In ‘a lovely village’ on the edge of the North Yorkshire moors, Andrew Pern’s ‘stylish old inn’ is a mix-and-thatch of ancient cruck-framed pub, dining extension, and lodgings in a converted building opposite. The ‘characterful’ accommodation presents difficult choices. Will it be a spa bath or a snooker table? Perhaps that ground-floor room with upright piano? The low-beamed bar is similarly eccentric, with oak furniture by Robert (Mouseman) Thompson, and a coffee loft above. The great draw, however, is Mr Pern’s Michelin-starred cooking of local, home-grown, shot or foraged ingredients, in such dishes as Star hive honey-glazed gammon, spiced pineapple, smoked bacon ice cream, sage-cured egg yolk, chestnut mushroom shavings, sauce ‘Perpignan’. Service was ‘first class’. Pull up a button-back chair in the colourful restaurant, or eat alfresco – ‘in summer the garden is a wonderful place to lunch’. An ‘amazing’ breakfast, served in The Wheelhouse, under a high, beamed ceiling, ‘at a vast circular table, like something out of Camelot’, included ‘great-tasting cooked options’, smoked salmon, rollmops, juices. ‘We can’t wait to go back.’ (RC, SH)