Terrace Restaurant and Bar in Harrogate

The visit to this restaurant was one of my birthday presents and what a disappointing experience it was. We ordered a nibbles starter of bread and olives to have with our aperitifs but having waited 35 minutes the starter arrived at the same time as the small plate main course, On requesting that we would like them served separately we were informed by the waitress that this was how they were always served…….how bizarre! My meal was tepid, probably about the same temperature as the tap water in the carafe. Definitely room for improvement, we won’t be back in a hurry.

Although a pleasant terrace setting, the food was very disappointing here. Our food was INCREDIBLY over salted. So much we could not make it half-way through our dishes. Wait staff were ambivalent to the feedback. Moments after we gave the feedback we saw the kitchen staff shaking their heads and bickering… we didn’t ask for a refund - we simply gave feedback. We also finished all our drinks along with the table water (2ltr) because of the amount of salt we had just consumed! Stick to the snacks and hot drinks here and you’ll be fine. Go elsewhere for your dinner.

Dined twice here during our stay at Swinton Estate and could not fault the quality of the food or the service. My only minor niggle would be the slightly limited number of options on the menu. Also I was a little surprised that the lunch and evening menus offered to us were the same.

Thanks to Reece and James for making our honeymoon memorable. The food was great and service was good. The cocktails were amazing and thanks goes to the Chef for the amazing canapés that he especially made for us.

We were staying at the hotel and chose this restaurant for the somewhat simpler menu than the main hotel restaurant. The menu range was reasonable as were the prices. The food was excellent, well presented and served. It was all good but the homemade chips were outstanding. The restaurant is adjacent to the bar and it was all very lively with plenty of locals in the bar for a drink which added to the atmosphere. Not sure if this was because it was Sunday evening.

We ate here on a Wednesday night whilst staying at the Swinton Park Hotel, as a cheaper alternative to the hotel’s Samuels restaurant. The restaurant is lovely, modern, light and airy. The food is nice but I would say expensive for what you get, as the mains we had were quite small portions at £17 plus an extra £4 for a bowl of new potatoes. The cheapest bottle of wine was £27. However the service was fine with the young waiting staff being both friendly and efficient. .

We recently dined at The Terrace Restaurant for a family get together. The estate, grounds, buildings were stunning and provided the perfect location. The bar area was plush & very comfortable. The restaurant was bright, airy, modern with full glass frontage opening onto an attractive, enclosed terrace. And so to the food. Best described I'd say it didn't quite "Walk the Talk". That's not to say it was poor but did suffer from over egging the pudding, so to speak. With the rise of the Celebrity Chef it seems to me that most chef's have a rather inflated opinion of the food they offer, with lavish descriptions of food which in reality is quite plain. The customer often suffers from "Emperor's New Clothes" syndrome & doesn't offer honest feedback for fear of appearing unsophisticated! Starters: The Butternut Squash Soup with sourdough, I'm told, was very good. The Chicken Liver Parfait was excellent, albeit the sourdough toast was a tad hard. One of our party (for some unfathomable reason) ordered the grilled Bone Marrow, I'm not sure why. People, this is one example of a current dish that Celebrity Chef's have thrust upon us recently & convinced people of it's merits. We silly people go along with it. It's a Bone for goodness sake, sawn in half, bunged in the oven & then served on a plate. A bone with a bit of fat in the centre. In the 1960's your butcher would have chucked this in free for your dog. I just hope that butcher's have had the good sense to take their cut of the profit when supplying these restaurants. Mains: One diner had the Hot Smoked whole Mackrel. It appeared on the plate looking as though it had been dragged from the embers of a bonfire. Black, burned-looking, ugly & unappetizing. I'm told it tasted fine. If you want a plate covered in charcoal fine, it wouldn't be for me. The venison I'm told was okay. Not an adjective I'd use to describe a fine dining experience, okay doesn't quite cut it. I had the Belly Pork. Beware, it didn't resemble the cut I recognise or expected. It may have been pork belly but appeared to have been shredded and then reformed into an oblong shape. No sight of any crispy crackling. It wasn't seasoned and was quite bland. Now to one of my pet hates in restaurants. When you order your main course that is exactly what you get. A fish, a piece of meat or whatever. Nothing more. In fairness the menu recommends you order at least one side dish. Call me old-fashioned but I expect to receive a meal, just as I'd serve at home......a main dish with accompaniments. I'd rather restaurants increased their menu price to reflect this & included a whole meal rather than trying to extract every last penny by charging separately for each addition. And to those additions, I ordered Heritage Potato's, tarragon & crisp onions. They were a bowl of chopped new potato's (£6 if I remember rightly) not a crisp onion, or any onion, in sight! The carrots were carrots. The desserts were excellent, full of flavour & I couldn't fault them. Generally, the drinks were very expensive, £9.40 for a gin, not including tonic. The staff were all efficient but dare I say perfunctory. A distinct lack of personality, connection or friendliness. Would I recommend? Yes, I would. Largely for the venue itself, the ambience, the location etc. I also forgive the prices as I quite understand the costs of maintaining an estate like this, it's more than just the food on your plate. I would recommend that people offer their opinions & feedback, not just here but generally so that the fashions bolstered by the era of the Celebrity Chef don't treat everyone as a ninny, and we in turn don't meekly adopt that role

