The Calderdale restaurant named in the top 100 in the country by National Restaurant Awards

The Moorcock Inn in Norland, has been ranked as 14th

Here's what the National Restaurant Awards had to say about the Calderdale restaurant.

It’s hard to pigeonhole this West Yorkshire venue, which is both a cosy yet worn oak beamed pub for the locals and an ambitious – but relatively inexpensive – destination restaurant that has got gourmands all a quiver thanks to owners Aimee Turford and Alisdair Brooke-Taylor’s use of traditional homesteading techniques and live-fire cooking.

The pair, who met while working at Belgian restaurant In De Wulf – Turford as sommelier, Brooke-Taylor as sous chef – have taken their experience working in high-end restaurants and combined it with a passion for a more natural approach to running a business.

Much of The Moorcock’s cooking is done on a collection of wood and charcoal ovens and adjustable grills at the back of the pub, with Brooke-Taylor cooking whole animals, some of which have been reared specifically for the restaurant, over wood and house-made charcoal.

Sustainability is key, with fish and seafood caught only from native waters by day boats and all vegetables organic and home-grown or foraged where possible.

The formality of a la carte has also been eschewed with diners encouraged to share dishes, the likes of which include spiced lamb bun, new season onion fondue, nettles, pickled elderflower and mint; barbecued turbot with seaweed sauce, preserved lemon, pickled beach herbs and ramson oil; and cheesecake custard doughnut with yuzu cha.

Menus change with the seasons but one dish, crispy smoked potatoes with yeast mayonnaise, remains a regular. It’s a dish so popular – and moreish – that it has even inspired one regular customer to write a poem about it.

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