‘A fashionable place that attracts far-flung customers’, this updated pub-with-rooms stands in a small village overlooking the Vale of Mowbray, on the edge of the North York Moors. ‘The outstanding rooms and welcoming staff make it a great place to stay.’ The rustic pub looks the part: there are flagstones, low beams, wooden settles, a log fire in cool weather; local beers and hand-pulled ales. Here, in the ‘tastefully decorated’ restaurant, and on the tiered terrace in sunshine, tuck in to ‘good cooking at reasonable prices’. Straightforward and hearty, county-showcasing dishes include roast rack and slow-braised shoulder croquette of Yorkshire lamb; ‘a tasty medium-rare sirloin steak with a Yorkshire Blue sauce’. Most of the ‘well-appointed bedrooms’ are set around a courtyard garden (watch out for slippery steps after rain); two are in the main building. ‘All the rooms are equally good.’ ‘My spacious garden room had a three-seater sofa and two easy chairs. A gas-fired imitation log fire made it all very cosy.’ ‘Tempting breakfasts’ are ‘promptly served’. Cleveland Tontine, Northallerton (see Shortlist entry), is part of the same Provenance Inns group. (Robert Gower, D and KW)