I have a simple rule of thumb: beware the Harden brothers bearing press releases. They have a profoundly irritating talent for taking an over-hyped story and using it to promote the latest edition of their eponymous restaurant guides. This week's claim that Yorkshire is the best eating county in Britain is a case in point. As ever, they are using their less-than-transparent system of reviews generated by their own readers - inevitably a self-selecting bunch, working to god knows what criteria - to produce what they claim is a definitive result. Using my selfless eating experience across the country, and some equally arbitrary criteria based on a mixture of prejudice, whimsy and outstandingly good taste, I could make a case for the best eating to be found in Gloucestershire, Berkshire or perhaps Kent (mmm! Especially Kent).
All that said, I do accept that Yorkshire is a good place for culinary excitement, and anyone with reasonably deep pockets, an up-to-date map and a Stakhanovite appetite could do very well there. I know, because I have. So here, in no order at all, are my favourite top-five Yorkshire restaurants.
El Gato Negro, Ripponden
Tapas in West Yorkshire? Why the hell not? If it's ok at London's Borough Market, which is hardly old Seville, then it's definitely ok here in this converted pub. Chef Simon Shaw cleaves to top ingredients cooked to their best advantage. Go there for terrific Jamon Iberico, baby chicken in a smokey paprika sauce or seared scallops with dinky chorizo sausages. 01422 823070, www.elgatonegrotapas.com
The Weavers Shed, Golcar
Owner Stephen Jackson is an eater. A serious one. He has travelled Europe (often with his dad; bless!) eating in the best restaurants he can afford, bringing back many of the ideas and giving them a distinctly Yorkshire twist. There might be an amuse of cauliflower cream with apple foam or duck four ways (the skin crisped, the liver seared, the breast cured, the rest confited), or beautiful local lamb with chips formed from mashed chick peas. And all of this served in an elegant hulking lump of Yorkshire stone. 01484 654284, www.weaversshed.co.uk.
Anthony's, Leeds
There are many of us who believe chef Anthony Flinn has been unfairly overlooked by Michelin. His modernist food, inspired by his experiences working at El Bulli in Catalunia, brought culinary life to a city that desperately needed it, and his white onion risotto with a bitter slick of coffee at the bottom and parmesan "air" on top has become a new classic. Mind you the Flinns now run successful restaurants across Leeds, so he probably doesn't care what Michelin think. 0113 2455922, www.anthonysrestaurant.co.uk
The Yorke Arms, Ramsgill
This is the complete Yorkshire package: the beautiful drive through the cleft and cleave of the hills, the old wood-lined inn at the end of it, topped off by ingredients treated with utmost care and imagination by the wonderful Frances Atkins. Perfect battered skate, with a pile of carefully picked Whitby Bay crab, the whole dressed with lime and curls of deep-fried chilli pepper; deep-red venison with soft pieces of the same, braised, alongside a length of dense black pudding and impeccable Lyonnais potatoes; a delice of rhubarb and blueberry with a sesame tuile. What's not to like? 01423 755243, www.yorke-arms.co.uk
J Baker's Bistro Moderne, York
My most recent Yorkshire pleasure; you can read my review in the Observer in a couple of weeks. Of course I've found a couple of things to whinge about, but this is inventive, boldly-flavoured cooking, served in a relaxed womb-red room with a minimum of fuss. Do not miss the terrine of duck and its own liver with pistachios at the beginning, or their take on the Jaffa cake at the end. It's dark, rich and takes a while to get through. Much like Yorkshire itself. 01904 622688, www.jbakers.co.uk
· This article was amended on Wednesday October 22 2008. We were originally insufficiently precise in locating two of the restaurants in the above article: El Gato Negro is in Ripponden, rather than Sowerby Bridge, and The Weavers Shed is in Golcar, rather than Huddersfield. This has been corrected.
