Moor Hall (*) Omskirk – February 2025

My decision to dine at Moor Hall was driven mostly by locational proximity. When I had initially planned my trip to the UK, I knew that I wanted to eat at L’enclume and managed to secure my reservation. However, I had a few extra days to kill in England so I decided to splurge on another meal in the Northern part of the country. It turned out that Moor Hall was not located all that far from Cartmel, making the trip feasible. Like some of the other dining options I went with on my trip, there weren’t many reviews of this place but I know it has won a string of national accolades since opening in 2017 and when I read that Mark Birchall, the chef patron at Moor Hall, used to be one of the head honchos at L’enclume, I decided to go ahead with the reservation.

Moor Hall still had 2 stars when I made the reservation last year. Two weeks before my trip to the UK, I saw that it won its third star. I was glad that I managed to snag a reservation beforehand because I imagine that new travelers will flock to UK’s newest 3* addition.

Moor Hall is located in Omskirk, a town located about a half-hour’s drive from Liverpool. I took a train from Manchester Picadilly to Liverpool Lime Street. From there, I caught an uber to the property. While the journey can be seemingly arduous to plan, it isn’t all that bad. There are a lot of trains running between Manchester and Liverpool daily, and cabs at Liverpool Lime Street are plentiful. And the Moor Hall property, if you decide to stay here (I did), truly is a sight for sore eyes. The grounds are massive with two noticeably large buildings – the first is the manor where the restaurant is located and the second is the Barn, that houses another restaurant by Chef Birchall that also serves the breakfast if you decide to stay overnight. Rooms and cottages are strewn all across the premise and the kitchen’s garden, where all of the produce is grown, is located in a corner of the property. I was staying here for just one night, so I did not have much time to explore the neighboring area but walking along the hotel grounds was a pleasure in itself. While I had initially booked the cheapest accommodation option, I was upgraded to a private cottage during check-in. The cottage (the Woodruff) was beautiful, essentially a 1-bedroom apartment with swanky tech all over and a fully stocked bar with incredible (but pricey) beverages and snacks. For those looking to plan a luxury getaway for the weekend topped with an excellent meal, I would certainly recommend Moor Hall. And if you’re coming just to eat here, there are plenty of other more reasonably priced accommodation options in the nearby town.

The Space:

Moor Hall’s meal follows what seems to have become a formula for a lot of successful fine dining restaurants opting for a more laid back approach to their meal – begin in a comfortable lounge for small bites, proceed to the main dining room for the meal and return to the lounge to conclude the meal with petit four and aperitifs. This isn’t critique in any way, just an observation and one that I personally enjoy. The first bites are served in a beautifully adorned room that appears to have been part of the original 15^th century manor that now houses the restaurant and is impeccably maintained. After the penultimate small bite, I was led to the kitchen and greeted by one of the chefs who introduced a collection of raw ingredients placed in front of me that were used in preparing the menu for the evening – this too seems to be a growing trend in fine dining establishments, especially those gunning for those 3*s. After the last small bite (sat nestled among the raw ingredients), I was led to my table in the corner of the main dining room, across from the cheese room and wine cellar from where I had a nice view of the entire restaurant.

The space is elegant with wooden finishes and warm lighting all around that makes it feel comfortable and relaxed. The restaurant is in a noticeably newer extension built into the manor, so it made for a nice contrast going from the lounge room, with its darker ambience and more intimate seating, to the open and bright main dining room. I imagine this space would look even more beautiful during lunch service with the massive windows on one side of the restaurant overlooking the large courtyard in front of the manor.

 I dined here on a Sunday and the restaurant happened to have a lot of vacancies that evening, so it made for a quiet and peaceful meal. But even on a packed evening, the tables are fairly well spaced out that I imagine one would not feel distracted by any noise from neighboring tables. Also, a special shout out for the bag stool! I don’t carry a bag but having a place to keep my phone, wallet, keys and other personal effects that isn’t my trouser pocket or the table is always welcome.

The Food:

Moor Hall serves their Provenance Menu for £235 that showcases the seasonal produce straight from their garden. It feels a little difficult summarizing my opinion of the food here. Overall, did I think the food was excellent? Yes. But the menu, for me, was a mix of a few bites that were absolute knockouts and others that were good but just….not that memorable. Coming into this trip, I think I had built it up this meal in my mind quite a bit. And the fact that I had eaten at L’enclume just two nights prior, the single greatest, most fun culinary experience I’ve ever had, did not help. I spent most hours after leaving L’enclume dreaming about and salivating over every dish I had there. And sitting down to eat at Moor Hall, I found myself consciously or subconsciously comparing the bites to those at L’enclume. In hindsight, this doesn’t seem fair to the restaurant but I’m no professional food reviewer and I’m at the mercy of my emotions and feelings in the moment. Might I have had a different experience here without the influence of another stellar meal right before? Maybe. Maybe not. That’s not to say that Moor Hall doesn’t feel like a 3* meal in terms of the overall experience. I would be curious to return in the summer to try out their growing season menu as well to see how it differs from this one. One thing I did appreciate on this menu is that each of the mains had a vegetable component to it and in some of them, having the vegetable made all the difference. The prominence of the veg and the execution is testament to the restaurant's focus on their produce. I would like to call out some of the tastiest bites on the menu:

1) Paris market carrots (doddington, chrysanthemum and sea buckthorn) – this is the first dish of the main menu following the small bites and was quite possibly the highlight of the menu for me. I believe that this has been a signature dish of the restaurants for some years and for good reason. Making vegetables shine for what they are, to me, is so much more difficult than decadent meats, which is why when such a dish comes along, it seems such a satisfying triumph. The flavors here are perfect with varying textures of carrot – in sauce form, gel, soft poached, roasted, raw. An absolute tribute to a humble vegetable. Abundance of creativity in a truly world class dish.

