Restaurant in Ripon, United Kingdom
Eight courses, £95, hard to book.
A Michelin Plate restaurant with rooms in a 17th-century Jacobean mansion opposite Ripon Cathedral. Chef Adam Jackson's eight-course evening tasting menu is £95 per head and ranks among the best-value fine dining options in North Yorkshire. Book at least six weeks ahead; evening weekend slots fill fast. Lunch and Sunday roast offer a lower-commitment entry point to the same kitchen.
The Old Deanery is one of the most compelling restaurants with rooms in the north of England, and at £95 per head for an eight-course evening tasting menu, it represents a serious but defensible spend. If you are considering a special dinner within driving distance of the Yorkshire Dales, this should be your first call, not your fallback. The Michelin Plate recognition in both 2024 and 2025 confirms what regulars already know: chef Adam Jackson is cooking at a level that punches well above the price point. Book this for a milestone dinner, a romantic stay, or any occasion where the setting needs to match the food.
Ripon is a cathedral city with a modest dining scene, and The Old Deanery is its anchor. Set directly opposite Ripon Cathedral in a Jacobean mansion built in the 17th century, the building alone justifies a visit from anyone travelling through North Yorkshire. But the restaurant is not coasting on architecture. Jackson's tasting menu uses the building as a structural device: different courses are served in different rooms and spaces throughout the house, so the meal becomes a guided encounter with the property itself. For a food and travel enthusiast, this format adds genuine dimension to an evening that would be compelling even if the food were merely good. The food is considerably better than merely good.
The cathedral-facing location gives The Old Deanery a sense of occasion that most rural restaurants have to manufacture. Here it is simply the address. Guests arrive to a lounge described by those who have eaten here as shabby-chic, which is accurate in the leading possible sense: comfortable, lived-in, not trying too hard. In good weather, drinks move to the garden. This pre-dinner period matters because it sets a tone of relaxed seriousness, the kind of evening where the cooking has the room's full attention without the restaurant needing to demand it. For a full picture of where to eat in this part of Yorkshire, see our full Ripon restaurants guide.
The eight-course evening tasting menu is the main event and the format leading suited to what Jackson does. The cooking is precise and technically layered, with dishes described by reviewers as eye-catching and intensely flavoured. One standout noted in verified guest feedback is a sea bass with a delicate jalapeño sauce, paired with a sparkling Japanese sake, which gives a reliable signal about the menu's range: classical British product, international technique, thoughtful drink pairings that are not afterthoughts. The menu is priced at £95 per person, which for eight courses with this level of ambition sits at the cheaper end of the Michelin Plate tier in England.
For guests not committed to the full tasting format, The Old Deanery offers a lunch menu and afternoon tea during the day, and a classic roast on Sundays. These are not compromise options; they are genuinely different propositions for different kinds of visit. A Sunday roast in a 17th-century Jacobean dining room facing a cathedral is a strong case for a leisurely long weekend in Ripon. For comparable restaurant-with-rooms experiences elsewhere in the country, L'Enclume in Cartmel, Moor Hall in Aughton, and Gidleigh Park in Chagford are the relevant benchmarks, though all come in at higher price points or require longer journeys from Yorkshire.
Booking difficulty is rated Hard. The Old Deanery's size, format, and reputation mean that evening tasting menu slots, particularly at weekends, fill well in advance. If you have a specific date in mind for a birthday, anniversary, or other occasion, treat six to eight weeks' lead time as a minimum and check availability sooner. Lunch and afternoon tea bookings are generally more accessible, but do not assume walk-in availability for any service. The restaurant-with-rooms offer adds a natural reason to stay overnight, which turns a difficult dinner reservation into a two-night trip and removes any anxiety about driving back through the Dales after a paired-drink tasting menu. For context on the broader local stay offer, see our full Ripon hotels guide.
The address is Minster Road, Ripon HG4 1QS. Ripon is not on a main rail line, so most guests arrive by car, and the cathedral quarter has parking nearby. For anyone combining this dinner with a wider Yorkshire itinerary, Shaun Rankin at Grantley Hall is nearby and at a higher price point, while Fletchers offers a more casual alternative in the same city. See also our Ripon bars guide, our Ripon wineries guide, and our Ripon experiences guide for the full picture.
Book directly via The Old Deanery's website. Given the Hard booking difficulty rating, prioritise weekend evening slots and plan your reservation at least six weeks ahead. If you are flexible on timing, midweek dinner or Sunday lunch bookings will have more availability. The rooms make an overnight stay a practical and sensible addition to the evening tasting menu experience.
| Venue | Price | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Old Deanery | ££££ | Hard | — |
| CORE by Clare Smyth | ££££ | Unknown | — |
| Restaurant Gordon Ramsay | ££££ | Unknown | — |
| Sketch, The Lecture Room and Library | ££££ | Unknown | — |
| The Ledbury | ££££ | Unknown | — |
| Dinner by Heston Blumenthal | ££££ | Unknown | — |
Comparing your options in Ripon for this tier.
The Old Deanery's tasting menu format and boutique size in a Jacobean mansion mean it is better suited to small groups than large parties. For parties of more than four, check the venue's official channels well in advance to discuss room options, as the evening format routes diners through different parts of the building. Groups expecting a flexible, sharing-plates setup will find this format less comfortable than a purpose-built private dining room elsewhere.
The Old Deanery has a shabby-chic lounge where pre-dinner drinks are taken, but it is not a bar dining venue. The evening tasting menu is a structured, seated, multi-room experience rather than a casual drop-in. If you want a lighter option, the daytime lunch menu or afternoon tea are the practical alternatives without committing to the full eight-course format.
The evening eight-course tasting menu at £95 per person is what chef Adam Jackson's kitchen is built around, and it is the format that best showcases the technically layered cooking. The Michelin-noted sea bass with jalapeño sauce, paired with sparkling Japanese sake, has drawn particular praise. For a lighter visit, the daytime lunch or Sunday roast are available, but neither delivers the same scope as the evening tasting experience.
At £95 per head for eight courses with a Michelin Plate and consistent critical praise for chef Adam Jackson, the tasting menu offers strong value relative to comparable formats in northern England. The multi-room service through a 17th-century mansion adds a structural dimension that a standard restaurant cannot replicate. If tasting menus are your format and you are within range of Ripon, this is one of the harder-to-justify-skipping options in the region.
For the evening tasting menu, yes: £95 for eight courses at a Michelin Plate venue with rooms in a Jacobean mansion opposite Ripon Cathedral is competitive against equivalent experiences in Yorkshire and well below comparable formats in London. Lunch and afternoon tea sit at a lower price tier if the full tasting menu commitment is more than you want. The value case is strongest for those staying overnight, since the restaurant-with-rooms format removes the transport question.
Yes, and it is one of the stronger cases for a special occasion in the north of England at this price point. The combination of a historic Jacobean mansion, Ripon Cathedral as the backdrop, Michelin Plate recognition, and a structured tasting menu by Adam Jackson gives it genuine occasion weight. Book the evening tasting menu rather than lunch for the full experience, and consider an overnight stay to make the most of the setting.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
