I always keep an eye each year on the Michelin stars given out to Yorkshire restaurants. This year sadly we lost Michael O’Hare’s Man Behind the Curtain in Leeds but Yorkshire still managed to maintain 7 Michelin starred restaurants with the addition of Myse in Hovingham.
Myse was opened in the summer of 2023 in what was once the Hovingham Inn by Josh and Victoria Overington – a Chef and Sommelier team who had previously run acclaimed restaurants in York. Having only been open 7 months, Myse and Josh became Yorkshire’s newest Michelin star in March 2024.
The Guide stated: “Mýse brings Michelin Star dining to the tiny village of Hovingham. Going straight into the Guide with a Star, it is one of the best openings of the year and the attached bedrooms make it a real destination restaurant.
“Excellent ingredients – cooked expertly – are the backbone of the dishes, which deliver originality and great depth of flavour. A top wine list and non-alcoholic pairings ensure the food isn’t the only highlight.”
After a busy touring season and with a day off, I thought “let’s give it a go!”. So booked a table for myself and my wife to sample the lunchtime tasting menu.
The website explained Josh’s philosophy – “to celebrate the ancient Yorkshire terrior surrounding the restaurant, drawing on the area's rich history with an elegant spin on Yorkshire cooking”. At Myse they very much champion the best local producers and farmers in Yorkshire and beyond with sustainability being at the heart of their thinking.
So onto my visit…
As well as great food this really was a special experience. The team which Josh and Victoria have assembled appear to be a finely tuned machine and their input helps make the visit memorable. When we arrived we were met by the head waiter in the car park and escorted by him to the bar – this straight away made you feel special.
The bar was homely and relaxed with open fires, furs on the seats, exposed brickwork and a carved wooden bar. I treated myself to a pre-meal sloe gin negroni and then we were served a few nibbles.
A small Summerfield cheese biscuit with black walnut ketchup served on pine cones, as well as pieces of smoked pork shoulder with Laphroig sausage. Both really tasty. The Summerfield cheese would appear again later on the cheeseboard and with the pieces of sliced sausage which had been cured in house by the team, you could really taste the whisky coming through.
After this we were shown into the restaurant which was light with cool, natural tones, exposed beams and wooden tables. The serving counter in the corner allowed you to see the chefs at work finishing preparation and plating up the dishes.
My wife being on a fitness campaign had offered to drive, so not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth, I decided to go for the wine pairing.
My first wine was a Stein rose, a sparkling wine from the Mosul Valley. This was served with the first two courses and was a good choice. You could really taste the fruit coming through with cherries and particularly strawberry flavours.
It’s worth noting that Victoria has put together a great wine list curated by the team from Noble Rot, as well as creating an innovative wine pairing. (There was also a Prestige Wine pairing as well as a Non-alcoholic pairing option).
In the restaurant the first two proper dishes came quickly. Firstly a charcoal pie with roe deer tartar and smoked caviar – lovely tastes and textures.
This was followed by a small mackerel tartlet with potato and horse radish cream. This looked great with berries on top and the mackerel whilst only a mouthful was complimented by the horse radish.
The next dish was fun. It had a proper Yorkshire twist, being a braised ox cheek ball which had been deep fried in Yorkshire pudding batter served with fermented cucumber. It was presented in a dish of grains on the end of a thin birch twig. Very interesting, perhaps tasting more like a savoury doughnut than a Yorkshire pud, but tasty all the same.
We were then served some home-made sourdough with Jersey butter and grains, as well as a 3 day reduced chicken dripping with herbs. The bread was great as was the butter, the chicken dripping was rich but was a bit too fatty for my taste.
Wine number two was a beautiful crisp French Chablis.
The next dish was one of the highlights. Hand dived Orkney Scallops, cooked in its own shell with sea urchin butter. Wow!
How could something as simple as this be so stunning? My friend’s son Solon lives on Orkney and is a scallop diver so I know at first-hand how sustainable this industry is. Who knows, he may have dived for the very scallop I was eating! The scallop was huge but so soft, tender and really sweet. The meal could have ended there and I would have been happy.
