‘A beacon of how to do things properly: metropolitan style with Yorkshire substance.’ Generous praise from a regular reader this year for this ‘smart, sophisticated’ hotel on the edge of Sheffield’s student quarter. The blend of warm northern hospitality and Scandinavian pared-back style is courtesy of owner Tiina Carr, born in nearby Doncaster but with a Finnish family. The ‘immaculately presented, stylishly furnished’ bedrooms, all white, greys, earth tones and occasional splashes of colour, might have an in-room copper slipper bath, contemporary four-poster or fireplace (with candle, of course). All have a wooden floor, rugs, robes, a Nespresso machine, ‘an exceptional range of tea and coffee’. ‘Luxurious’ bathrooms provide a ‘fantastic’ walk-in monsoon shower and organic toiletries. In the ‘outstanding’ bistro-style restaurant, with central kitchen, Leslie Buddington’s ‘superb’ modern British dishes with a Nordic twist include crispy squid with garlic aïoli; halloumi fritters, spring onion jam, herb pesto. An ‘interesting and varied breakfast’ includes ‘some of the best grilled bacon I’ve ever tasted, even the baked beans had a bespoke quality’. (Mike Craddock, and others)