Estbek House

Follow the beach north out of Whitby for a couple of miles until the sands end, and you're in the aptly-named village of Sandsend, a delightful spot where Georgian Estbek House was once the HQ of local alum-mining operations. Nowadays it trades as a smartly updated small-scale country hotel with a stylish restaurant fitted out with lots of wood, chunky tables and leather chairs. Given the location, it seems only right that the daily-changing menu majors in fish and seafood, but the bounty of the moors is also embraced, all prepared without undue fuss to let the freshness of the materials do the talking. You might start with Whitby kipper pâté, or beer-battered turbot goujons with fennel coleslaw, and follow with pan-seared fresh fish - choose from whatever's good on the day - served with white wine cream sauce or lemon butter on the side in order to avoid overwhelming the delicacy of the prime component. Die-hard carnivores might go for home-smoked Gressingham duck teamed with black pudding and a fig and balsamic reduction; top it all off with apple tarte Tatin with clotted cream.