But there was more to come…
My third wine was an Anjou noir another French wine, but this one on first taste was quite organic and a bit earthy for my taste.
This was served with a piece of Pollock poached in aged beef fat with roscoff onion jam. The fish was soft and perfectly cooked and the onion added more flavour to the dish. I had to admit, my first reaction to the wine was wrong, it worked really, really well with the fish. A genuinely innovative pairing.
The final wine, but not the final drink was interesting. A Tinto sortevera from Tenerife. I have a good friend JJ who lives over there and whom I visit most years – I’m sure he will have tracked me some down when I visit next Autumn! The wine is apparently grown in the North of the island on volcanic soils and tastes almost fortified.
The wine had quite a smoky flavour and you could also taste pepper.
This wine was to go with two duck courses. We had previously been shown two mallards which had been shot locally, cooked and were resting.
Duck dish one was a cup of wild duck broth with walnut wine. The idea being you had a sip of this before taking a bite of the accompanying dish. This was a sourdough crumpet which was stuffed with duck liver parfait and topped with mallard ham.
This was delicious. Duck ham? – wasn’t sure that it would work but it did and particularly well with the crumpet.
Duck dish two was Yorkshire mallard with mountain ash sauce and elderberries. I’ve never been a massive fan of duck. It can be ruined if over or under cooked and I’ve had some bad experiences in the past.
This was great. Not a huge portion but perfectly cooked, pink inside, tender with a slight hint of liver. This was a pleasant surprise.
After this we had a small glass of crushed Castle Howard apples, particularly apt as we were so close to the stately home as well as being nestled in the Howardian Hills.
The final pairing drink was served and it wasn’t a wine, but a cider. It was an iced cider from makers in Thornborough near Masham. I’d tried ice wine in Toronto and I guess this is cider's equivalent. The apples are collected after the first frost late in the season. The cider maker only makes 48 bottles a year and Myse take all 48 apparently! It was an interesting alternative to a dessert wine.
The cider was to pair with the desserts.
First up was a mouthful of an aged beef fat fudge with local truffle and ox heart.
This was followed by a small Beastings tart – a tiny variation on a Yorkshire curd/custard tart.
The third dessert was a interestingly presented with fried artichoke crisps served on birch twigs, with Jerusalem artichoke ice cream with birch sap syrup. Lovely.
There was still another pudding to come. A flamed wild quince cake (cooked Roman style without flour) with a malted barley ice cream. This was flamed in front of us at the table using a local Yorkshire rum for added theatre!
All these were different but perfect sweets, my favourite was probably just the Beastings tart.
Whilst the cheese board was extra and we were quite full, when the cheese selection was brought out and shown at the table, we decided to share one. I did sneak in a quick port to go with this (one of the benefits of not being designated driver!).
Some great selections, a couple of which were from Yorkshire – an Old Roan Wensleydale type cheese – this worked perfectly with the supplied fruit cake. There was also a Leeds Blue made in Otley, a Dorstone turret shaped goats cheese (from Herford) and a Summerfield a sweet nutty Alpine style cheese made at Botton Creamery in the North York Moors.
In summary we were at Myse for over three hours and it was definitely a meal to remember. The food overall was interesting and flavoursome, with every dish having a story. Different staff, including owner Josh served the food spending time to give you the background behind the dishes and individual products.
There were innovative drinks pairings and just the right amount of theatre. Nothing was rushed and we really were made to feel very welcome by a great team. I did find out that Myse has rooms so maybe another future visit will involve staying over and evening dining so my wife can enjoy the wine pairing too!
The name Myse actually originate from the Anglo Saxon for "eating at the table", but this was definitely more than just eating - it was an "experience" too.
Highly recommended and I can see why the Michelin Guide awarded Josh and his team a star so quickly.
To find out more: https://www.restaurantmyse.co.uk
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