Restaurant in Hovingham, United Kingdom
Yorkshire's most serious tasting menu. Book ahead.
A Michelin-starred converted pub on the edge of the North York Moors, mýse opened in 2023 and has rapidly positioned itself among the most talked-about restaurants outside London. Joshua Overington's eighteen-course evening menu champions Yorkshire terroir through foraging, fermentation, and technique-led cooking — priced at £165 per person — with rooms available for dinner, bed and breakfast.
If you can get a table, book it. mýse is one of the most compelling tasting-menu destinations outside London right now, holding a Michelin star earned in 2024, scoring 89.5pts in La Liste 2025 and sitting in the top 50 most-discussed UK restaurants outside the capital in annual diners' polls. The kitchen's sourcing philosophy — foraging, fermenting, pickling, and working with named Yorkshire producers — is not a marketing angle; it defines every course on the menu. At £165 for eighteen courses at dinner and £115 for fourteen at lunch, the price is serious, but the value case is strong. The harder problem is getting a reservation.
Dinner books out weeks in advance and weekend lunch follows close behind. Your leading opening is a Friday lunch slot, which tends to release later than Saturday and gives you the full fourteen-course menu at £115 per person , fifty pounds less than the evening format for what is substantively the same kitchen firing at full intensity. If you're travelling from York (roughly thirty minutes away), a Friday lunch also avoids the weekend accommodation premium. When booking opens, go direct and have your date range flexible; single-seat requests at the counter, if available, sometimes clear when couples' bookings do not.
The building is a converted inn on the main street of Hovingham, a village on the edge of the North York Moors. Flagstone floors, whitewashed beams, and exposed stone walls give the room a stripped-back character that works well against the precision of what arrives at the table. In winter, there is an open fire; the combination of that setting with the level of cooking on the plate is, by multiple diner accounts, disorienting in the leading possible way. Rooms are available for dinner, bed, and breakfast, which removes any logistics pressure and makes the evening format significantly more relaxed. For anyone travelling from outside Yorkshire, staying over is the recommended approach.
Joshua Overington, formerly head chef at Le Cochon Aveugle in York, built mýse around a clear principle: named Yorkshire producers, technique-led preservation, and near-total use of what those producers supply. That means squash seeds from last year's harvest become a miso that seasons this year's squash soup. It means foraging and fermentation appear not as garnish but as structural elements of dishes. The Thirkelby duck , carried through the dining room before service and presented across multiple acts including charcuterie, a liver mousse crumpet, walnut-and-orange broth, and a thick breast slice with confit beetroot and black-walnut relish , is the centrepiece expression of that approach: a single local product worked across technique, temperature, and time. An Orkney scallop arrives lightly poached in sea-urchin butter, served in the shell on seaweed. Nibbles before you reach the dining room include Ripon roe deer in fermented plum sauce with smoked Exmoor caviar in a charcoal tartlet, and ox cheek braised in ale then deep-fried in Yorkshire-pudding batter. This is not produce-led cooking as shorthand for simplicity; it is sourcing as the constraint that generates complexity.
The drinks list matches that seriousness. Non-alcoholic pairings , sodas and kombuchas developed in-house , are genuinely worth ordering and reported by multiple diners to enhance the food rather than merely accompany it. Wines are available by the glass from £5, with bottles ascending steeply but covering Georgian Saperavi and Peloponnese Agiorgitiko alongside more conventional choices. If you drink, the pairing is the cleaner option; if you don't, the non-alcoholic pairing here is more considered than at most restaurants in this price tier.
mýse is at Main St, Hovingham, York YO62 4LF. Opening hours: Wednesday and Thursday from 4 PM, Friday 12 PM to 3 PM and 4 PM to 11 PM, Saturday 12 PM to 3 PM and 4 PM to 11 PM. Closed Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. Dinner is eighteen courses at £165 per person; lunch is fourteen courses at £115 per person. Rooms are available for dinner, bed, and breakfast. Booking is hard , plan well ahead, and treat a cancellation alert as a genuine opportunity. For context on what else is happening in the area, see our full Hovingham restaurants guide, our Hovingham hotels guide, bars in Hovingham, wineries near Hovingham, and experiences in the area.
For the explorer who has already done L'Enclume in Cartmel or Moor Hall in Aughton, mýse offers a distinct register: tighter, more village-inn in character, and with a sourcing philosophy that is more geographically constrained. Compared to Ynyshir Hall in Machynlleth, mýse is less maximalist in its intensity but more coherent in its produce narrative. For a comparable rural destination at a similar price point, Midsummer House in Cambridge and Gidleigh Park in Chagford are the natural reference points, though neither has the same concentration of diner enthusiasm that mýse is currently generating. If you are building a Northern England food itinerary, mýse pairs naturally with Opheem in Birmingham on the southward leg or Restaurant Andrew Fairlie in Auchterarder on the northward. For village-inn format comparisons further afield, Hand and Flowers in Marlow and hide and fox in Saltwood are the closest structural analogues in England, though both differ significantly in style. European equivalents with similar sourcing rigour include Maison Lameloise in Chagny and Frantzén in Stockholm.
There is no à la carte; you eat the tasting menu as set. At dinner that is eighteen courses at £165; at lunch, fourteen courses at £115. The Thirkelby duck sequence is the dish most cited by diners as the highlight, but the kitchen's approach means every course is part of the same argument. Order the non-alcoholic pairing if you're not drinking wine , it is more developed than the standard at this price tier.
Yes, given the awards profile, the Google score of 4.9 across 228 reviews, and the volume of diners citing it as their leading meal of the year. At £165 for eighteen courses with this sourcing depth and technique level, it is competitive with one-star peers elsewhere in England. Lunch at £115 for fourteen courses sharpens the value case further.
