8 Special-Occasion Restaurants To Bookmark Now

You’ll find Ynyshir in the small market town of Machynlleth in Powys, north Wales. Your arrival, be it by train or road, will awe you as you gaze up left and right at the towering green foothills of the beginnings of Snowdonia National Park. The restaurant is headed up by Gareth Ward, who elevates simple Welsh produce – and some extremely special fish from Japan – to create dishes you won’t try elsewhere. As such, there are no substitutions – so think carefully before booking if you have intolerances. At Ynyshir, diners are taken on an immersive journey over the course of four or five hours, with a tasting menu that showcases ingredients from around the world – think Japanese bluefin tuna and Singapore chilli crab. We first tried a taste of Ynyshir at a takeover lunch at Claridge’s, where Gareth and his team cooked up the likes of Japanese hamachi, served with miso and teriyaki, and a fabulous green curry with shrimp – and they lived long in the memory for all the right reasons. Even so, the chance to try Gareth’s cooking in its true home, in a former hunting lodge, feels like a treat. After a welcome drink and a look at some of the produce you’ll try later, the main event comprises up to 30 courses, which could include multiple ways with hamachi and blue fin tuna, alongside some special signature dishes, such as a yuzu custard pudding that’s been on the menu for ten years and an unforgettable banana soft serve, made with birch syrup tapped from the restaurant’s own trees. 

The food isn’t the only reason to make the trek up to north Wales. During each sitting, DJ Jacob will select from his thousands of records to play everything from Motown classics to chilled folk, all while a disco ball shimmers above the dining tables. It’s not what you’d expect from a multi-Michelin-awarded hotspot – and it’s all the more special for it (we’re trying not to say too much, as half the joy of dining here is the element of surprise). We suggest making a weekend of it by booking one of the handful of bedrooms in the grounds of the restaurant (during the week, Ynyshir is open Tuesday-Friday, but on Fridays you can book for two nights if you also dine at Gwen, see below). Expect a more pared-back expression of the modern, Scandi-inspired décor found downstairs. For extra-special occasions, take a look at the Garden Room, which is out in the restaurant’s sprawling grounds. Everyone who stays overnight will be woken up with an excellent bacon-and-egg roll. Finally, don’t leave without paying the on-site blacksmith Lee a visit. He makes all the restaurant’s Scandi-style cutlery – and plenty for many other top UK chefs. If you’re lucky, you might catch Gareth sharpening his own knives ahead of the next service.

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Merlin Labron-Johnson is the man behind Michelin-starred Osip, which we first knew as a small farm-to-table restaurant on the high street of the pretty and now – almost thanks to Merlin alone – phenomenally popular Somerset town of Bruton. In 2024, Merlin moved Osip to a refurbished 18th-century inn ten minutes down the road and out into the country. Its bones might be old but the new place feels light, contemporary and minimalist, with an open kitchen that’s wrapped in glass to maximise views into the restaurant garden and the fields beyond. As you take your seat, it’s still the kitchen itself that grabs your attention. In a modern glass cube extension, the kitchen is the centre of the restaurant, but its transparency gives guests long-range views across Somerset. There’s an angular skylight that throws focus onto those at the pans and highlights how the cooking comes together softly and intentionally. 

As you’d expect from a restaurant that grows a lot of its own produce, dishes change from service to service. The menu is planned so precisely each day that it’s printed during service and delivered after each meal. Going into the meal, you’ll only be told the essence of each course, not the ingredients. When we dined, one was a signature dish of raw vegetables, which were beautifully cleaned but are otherwise in their natural state. They came with a beautiful, whipped sesame dip with an artful well of vibrantly green oil in its centre, which matches the mossy orb of oil in my preserved tomato martini. The green theme continued with a lovage broth course and then another signature, the spring taco. A wonderful, fermented potato brioche is served with deliciously sour kefir butter with leek tapenade and a picture-perfect fried nettle leaf that almost looked too good to eat. There are four five-star-hotel-worthy bedrooms directly above the restaurant. Each named after a river in Somerset – Avon, Brue, Somer and Pitt – the rooms exude the same luxe minimalism as downstairs, with handcrafted finishes that connect guests to the West Country landscape. Guests will be welcomed with refreshments from the kitchen, cider by Maison Osip – the restaurant’s product line – and Maison Osip toiletries, made in collaboration with Harvest skincare, while the Osip Concierge is on hand to arrange complimentary transfers.

