The Fairfax Arms Review

Describing itself as a traditional country inn, The Fairfax Arms is a well established restaurant situated in the village of Gilling East in the heart of the North Yorkshire countryside. Having first been awarded one AA rosette in 2016, two rosettes followed in 2018 and were held for six years before a demotion back to one rosette in 2024. Despite that, online reviews from regular punters have continued to be generally positive in the past year, so I was reasonably expectant of a decent meal as I rocked up for lunch with my wife and two young children, on a drizzly February Wednesday.

There's a small car park behind the pub but this has limited space, so we parked on a side road a short walk from the restaurant. Externally the pub looks like a nice venue, sitting by the main road with a small stream running in front. The welcome on arrival was OK albeit everything felt a bit disjointed (one lady sent us to find our table, another then appeared and asked where we were going) and we weren't given the option to sit in the restaurant area which was a shame, only in the bar area.

We were told a number of dishes from the menu weren't available (before we'd seen the menus, so it was pretty difficult to remember what was said); there was a specials blackboard too, but as we were sat around the corner from the bar, we couldn't see it. I wasn't a fan at all of where we were sat; the table was a mess (it hadn't been cleaned) and wasn't really suitable for four people, I had to sit wrapped around a table leg. On top of that, the area we were in was right by a rear fire door and the room was uncomfortably cold. Considering the place was pretty quiet (just in the bar area, presumably the restaurant area was completely empty during our visit), I think it was a poor choice to sit us there.

On offer at lunch is a three course carte menu, plus a three course children's menu too which is always appreciated. Drinks wise, we weren't given any kind of drinks or wine list unfortunately, but the place very much operates as a pub as well as a restaurant, so you can expect all the normal pub choices; we just stuck with basic soft drinks like apple juice and coke during our meal.

First up for me was supposed to be the shredded pheasant breast but our waitress returned after I'd ordered to say this wasn't available as it's out of season (no idea why it was still on the menu then), so instead I opted for the creamed leek and brie pastry tart. This was a poor dish in all honesty; it consisted of a pre-baked tart case filled with a sort of cheesy gloop with a smattering of leek pieces, not a good start to the meal.

It was however edible which was more than could be said for my wife's hot smoked potted salmon with an apple and fennel salad; the potted salmon was horrible, it tasted like it had been sat in a fridge for days (if not longer). For the kids, my daughter was happy with her cheesy garlic bread from the children's menu.

For mains, I had the chicken breast with a mushroom duxelles, fondant potato and a chicken veloute. This was actually a much better dish than my starter; the chicken was on the dry side but the other elements were tasty. My wife again drew the short straw with a really badly executed halloumi burger; it didn't taste good and the burger was served stone cold which probably didn't help. For the kids, my daughter's cheese burger was fine and my young son had the ciabatta pizza bread which was basic but edible.

We were then abandoned for a long time and left waiting looking at our empty main course plates; I think the table position just meant we were forgotten about in all honesty. Eventually someone did return and although we'd not been impressed with the food up to that point, we pushed on and ordered dessert anyway (I know, I'm such a glutton).

My hazelnut panna cotta was actually quite nice; the accompanying rum truffle was pretty rock solid (and lacking in rum) but I'd eat the main event again no problem. My wife yet again had the weaker dish with a disappointing slice of treacle tart; it was very dry and lightyears away from what a good treacle tart should be. The kids too were disappointed; my son's strawberry ice cream was no better than a supermarket value brand and my daughter's lemon sorbet wasn't great either.

And so after collecting our bill, a long and fairly painful lunch came to an end. Overall we didn't enjoy our visit here and found the whole experience was poor. The main culprit was the food; although there were glimmers of decent cooking on one or two courses, the overall standard was low from a kitchen that has clearly given up on the idea of trying to serve quality food and just reverted to delivering very basic pub grub. The service too wasn't great; disjointed and less than attentive, with the overall time taken for the meal being way longer than it should have been for a pub lunch (I did still leave a 10% tip). I wish the team all the best, but this isn't a venue I'm likely to eat at again.