Driving the few miles from Bolton Abbey to Ilkley took us
out of North Yorkshire and the Dales National Park and into the City of
Bradford - at least that is what the sign said; the rolling green fields and
dry stone walls did not look like anybody’s idea of Bradford or any other city.
Ilkley looks and feels like the country town it is. Athough it is an
ancient settlement pre-dating the Domesday Book, modern Ilkley is largely a
result of its development as a Victorian spa town. As a spa it never attained
the grandeur of nearby Harrogate, but it did all right. The famous moor (visiting
is inadvisable without appropriate headgear - or bah t’at as the locals are alleged
to say) rises to the south of the town.
Ilkley Moor rises to the south of the town |
Older buildings include the Manor House, now an art gallery, which is set back from the main road.
The Manor House, Ilkley |
All Saint's, Ilkley |
Ilkley is a foodie town featuring, among other attractions,
a branch of Betty’s Tearooms (a delight so far unsavoured), a serious
fishmonger’s and Lishman’s butcher's shop. David Lishman, one of Rick Stein’s
food heroes, has twice won the national sausage championship so, inevitably, we
went home with a kilo of sausages and a slab of black pudding. Pre-eminent,
though, is the Box Tree which, in 1977, was one of the first restaurants in Britain
to gain two Michelin stars. Fortunes have varied and stars have been lost and
gained over the years but in its present incarnation under chef/owner Simon
Gueller it has held a Michelin star since 2005. Marco Pierre White served his
apprenticeship at the Box Tree and became a partner in the business in 2010.
[Update: At the start of 2018 Simon Gueller decided to let go of the reins in the kitchen and appointed Kieran Smith head chef and in October the Michelin inspectors took away their star. The decision was a surprise to many and a great disappointment to Gueller who said he had every faith in Kieran Smith, but the two parted company soon after. In September 2019, two head chefs later, Simon and Rena Gueller put the restaurant up for sale. In 2020 just before the arrival of Covid-19 they changed their minds. They did sell later in the year. Adam Frontal is now the owner, Kieran Smith is the head chef and they are operating a fine dining restaurant with a modern French style.]
The building was constructed in the 1720s, and if the décor does not quite date from that time, it has been criticised as being old-fashioned and stuffy. I think ‘retro’ is a better word, and we found it relaxed and comfortable rather than stuffy.
The Box Tree, Ilkley |
Rejecting the Menu Gourmande as being more than we could eat
and the Menu de Jour as rather tame, we went for the à la carte which offered an
amuse-bouche and four or five choices for each course. The style leans heavily
towards classic French resulting in a menu of tortured Franglais. English may
lack words for velouté, terrine or foie gras (fat liver? Perhaps not) but ‘paupiette
of squab pigeon’ was not the only uncomfortable linguistic juxtaposition.
The amuse-bouche, velouté de topinambour, came only in French. Although my French is modest I thought my menu French was pretty good but I had to ask about topinambour. It is, I learned, Jerusalem artichoke - so why not say so? Two huge bowls arrived with an amuse-bouche sized depression in the middle containing several small cubes of artichoke and a tiny heap of grated parmesan. The velouté was poured on top. The ratio of china to food was absurd, but the rich flavour of the velouté and the wonderfully old-socky parmesan made that a forgivable eccentricity.
The scallops in Lynne’s starter were, of course,
‘hand-dived’. I doubt it does anything for the flavour, but we appreciated the
nod towards sustainability. They were huge and meaty, not necessarily the ideal
texture for a scallop, but well flavoured, as these giants sometimes are not. The broad beans had been peeled (the sine qua non of fine
dining!) but it was the slices of rich and powerful summer truffles which made
the dish. The accompanying glass of unoaked Australian chardonnay was
undistinguished.
The menu prominently featured foie gras and dishes à la
Perigordine. Two foie gras dishes would have been over the top, but two
Perigord inspired dishes seemed a good idea so I started with the terrine of
Perigord foie gras with a salad of smoked eel and granny smith apple.
The slab of foie gras was generous in size and everything I
could have wished for. The tiny sticks of smoked eel arranged around it were a
fine counterpoint and the apple, in tiny cubes and blobs of purée, did the same
for the eel. The tiny green/red leaves scattered around allowed it to be called
a salad but were mainly for decoration.
The dish came, for a price, with a small glass of Monbazillac. Monbazillac may be Sauternes’ poor relation, but although this example* lacked the honeyed quality of a top Sauternes, it was intensely sweet and possessed an acidity which sliced elegantly through the fattiness of the foie gras. I know there are ethical issues with foie gras; my excuse is that it is a traditional food and that I eat it very rarely. I suspect this is an inadequate justification, but Victorian writer and clergyman Sydney Smith’s idea of heaven was ‘eating foie gras to the sound of trumpets.’ I would merely swap the trumpets for a glass of Monbazillac.
