The Blue Train Café (the Motorist) in Selby

Just had New Year’s Day lunch at The Arnage restaurant and it was lovely! Had a starter of salmon and prawns that was really fresh and light and one of the best Sunday roasts I’ve had in a long time. Beautiful roast beef and pork and lovely roast potato and veg. Great atmosphere, great service - we’ll definitely be back!

The setting and restaurant is really stylish especially if you’re a car fan. Sadly the restaurant part of the business doesn’t live up to this and misses the mark. I’m not sure it knows what type of restaurant it is trying to be and it feels very muddled. The menu is full of ‘just out the freezer’ dishes and lacks imagination and finesse. It is all very underwhelming and quite disappointing. The waiting staff are clearly under trained and it shows. Whilst they are polite, the service is hit and miss and when under pressure or busy, they can get flustered and disorganised. We are local and so want this restaurant to be a success - with the right menu/chef and restaurant management, this could be a destination restaurant and it would be great to have a place which did delicious, seasonal dishes in a lovely setting!! It could be perfect for this area. .

Following an excellent Christmas meal in 2022 I was looking forward to my Christmas lunch as part of a group event. Sadly it turned out to be very disappointing. Insufficient staff meant service was slow and food served tepid. The meat was obviously re heated slices of turkey and not freshly carved. Accompaniments were four overcooked sprouts, red cabbage,a bacon wrapped sausage and roast potatoes. The only other vegetable brought to the table in a bowl were roasted veg. No stuffing,no mashed potatoes,no cauliflower or broccoli. I remember a much better selection two years ago. The prawns in the prawn cocktail were so tiny they had no flavour. The dessert was quite nice if still slightly frozen in the middle. Standards have slipped. It’s a shame because it’s a fantastic venue.

A big thank you to the team at The Arnage for making my husband’s 50th birthday breakfast so special today! From the start, Steph was incredibly helpful with all the prior communications and the pre-order process, which worked seamlessly for our large group. The food was delicious, and the atmosphere was warm and welcoming. The serving staff were both pleasant and attentive, ensuring everything ran smoothly. We had a wonderful time and couldn’t have asked for a better experience. Highly recommend!

Lovely venue, however there a lot of teething problems that need addressing. When we walked in the lady turned round and said sit wherever before turning back around again. This is fine but it did feel like a bit of a cold welcome/first impression. When we got to the table there was only 1 menu for the 2 of us and that was a piece of paper covered in food. I’m unsure on other drinks being on the menu but we had to ask for the wine list. I have eaten here once before and we had fabulous table service, it’s sad to see they are no longer doing this and you have to go to the bar to order. We ordered steak but unfortunately it was sold out, it’s always very very quiet in there so I guess maybe they don’t order in a lot of produce. We ate early tea time so I was surprised they didn’t have any but we decided on something else. Which reminds me we had a table booked late last year for 18 of us. I ended up getting a call on the day of the reservation to be told we could only pick from 3 main meals and that was pie, a fish one and a veggie option.. sadly no steak or burgers then, so we was left with no choice but to cancel our meal and go to the plough where we got to pick from a very large varied menu. Back to our last visit, when the starters arrived they tasted really nice and we was off to a good start.. However when the main arrived, all I can say is picture eating your burger out of a very pale French bread roll, it wasn’t the best. I ended up leaving the bread and just eating the beef on its own, again this is new because I have had the burger before and it was in a lovely burger bun. The burger also had a small pot of mayo on the plate but sadly it was all slimy with a thick layer of hardened mayo on top, which of course didn’t look very appealing. I can only imagine to save time they pre pour them and have them in the fridge but don’t cover them in cling film to keep in the moisture in. Unfortunately no one came to ask if the food was ok and even when the plates were cleared away, we was greated with pure silence. There is next to no atmosphere in the restaurant, this time there was a few other tables in but last time sadly only 1 other table, it would really benefit from some back ground music.. or if there was background music it needs to be slightly louder as I’m pretty sure it was silent in there. At this point we had an hour to spare but didn’t want to stay and drink or get a dessert, we very quickly wanted to leave and go elsewhere. For such a beautiful venue and a slightly higher price point, the service and quality didn’t match that.. sadly I understand why a lot of my local friends & family choose not to eat here. It’s a shame because other than the white horse & the plough, there isn’t anything else locally that’s a bit more premium where you can enjoy your weekend evenings. A lot could be done to make this place a success and fill all of those empty tables.

A truly 5 star breakfast after flying in to the nearby Sherburn Aero Club. We were able to book ahead (as noting worse than flying somewhere to find you can’t be seated). Staff were incredibly pleasant, attentive and the food top quality. My wife enjoyed the vegetarian breakfast immensely, the “bacon” was some of the best we’ve ever tried. My meat eaters breakfast was equally delicious.

The restaurant is nicely decorated, and the food is very well presented and a step up from the rank and file or chain places etc, although don't expect absolute top notch. Probably the weakest aspect was the service, though its probably not easy to get the best staff out here these days, so I understand and there was nothing that spoilt the meal. Kids meals are good, with quite a few options and food that is definitely better quality than most kids meals, though if you go three courses it ends up being £13 and that is without a drink included, so definitely on the high end price wise for kids meals. You do get a free toy car included. Interesting to see all the various cars of visitors drive by and pull up into the car park.