West Lancashire's Moor Hall restaurant with rooms, which holds 2 Michelin Stars and 5 AA Rosettes, has been voted the Best UK Restaurant 2019 in SquareMeal's Top 100.
Set within a re-imagined 16th century manor house, this ultra-contemporary restaurant features a huge open kitchen with chef patron, Mark Birchall at the helm. Birchall has created delicate produce-driven menus inspired by the exceptional surroundings and home-grown ingredients.
Many of the ingredients that make it on to the menu are supplied by Moor Hall’s five-acre estate and the farmland that surrounds the restaurant. Vegetables get a starring role while expertly sourced meat and fish are treated to imaginative pairings.
On being presented with his award, Birchall said, “Winning this award is a real boost for us. It’s a nice pat on the back. It shows that our guests really enjoy what we do and it’s great to have the focus on us up north. It means an awful lot to me.”
Starters include Grilled courgettes, tomato millet, goats curd, and Confit Lune salmon, lovage potato salad, smoked cod’s roe.
For main dishes there are 40 day aged Lake District Sirloin, beef fat potatoes, hen of the woods, wild garlic, and Herdwick lamb, crispy lamb belly, roasted asparagus, St George’s, anchovy.
For dessert there is Choux bun, Yorkshire rhubarb, custard & blood orange sorbet, and Treacle tart with stout ice cream.
The venue also offers the Argonne Room, a private dining space, with views out over the grounds, which seats 8 to 14 guests.
Moor Hall has seven luxurious guest bedrooms, five of which are located in the main Hall with a further two in the gatehouse by the lake.
Birchell, who was the former Executive Chef of 2 Michelin Star L’Enclume, won the Roux Scholarship, the premier competition for chefs in the UK. He also worked at El Celler de Can Roca, Girona, a 3 Michelin Star Restaurant owned by the Roca Brothers, twice voted the world’s best restaurant.