Lynne’s main course – paupiettes of squab pigeon - also contained foie gras. The small legs were swiftly devoured, the paupiettes, two of them wrapped in Alsace bacon, were large and rich, indeed so large and rich she could not finish them; fortunately I was on hand to help. The petit pois à la Francais were undercooked for Lynne’s taste and the stock they were cooked in had become overly sweet as it reduced.
My fillet of beef (à la Perigordine, of course) was a
wonderful piece of meat. Striking a balance between tenderness and texture
while maintaining a full flavour is a difficult trick but was performed to
perfection. The petits legumes (surely ‘baby vegetables’ would have done)
involved several tiny, tiny turnips and the inevitable broad beans (they are in
season as a glance at our vegetable patch confirms). They came with a Madeira
sauce, which was sweet, as Madeira sauce will be, but not too sweet.
A wine from Perigord, or around, seemed appropriate, and my
search of the extensive wine list came up with Domaine Capmartin from Madiran,
a bit further south west, but near enough. Tasting it before the main course
arrived, the tannin drowned out all other flavours, but drinking it with the
food revealed booming fruit and unexpected subtleties. I was pleased with the choice.
I am not a great fan of desserts; once sugar becomes
involved other flavours tend to back off and let it dominate. I can often be
seduced by pineapples or pistachios, but on this occasion found myself opting
for millefeuille of raspberries with lemon curd and elderflower. It was,
without doubt, as pretty a dessert as I have ever seen, three roundels of pastry
separated by henges of raspberries encircling the elderflower and lemon curd
cream. It was a shame to break it up and eat it, but I did. The raspberries
were fine, but they were only raspberries, the pastry was excellent, but the
flavours of lemon curd and elderflower had rather gone missing.
Two very pretty deserts The Box Tree, Ilkley |
Back in the lounge we enjoyed coffee and petits fours,
delivered by tweezers from a wooden box resembling an antique medicine chest.
The coffee was disappointing, but a glass of Remy Martin brought a fine evening
to an appropriate conclusion.
Petits fours in the lounge The Box Tree, Ilkley |
*wines buffs might like to know it came from the respected
Bordeaux négociants Borie-Manou
'Fine Dining' posts
Abergavenny and the Walnut Tree (2010)
Ludlow and La Bécasse (2011) (restaurant closed, post withdrawn)
Ilkley and The Box Tree(2012)
Pateley Bridge and the Yorke Arms (2013) (No longer a restaurant, post renamed Parceval Gardens and Pateley Br)
The Harrow at Little Bedwyn (2014)
The Slaughters and the Lords of the Manor (2015)
Loam, Fine Dining in Galway (2016)
Penarth and Restaurant James Sommerin (2017) (restaurant closed, post withdrawn. JS has a new restaurant in Penarth)
The Checkers, Montgomery (2017) (no longer a restaurant, post withdrawn. Now re-opened under new management)
Tyddyn Llan, Llandrillo, Denbighshire (2018)
Fischer's at Baslow Hall, Derbyshire (2019)
Hambleton Hall, Rutland (2021)
The Olive Tree, Queensberry Hotel, Bath (2022)
Dinner at Pensons near Tenbury Wells (2023) (restaurant closed Dec 2023, post withdrawn)
The Cross, Kenilworth (& Kenilworth Castle) 2024
Abergavenny and the Walnut Tree (2010)
Ludlow and La Bécasse (2011) (restaurant closed, post withdrawn)
Ilkley and The Box Tree(2012)
Pateley Bridge and the Yorke Arms (2013) (No longer a restaurant, post renamed Parceval Gardens and Pateley Br)
The Harrow at Little Bedwyn (2014)
The Slaughters and the Lords of the Manor (2015)
Loam, Fine Dining in Galway (2016)
Penarth and Restaurant James Sommerin (2017) (restaurant closed, post withdrawn. JS has a new restaurant in Penarth)
The Checkers, Montgomery (2017) (no longer a restaurant, post withdrawn. Now re-opened under new management)
Tyddyn Llan, Llandrillo, Denbighshire (2018)
Fischer's at Baslow Hall, Derbyshire (2019)
Hambleton Hall, Rutland (2021)
The Olive Tree, Queensberry Hotel, Bath (2022)
Dinner at Pensons near Tenbury Wells (2023) (restaurant closed Dec 2023, post withdrawn)
The Cross, Kenilworth (& Kenilworth Castle) 2024
A very detailed review and one which definitely tempts us to follow suit and try out the Boxtree for ourselves - perhaps a destination for our 7th wedding anniversary next summer?
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