We have been here on a two nights stay and have dined in this restaurant one the two evenings and we can honestly say that we have been looked after fantastically the food is fantastic and the service is superb the steaks are fist class and the dessert are heavenly so a first class experience and can definitely recommend

Fantastic, home made food. Cooked fresh almost in fron of you. Better than expected . Well done Chef

We ate here whilst enjoying a night away. The restaurant is modern and well designed with the open kitchen a real focal point. Outside the terrace was lit up with fairy lights. Service was good, food excellent with a interesting menu choice. Look forward to coming back to sample some of the other dishes

We came as family and the choice are amazing. Only wish I didn't have a big lunch earlier so I can get to try more. staff are all lovely. It would be nicer if the manager put a nice smile instead of a long face when you settled your bill. ( not sure is that we didn't bother ordered side dishes)

The restaurant is beautifully decorated and has a calm and relaxed feel. The menu is really interesting with plenty of tasty and unusual side dishes. Every dish experienced was well cooked and presented beautifully and matched by friendly and knowledgeable service. The spa looks amazing and I'm looking forward to booking a spa day. sadly the weather wasn't great for our visit but I can imagine the outside terrace area will be a wonderful place to sit and enjoy a good meal. we'll be back soon!

beautiful food, great service. Order the venison and try the chunky chips, amazing. Great selection of drinks too.

This is a very nice restaurant and bar but the drinks are very over priced and the food was expensive and nothing special quite tastless we thought.

We have a 3 night stay at Swinton Castle and originally planned to eat in the Terrace the first night and Samuel’s the second night. The Terrace was so good (seriously faultless!) on our first visit that we decided to bin Samuel’s on the second night and go back to the Terrace. We weren’t disappointed. Really outstanding food, top notch service in a light and airy environment. Even the cocktails prior to dinner (Mark the bartender made the best Sazerac I’ve ever had) were fabulous. All priced very reasonably too. I dare say we will be back tomorrow night too!

I am getting married next year and The Terrace was the venue I choose to ask my best friends if they would be my bridesmaids! We had an amazing time at the spa followed by an incredible meal in the restaurant all the food was cooked and presented perfectly and staff went out of their way to make it the prefect experience, the chefs even made us special ‘will you be my bridesmaid plates’ the special little touches make all the difference!

We dined in The Terrace as part of the Sundown Spa package, it was a relaxing and delightful end to a wonderful session at Swinton Country Club & Spa. The menu was tasty and swayed us to try something new. Can't wait to return to try the full menu and for Sunday Lunch!

We ate here whilst staying at Swinton Park Hotel, it's a restaurant attached to the spa and it's about half the price of Samuels Restaurant but very nice.

Dined at this restaurant twice ( hotel offer ) whilst staying at the Swinton Country Club and Spa. The food is based on the ingredients grown on the estate, but had a very limited choice if you can’t eat gluten. The hotel and restaurants stocked one type of gluten free bread which wasnt anywhere near the best on the market - given the large range of good shelf life products that are now available. The kitchen staff made no effort to make anything gluten free as a service and I wasn’t sure how well versed they were regarding gluten intolerance. The portions were also very small. The ambience was a little cold, so not very cosy. Rather expensive and limited for my tastes and allergy, wouldn’t want to visit again.

We had an evening meal at the Terrace , The restaurant was very light and modern , the bar area was very cosy with an open fire !! Our meal was delicious , Beetroot and Feta for a starter , and braised Beef with Chips ,Potatoes and cream spinach , very tasty and filling (no room for a pudding) . Staff were very attentive and left us to enjoy our meal. Food was all local produce .

Below is the email I sent Swinton Park after a terrible experience at the Terrace. Seven days later I have yet to receive an acknowledgement let alone an apology.

We visited as a couple for lunch following a couple of treatments at the Spa. Initial impressions were extremely positive as the bar area is warm and inviting, and the welcome we received from the staff equally so.

I was lucky enough to be invited to a wine tasting hosted in the terrace on the 3rd of September by a wine supplier which was followed up by lunch. The staff were very welcoming and attentive from the moment we arrived! The food we were served was delicious and it was nice to watch the chefs hard at work. Thank you to the staff both in front and back of house, I will be back again!

This review was submitted on Sunday 13th July 2018 but has not been published. I am therefore Re-submitting it however some of the original pictures are no longer available.