Staithes and the surrounding area is beginning to have all the elements of a foodie’s paradise, here are some of the good places:
Food suppliers
Whitby Seafish, Unit 1A, Whitegate Close, Staithes (right beside the main public car park). 01947 841236. Monday to Friday 7am-4pm, Saturdays 9.30am-11am.
They are a wholesale supplier of fish to restaurants but they are happy to supply fish to personal callers. The fish is obtained fresh every day from Whitby and Scarborough fish markets so they have whatever has been caught – usually a good range including turbot, brill and halibut but sometimes just cod and haddock. They will prepare the fish in anyway you want – gutted, scaled, filleted.
Fortunes Smokehouse & Kipper Shop, Henrietta Street, Whitby. 01947 601659
This smokery has been on this tiny cobbled street in Whitby (go along to the bottom of the 199 steps to the abbey and then keep going) for many decades. They only smoke kippers (whole or filleted) and they have restricted opening hours (usually 11-3) but if you are in Whitby when they are open it is well worth buying some.
The Whitby Catch, 1 Pier Road, Whitby 01947 601313
Is a first class fishmongers just across the road from the wholesale fish market on the quay at Whitby harbour - so everything is very fresh. They have a wide range of fish and shellfish, are very knowledgeable about fish and how to cook them, and will prepare the fish in any way you want.
Restaurants
The Fox and Hounds, Goldsborough (signposted from the road between Staithes and Whitby, after Hinderwell and before Lythe). 01947 893372. Wednesday to Saturday, food served 6-8.30pm and lunchtime on Sundays.
This is a gastropub par excellence. Down a singletrack lane off the road between Staithes and Sandsend is this small pub which is part of the Mulgrave Estate. The décor hasn’t changed much from when it was just a village pub but the food has since Jason and Sue Davies took it over two years ago. Jason’s previous chef experience includes a stint at the Ivy, and the Fox and Hounds has had many good reviews in the national press. The menu is all on a blackboard because it changes daily with the availability of ingredients - which are all locally-sourced and organic if at all possible. Starters (£5 to £8) include seared scallops with chilli jam and rocket, and spatchcocked pigeon. Main courses (£12 to £18) include a lot of fish, such as grilled halibut fillet on a bed of roasted potatoes and fennel with a caper salsa, and game – venison, pheasant etc. There is an extensive wine list starting at £12 for house red or white up to £50 for a Brunello. The service is very welcoming and helpful. Most seating for eating is in the main part of the pub but there is a private dining room accommodating up to 8 people. This is a great place for truly excellent food in an informal setting. You need to book, especially for Friday and Saturday evenings.
The Endeavour Restaurant, 1 High Street, Staithes TS13 5BH. 01947 840825. Tuesday to Saturday evenings. Can only accommodate parties of 6 or less.
A first class fish and seafood restaurant that is only 40 metres from the house! Charlotte Willoughby and Brain Kaye have been running the Endeavour for about 5 years and during that time have built up a fine reputation and garnered many awards. The menu (starters £5 to £7, main courses £11 to £18) features absolutely fresh local fish and seafood cooked in imaginative and thoughtful ways. There is also a meat and vegetarian choice for each course. Examples include turbot with a Calvados sauce and dried apple rings, sea bass fillets with a star anise sauce, skate wings with a black butter sauce. The restaurant has a small number of covers and is very popular so you need to book at least a month in advance, and only for parties of 6 or less.
The Magpie Café, 4 Pier Road, Whitby, North Yorkshire, YO21 3PU. 01947 602058
Fantastic fish & chips and other very well-cooked fish and seafood dishes. Rick Stein recommends it for the best fish and chips in the UK (or at least he did until he opened his own fish & chip shop in Padstow). Most people go for the fish & chips (haddock/cod & chips £8) but there are many other great fish dishes on the menu (£10 to £16) – we had a fantastic halibut steak on a bed of champ with a tartare velouté sauce. All the fish is extremely fresh because the Whitby fish market is just across the road. The starters and desserts are very good, and very substantial. The staff are very friendly and helpful. The café is easy to find because it usually has a long queue out of the door and onto the street, contrary to popular belief you can book a table outside School Holidays and avoid this (but attract black looks from those in the queue).
The Estbek House Hotel, East Row, Sandsend, North Yorkshire, YO21 3SU. 01947 893424
Restaurant in a fine 18th Century house that was built for the manager of the local alum mines. Starters, such as wild salmon fishcakes or Gressingham duck strips with plum sauce, £5 to £8; main courses, such as wild salmon with a mustard and honey glaze and a lemon and dill sauce, £13 to £23. The menu has a slightly curious mix and match approach - you can choose any fish with any of a choice of sauces, with or without additional items such as scallops or crayfish tails, so the level of culinary creation is not quite on the level of the previous three restaurants but all the fish is cooked and presented very well. The staff are helpful and knowledgeable. The wine list is extensive with many available by the glass. In the summer you can eat out in the front courtyard with a view over Sandsend.
Cafes and tea rooms
Elizabeth Botham and Sons, 35-39 Skinner Street, Whitby, North Yorkshire YO21 3AH 01947 602823
Bothams make excellent cakes and loaves that are widely available in the Staithes and Whitby area. Less well-known is their tea room above their original shop in Skinner Street, Whitby (up the hill from the main town centre and left down Skinner Street – which also has some interesting shops). Here time has stood still for at least 50 years and you can still have a traditional English tea served by polite and efficient staff in a marvellous old room with the obligatory potted palms. It really is a marvellous way to spend a wet afternoon in Whitby (on the rare occasions that this occurs).
Other cafes and tea rooms
There are too many tea rooms and cafes in the Staithes and Whitby area to mention all of them and we don’t have a particular favourite. Seadrift Café by the harbour in Staithes is tiny inside but when the weather is good it is great to get a pot of tea and a piece of coble cake and sit on the outside seats overlooking the harbour. The Cleveland Corner Café (01947 841117) on Staithes High Street (next to the Post Office) does a wide range of snacks and meals and many of our guests recommend it as a simple place to eat on the evenings when you don’t want to cook or go to a more formal restaurant. Wit’s End Café at Sandsend serves very good coffee and cakes, has an internal courtyard for al fresco tea stops and the staff are pleasant. We are not in favour of their recent decision to install a large plasma screen TV with 24 hour news in the front of the café, that’s not what holidays are for! The Bridge Café by the private car park at the East Row end of Sandsend has a good range of snacks and larger meals. In Summer it has a great garden to sit out in, in Winter it is rather cramped inside.