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In the Lake District village of Cartmel, L’Enclume became the first restaurant in northern England to be awarded three Michelin stars, making Simon Rogan just the third English chef to receive the honour. Opened in 2002, the restaurant quickly rose to international prominence thanks to Simon’s laser focus on hyper-seasonal and traceable tasting menus. Simon and his team have been prime movers in the UK’s farm-to-fork movement. It uses ingredients harvested predominantly on Our Farm, Simon’s very own farm a mile or so from the restaurant in the Cartmel Valley, alongside produce from top Lake District producers. Many places offer seasonal dishes, but few can claim such a detailed understanding of all the produce they cook with, with chefs and growers that work so closely together. If you’re visiting the restaurant between the start of April and end of September, tours of Our Farm are available to book – there’s surely no better way to set the scene and whet your appetite for the incredible feast that awaits later that day. 

Picture-postcard Cartmel is not just home to L’Enclume. You’ll also find a more casual concept, one-Michelin-starred Rogan & Co, as well as one-starred Aulis, a behind-the-scenes six-seater test kitchen next to L’Enclume that works in the same way as its sister establishment in Soho – where Simon’s team develops dishes and tests them out on eight lucky diners each night, before the top dishes make their way onto other menus in the Rogan collection. If you’re travelling up, we recommend booking one of L’Enclume’s 16 bedrooms and suites, which are dotted around the village, each within walking distance of the restaurant. When you book a bedroom, you’re automatically guaranteed a table at L'Enclume and breakfast at Rogan & Co. Each room is individually designed and takes references from its surroundings. Every bathroom is filled with luxurious bath products and diffusers – all available to buy in the team’s Our Shop on the village square, alongside granite pepper pots, cast-iron spice mills and the restaurant’s own coal oil, seaweed salt and jams. 

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Chef and Great British Menu finalist Luke French, together with his wife Stacey Sherwood, launched Jöro (pronounced ‘yoro’ and Old Norse for ‘earth’) in 2016. On Kelham Island in Sheffield’s city centre, Jöro’s chic shipping container setting fitted the post-industrial nature of the rising neighbourhood. It went on to become Sheffield’s first Michelin Bib Gourmand restaurant and earned the love of locals. Next, the pair bought an abandoned 19th-century paper mill in Oughtibridge, a bucolic suburb on the edge of the Peak District. A cavernous, cathedral-like space, the team set about gutting the place, rebuilding the stone mill from the inside out. In 2024, the original restaurant closed its doors – and in January 2025, Jöro 2.0 was revealed. While Jöro 2.0 no longer serves small plates, it stays true to the kitchen’s history of applying modern techniques to local ingredients, drawing inspiration from both Japan and Scandinavia. The team offer a choice of three 16-course tasting menus: meat, vegetarian and pescatarian. There’s a shorter format, featuring the menu’s greatest hits, during lunch service. 

Central to the kitchen is live-fire cooking using birch wood and charcoal. Some of the hero ingredients that could get a good grilling here are Scottish scallops, salt-aged Yorkshire beef rump cap, whole teriyaki quail, basque-style blueberry cheesecake and yuzu meringue. Every course is a masterclass in precision and punch. Choux buns are filled with cheese and pickled onion, designed to be eaten in tandem with slices of pineapple – dusted with sansho pepper and kaffir lime zest – for a surprising take on a cheese-and-pineapple stick. The mid-meal Japanese milk bread is served with a pleasing squiggle of Ampersand butter. Part of the mammoth renovation of the old mill included transforming it into two stories. While the ground floor hosts the bars and restaurant, upstairs you’ll find five studios and two one-bedroom apartments, giving diners the chance to stay for a night or weekend getaway. Designed by Luke and Stacey, the rooms are neutral and Scandi inspired – think pale green walls and food-themed David Shrigleys on the walls – and some come with kitchens. Each offers views across to the Peak District. The highlight of any stay? The homemade continental breakfast that’s left in the fridge while you dine the night before (think local cheese and charcuterie, cherry yogurt, homemade granola and more bread). Back on Kelham Island, House of Jöro continues to offer bedrooms for guests who’d prefer to stay central.

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