Storehouse Kitchen

This relaxed neighbourhood restaurant on North Street is known for its eclectic menu, which features starters like southern fried cod cheek with crispy samphire and wild mushroom arancini stuffed with goat’s cheese. You can then tuck into beautifully-presented mains such as a pork tenderloin fillet with black pudding, crispy purple potatoes, buttered carrots, apple and vanilla puree and a cider butter sauce. Alternatively, you can try beetroot gnocchi with roasted beets, Yorkshire blue cheese and candied walnuts, followed by desserts like a honey and thyme panna cotta or earl grey sticky toffee pudding. Storehouse Kitchen’s drinks list includes a wide range of wines, cocktails, beers and ciders to accompany these. You can also visit the Storehouse Bar on Blossomgate for informal snacks and drinks.

Mario’s Restaurant

This family-owned Italian restaurant on Kirkgate has appeared in a Guardian article featuring readers’ favourite places to eat in Europe. Mario’s menu is filled with delicious dishes that combine local and imported Italian ingredients. The restaurant’s pizza dough is even made to a recipe that has been passed down through the generations. While deciding what to eat, you can sip a classic Aperol spritz here, or choose from cocktails like an espresso martini or strawberry daiquiri. You can then enjoy antipasti such as a caprese salad or crab and crayfish croquettes followed by risotto, pizza, pasta, or mains like pollo dolcelatte or duck in a morello cherry and red wine jus. If you have any room left afterwards, desserts include a classic tiramisu prepared with home-made sponge fingers.

The Royal Oak

Residing in a sympathetically renovated 18th century coaching inn on Kirkgate, The Royal Oak serves classic British cuisine that can be enjoyed al fresco in its garden in summer. Here, or in the hotel’s beautifully-styled dining space, you can start your meal with crispy baby squid with peri peri sauce and mango salsa, or a haggis scotch egg accompanied by swede puree and a whisky jus. For a main, you can then choose from many pub favourites or chef’s signatures such as braised ox cheek with wild mushroom, pancetta, sprouting broccoli, chive mashed potato and red wine jus, or pan-fried sea bream with steamed shellfish and bouillabaisse sauce. There’s plenty of choice for vegetarians, too, with options like warm roast squash, sweet potato, halloumi and hummus salad.

Realitea

If you love sampling different teas, Realitea is the place to go in Ripon. Describing itself as a tea room and Indian bistro with a twist, this atmospheric cafe on North Street serves a huge range of loose leaf teas that you won’t find anywhere else in the city. These include the ‘Ripon Hornblower’ – a floral and fruity black tea created to celebrate the 70th anniversary of RHS Harlow Carr, or a traditional Indian Masala Chai served with honey, fresh ginger and house blend spices. To eat, there are Indian brunches and lunches such as mildly spiced egg kathi roll or a Bombay burger. You can also treat yourself to the popular British Raj High Tea, which features homemade buttery chicken or a roasted vegetable dish with accompaniments, plus a cheese and fennel scone or rogue and your choice of premium leaf tea or freshly brewed coffee.

Manchega Tapas & Wine Bar

Situated on Ripon’s Duck Hill, this lively, convivial restaurant offers an authentic taste of Spain that’s shaped by Yorkshire, too. You’ll find brunch, lunch and dinner here, depending on the day, and each dish is prepared using locally-sourced ingredients with fresh fish from Hodgsons of Hartlepool, organic fruit and vegetables from Catton Kitchen and meat from Mallard Grange, Highside Butchers and Taste Tradition. You can opt to share tasty tapas plates such as chorizo al vino with hot honey, triple cooked patatas bravas or wild mushrooms with a kambo peppercorn sauce and local yolk. There’s also a set menu with an optional sherry flight, or a speedy lunch deal that includes a tortilla/basquaise and sangria.