Last weekend I was kindly invited to Ox Pasture Hall to sample the hotel and see what I thought about it and the surrounding area. As I have been blogging for almost eight years now, I do get offered a lot of things to review on the blog but sadly due to time restraints, I don’t tend to take them up very often, but this really seemed like an interesting offer as the hotel looked stunning online.
The hotel itself is set in more than seventeen acres of beautiful gardens situated in the stunning North York Moors National Park, which was good for me as I only live in Harrogate, which is also in North Yorkshire, so it meant I didn’t have to travel too far with my young children. I was really surprised at how well located it was for the coast as it was just a few a few minutes from Scarborough’s North Bay, meaning you could either stay on site or go out exploring for the day.
The building itself feels like a modern country hotel and it was clear the staff have been looking after it as the gardens were amazing, with pagodas, pathways and secret snugs all over the place. There was a huge fish pond at the back which was lovely for a nice evening walk before our dinner.
Apparently, the hotel is widely regarded as one of the most romantic hotels in Yorkshire, which did concern me as we have two little ones and they can be quite noisy, but it was fine as all of the staff were very attentive and made us feel really welcome. The view from our bedroom window was breath-taking as it was just rolling Yorkshire hills for as far as the eye could see.
So the location was good, the surroundings were great but they were nothing on our room (Helmsley suite) and the food was even better.
The hotel is widely known to boast an excellent reputation for outstanding food with a fine dining feel and excellent service. The menu was really varied and I decided to go for the duck salad followed by the Pork Belly.
I have included a couple of our meals on my Instagram feed as the food really was well presented and the Pork Belly was some of the best I have tasted in a long time. The deserts had been carefully put together and the pistachio arctic roll was divine.
If you read this blog you will know I am a big lover of delicious food and I wasn’t disappointed and I doubt you would be either. I cannot rate this hotel highly enough, the location, food and staff were all brilliant and my wife and I didn’t want to come home. I think if you wanted to go away for a lovely relaxing romantic break, just the two of you, Ox Pasture Halls could be the ideal retreat as the gardens are so peaceful.
Chris Norton is the founder of Prohibition and an award winning communications consultant with more than twenty years’ experience. He was a lecturer at Leeds Beckett University and has had a varied PR career having worked both in-house and in a number of large consultancies. He is an Integrated PR and social media blogger and writes on a wide variety of blogs across a huge amount of topics from digital marketing, social media marketing right through to technology and crisis management.