The tasting-menu format suits solo diners reasonably well , you're eating a set progression, not navigating a shared menu. A single seat may also be easier to secure at short notice than a table for two. The room has character, the service is described as warm, and the kitchen team engages with the table, so solo dining here is a legitimate option rather than an afterthought.
There is no confirmed bar-seating option in the available data. mýse operates as a tasting-menu restaurant in a converted inn format; the experience is a seated multi-course progression rather than a drop-in drinks-and-snacks format. Book a table or contact the restaurant directly to ask about counter availability.
There are no direct tasting-menu competitors in Hovingham itself. The nearest comparable destinations are in York (around thirty minutes away) or further into North Yorkshire. For a longer drive but similar ambition, Moor Hall in Aughton and L'Enclume in Cartmel are the regional benchmarks in the North of England, both at higher price points and with longer booking lead times.
Lunch is the better entry point: fourteen courses at £115 versus eighteen at £165, in the same kitchen, with the same sourcing and technique. The saving is meaningful and the format is slightly more manageable. Dinner is worth it if you're staying overnight and want the full experience without a return drive. For a first visit, book lunch and assess from there.
Yes. The combination of a Michelin star, a converted inn with rooms, and a kitchen that consistently generates best-meal-of-the-year responses makes it a strong choice for a celebration. The fire in winter, the setting, and the level of service engagement all support an occasion feel without the formality of a city fine-dining room. Book a room if the occasion warrants it.
Phone and website details are not available in our current data. Given the set-menu format and the kitchen's tight sourcing philosophy, dietary requirements need to be communicated well in advance of your visit. Contact the restaurant directly at the time of booking , a kitchen operating at this level of precision will typically accommodate with notice, but a tasting menu built around specific Yorkshire producers is harder to adapt at short notice than an à la carte.
| Venue | Cuisine | Price | Awards | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| mýse | Modern Cuisine | ££££ | “Simply sublime” cooking wins huge support for Josh & Victoria Ovington’s converted pub in a small village half an hour from York which opened in mid 2023 and which is now one of the top-50 most commented-on destinations outside London in our annual diners’ poll; and with a very high proportion of diners reporting their best meal of the year here. It’s not a place to drop by – the main event by night is an eighteen course menu championing the Yorkshire ‘terroir’ for £165 per person; at lunch a mere fourteen courses for £115 per person. Many fans have approvingly followed the couple’s progress from their days in York: “I thought that when they were at Le Cochon Aveugle they couldn’t be surpassed but moving to Myse they’ve pulled out all the stops. Incredible” . It’s a “lovely” place too ( “especially in winter next to a roaring fire” ), with rooms available for dinner, bed and breakfast.; La Liste Top Restaurants (2026): 86pts; In a pretty little village on the edge of the North York Moors lies this former pub with stripped-back décor – expect flagstoned floors, whitewashed beams and exposed stone walls. The tasting menu features prime produce enhanced by a range of techniques, both traditional and modern, as with the showstopping Thirkelby duck in three servings, glazed with homemade walnut wine. Consider the excellent non-alcoholic drinks pairing, which really enhances the food, and a stay overnight in one of the cosy, simply decorated bedrooms.; Joshua and Victoria Overington opened Mýse (pronounced 'meez') in the summer of 2023. 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). 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. 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. Overington himself comes to the table and fires up the dish with flaming Yorkshire rum, harking us back to the dear old flambé days of our gilded youth. The food is matched by an excellent drinks list, which takes in inspired non-alcoholic sodas and kombuchas, imaginative cocktails and a decent selection of wines in small glasses, from a mere £5 for a quality Vinho Verde. Bottle prices ascend rapidly, but the choices are exceptionally good, through to a Georgian Saperavi and Peloponnese Agiorgitiko.; La Liste Top Restaurants (2025): 89.5pts; In a pretty little village on the edge of the North York Moors lies this former pub with stripped-back décor – expect flagstoned floors, whitewashed beams and exposed stone walls. The tasting menu features prime produce enhanced by a range of techniques, both traditional and modern, as with the showstopping Thirkelby duck in three servings, glazed with homemade walnut wine. Consider the excellent non-alcoholic drinks pairing, which really enhances the food, and a stay overnight in one of the cosy, simply decorated bedrooms.; Michelin 1 Star (2024) | Hard | — |
| Restaurant Gordon Ramsay | Contemporary European, French | ££££ | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| CORE by Clare Smyth | Modern British | ££££ | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| The Ledbury | Modern European, Modern Cuisine | ££££ | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Sketch, The Lecture Room and Library | Modern French | ££££ | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Dinner by Heston Blumenthal | Modern British, Traditional British | ££££ | Michelin 2 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
Side-by-side comparison to help you decide where to book.
Dietary accommodations can vary. Flag restrictions in advance via the venue's official channels.
There is no à la carte at mýse — the tasting menu is the only option, and that is the point. Dinner runs to eighteen courses (£165 per person) built around named Yorkshire producers, with techniques spanning fermentation, foraging, and pickling. The non-alcoholic drinks pairing has drawn specific praise from diners and is worth considering alongside the food.
At £165 for eighteen courses at dinner and £115 for fourteen at lunch, mýse is in Michelin-star territory and the price holds up. It ranked in the top-50 most commented destinations outside London in the Good Food Guide's annual poll, with a high proportion of diners calling it their best meal of the year — not a claim you see often for a venue open less than two years. If a long, technique-driven tasting menu is your format, the value case is clear.
The tasting-menu format means solo diners are priced and paced the same as everyone else — there is no counter seating or abbreviated option flagged in the available information. If you are comfortable with a long solo dinner in a village setting, the experience is complete; if you want the social energy of a bar or counter, there is no confirmation that option exists at mýse.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
