8′s great menu.
Betty’s Cafe Tea Rooms - 6-8 Helen’s Square, York YO1 8QP
We decided to treat ourselves to celebrate our one week wedding anniversary (yes, we are totally cheesy!) so had high tea at Betty’s.
This was definitely enough food for the two of us, although I suspect the high tea was just for one person. We enjoyed it nonetheless and had a nice relaxing afternoon while it was bucketing down with rain in York.
We loved our time in York and hope you enjoy reading about our food journey. Where do you recommend for our next trip (UK or otherwise) to indulge in some seriously good food?
