The Talbot, Malton, North Yorkshire

Classic very charming hotel with great service, yes, the furniture is authentic a little bit aged, but it doesn’t have a negative impact on the stay at all contrary it’s quite charming.

What a great little boutique hotel. Service, room and breakfast were all excellent. Would go there again.

Enjoyable stay. Lovely room in a very pleasant hotel in lovely.grounds

Excellent room, very clean. Food was great, the restaurant is very nice and the service is really good. Bar is good too, the hotel has everything you need. Definitely recommend!

We usually have a dinner at the Talbot during our stays in the area. This time we went twice. The restaurant is a nice room in this town centre hotel. It started life as a privately owned mansion in the 1660s and, about a hundred years later, was converted to a coaching inn on the road between York and Scarborough. Subsequent developments by the Earls Fitzwilliam and their successors have been undertaken sympathetically to the building’s history. With that length of time offering hospitality, it’s perhaps no surprise that staff do their job with a smile. Our first visit was for a Sunday roast, which we’ve had before and enjoyed. The plus points for the Talbot are that they serve their roasts at dinner as well as lunch. And it’s a very generous and varied serving. And, in the latter, lies an issue. I know it will sound a bit odd, but there’s really too much on the plate. It’s piled high – like the worst excesses you see in an all-you-can-eat buffet. And comes swimming in gravy – we had to ask for a bowl so we could pour most of it off. There’s literally no room on the plates so actually eating it isn’t easy, until you’ve carefully worked your way in quite a bit from the edge. The second visit was much better and much more as we remember the Talbot. We skipped starters and went straight in for main courses. Flat iron steak was OK – decent flavour but, even for this cut, a bit tougher than you expect. Good fries but the advertised watercress salad was, literally, just a spring of watercress. Excellent béarnaise sauce – really pronounced tarragon flavour. “Pie of the Day” was game pie. A “proper” pie with crisp shortcrust pastry completely enclosing the filling of venision, rabbit and pheasant. That came with really nice non-sloppy mash and mixed greens. A separate jug of gravy was there for “topping up”. Lemon posset always feels like summer. Light, creamy with a tang from lemon curd. And cheese was excellent – a selection of three Yorkshire ones – a cheddar, a blue and Brie-like one. Served with crackers, grapes, celery and a tangy chutney. Nice second evening which made up for the misses of the first.

We recently stayed at The Talbot for a long weekend — a bit of a nostalgic trip, as my wife and I used to live in Malton and have many fond memories of the area. The hotel itself is charming and well-appointed, and we were made to feel genuinely welcome. The staff were without exception warm, friendly, and helpful, which set a lovely tone for our stay. Unfortunately, the dining experience didn’t live up to the rest of the visit. We had dinner in the restaurant on our first night, and sadly both my wife’s and my main courses were very poor. My steak was of low quality and badly cooked, and my wife’s dish was no better. We ended up leaving most of the food. To their credit, our waiter was extremely apologetic and offered a refund on the mains, explaining that they’d recently changed suppliers. While the gesture was appreciated, it doesn’t quite excuse the quality — particularly from a restaurant that markets itself as 'fine dining' in what is widely known as Yorkshire’s ‘food capital.’ Breakfasts were also underwhelming. On the first morning, I had the full English, but my fried egg was overcooked and rubbery, despite specifically asking for it to be runny. Hoping for a better experience the next day, I tried the eggs benedict — but again, a hard poached egg and what tasted like hollandaise from a jar left me disappointed. It's a real shame, as the hotel itself and its team are lovely. But given Malton’s reputation for food, the overall dining experience at The Talbot was far below expectations — and frankly, it’s put a bit of a dampener on our view of the town as a whole.