2) Ruby red devon aged for 80 days (barbecued beetroot, mustard and shallot) – this is the best version of a beef tartare I have had. I had a similar reaction to Maeemo’s version of a beef tartare I had the previous year. Moor Hall’s version topped that. When tartare aficionados critique the dish saying “I want to taste the beef”, I imagine that this dish is their North Star. Dry-aged beef, in this case aged 80 days, is undoubtedly the star of the dish with such a strong, beefy and slightly funky flavor. The true genius on this plate, however, imo, is in the addition of that beetroot. Slightly sweet and smoky flavor that goes perfectly with the beef and other textural additions that all make for an exceptional bite. I can taste it in my mouth as I write this right now.

3) Turbot cooked in brown butter (artichoke, pear, mussel, and roe sauce) – look at that sheen on the fish. Absolutely perfect cook on the fish that is sweet in flavor with a slightly nuttiness from the brown butter and creamy sauce with salty hits of the roe. The tiny pieces of vegetable were beautifully fresh providing a contrast to the rich sauce.

4) Saint-Sever Guinea Hen (morel, ramson and white asparagus, ragout and whey, liver and truffled honey) – just want to shout out this dish because it was refreshing to see some poultry being the focus of the mains on a menu, in this case an aged French guinea hen. The dish itself was really nice with a perfectly cooked piece of breast but the sauce made from the bird was a tad too salty for my liking. The dish was served with a flaky croissant like bread with a butter made from truffly, liver and honey, both of which were delicious.

5) Omskirk Gingerbread – this was the palate cleanser course following guinea hen, a creamy ice cream with strong ginger hits and what seemed to be thin gingersnap crisps on the side. I’m a sucker for ginger so this bite was excellent and perfectly balanced. I often find the palate cleansers to be more enjoyable than the main desserts and I think that was true here as well. While the main desserts were really nice, especially the garden apples dessert with its varying temperatures and textures, I did not find them to be as memorable as the ginger. Though I must say, here the mental comparisons with the world-class desserts of L’enclume were even more present in the moment.

Pairings:

Moor Hall offers three pairings – an NA pairing (£85), a Prestige Wine pairing (£145) and a Rarity Pairing (£295). Coming in, I had decided to do the NA pairing to save myself some financial heartache but seeing the wines on the Rarity pairing, I just couldn’t resist. And it delivered. Some incredible produces on roster – Egon Muller, Lopez de Heredia, Smith Haut Lafitte, Jerome Prevost – that paired excellently with the dishes but also oh so enjoyable on their own. The pairing featured wines with a considerable amount of age on them, which is also a pleasant change from similar pairings at other 3* that seem to feature more current vintages even if they include some of the biggest names. And like L’enclume, the value of the top-of-the-line pairing here is difficult to ignore. It is not cheap in any sense, but I could easily see a similar pairing cost 2x-3x the sticker price in the US or in the Nordics. I have no doubt that their NA pairing would also deliver and again, at £85, seems like a great deal to me considering the 3* status. If I return though, I will probably spoil myself once more with the Rarity pairing. I just can’t help it.

Service:

All of the staff at Moor Hall were warm and friendly in their interactions. A couple of members, with their Liverpudlian charm, were extremely sincere and engaging in their delivery. I just had a couple of minor nits through the evening. First – towards the end of the meal, I opted for the cheese service, which ended up stuffing me so much that I asked them to take away the few remaining bites on the plate. Shortly after, I was handed the check without being given any information or asked if I was interested in the petit four. Maybe they took my request to clean the cheese plate as a sign that I was done, which is fair but in similar settings before, I have been asked if I would consider the smaller bites before wrapping up my tab. Second, after I got back to my room, I realized that I was not handed a list of the wines from the evening. Maybe they don’t do that type of thing here but it has been typical to provide the pairing list long with the food menu for the evening. Just minor things I noticed in an otherwise warm and enjoyable evening.

Summary:

Overall, I really enjoyed my experience at Moor Hall. A beautiful setting to spend the weekend with a loved one with a few memorable bites, arguably an even more memorable wine pairing and nice hospitality. The menu represents an earnest attempt at highlighting the restaurant’s produce but I find myself wanting to try it one more time before coming up with a complete view of the restaurant. It is a similar feeling to when I ate at Atomix in NYC.

When I read this piece back, it reads like a much stronger commendation praising L’enclume than Moor Hall but if you find yourself planning a trip to the region, I do think it’s worth checking Moor Hall out. At £235, the meal does represent good value relative to the other 3\s in the country* and doubly so for the wine pairings if you’re into wine. However, if you can choose just one place in the Northern UK to spend your hard-earned money at, make it the Anvil in the tiny village of Cartmel.