u/byronmiller

Spent 3 nights at Beck Hall recently and wanted to leave a quick review here. tldr whole-hearted endorsement - if you have the opportunity it's definitely one to visit.

To be honest I'm not well practiced in writing reviews, so apologies if this isn't the best review ever, but I thought it might be of interest to anyone considering a trip.

We enjoyed loads of things about this trip - the location, the food, staying in a beamy old room - but most of all just having choice of food for four days was amazing.

The hotel & restaurant

The vibe I got from the place is that it's a restaurant with a hotel slapped on top. The building itself is gorgeous and easy to find. The restaurant itself is really modern and colourful, and faces onto Malham Beck, including a terrace. It seemed popular at lunch and dinner time, including with many diners who were not guests, but was really quiet between meal times, meaning it was really peaceful to sit with a book and a drink in the sun.

Adjoining the restaurant is a guest lounge with a table where we played some board games, and three sofas plus a couple of armchairs, with footrests. Perfect for chilling with a cocktail after a long walk. The lounge is beamy as all hell - loads of old wood, very "posh cottage" aesthetic, with a wood fire burning all day. We spent a lot of time hanging out here, as did other guests, but it was quiet and intimate. This is also where the hotel admin bits like check in/check out seems to get done, and there's a side door for guests.

The room we stayed in was right at the top of the (rather narrow) stairs and was small but lovely. Good, hot shower, really comfy bed, and a really nice view over a field of chickens and the restaurant terrace. I was surprised how peaceful it was. We were right over the guest lounge, right by the stairs, and in earshot of the restaurant, but everything wound down by around 10pm and we were never disturbed by guests using the stairs or even by sounds from the cockerels across the road. There were some nice touches, too, such as a tray to put muddy boots in, and the staff providing a thermos of oat (or soy) milk each day for making tea/coffee in the room (as no mini fridge was available).

There are accessible rooms on the ground floor. We didn't see these as they were in another part of the hotel, but a pair of guests we met had asked to be moved from the first floor to an accessible room and the staff appeared to be making sure this happened.

The staff were without exception really friendly and helpful.

The food

We ate three square meals most days and found all the food fantastic. Highlights included the pancake stack at breakfast, the sticky toffee pudding served for dessert, and several of the small plates - particularly the coronation tempeh which was available as a sandwich at lunch or in a lettuce leaf as a small plate in the evening.

The food came out really fast, which was a surprise, and I can't emphasise enough how good it was. We saw some folk having the burgers and just boggled at that choice -- vegan burgers are ubiquitous at the moment, but how many places do a savoury suet pudding or a roasted beetroot & pearl barley bowl?

We also had a cream tea, which had seriously big scones, proper clotted cream, and a piece of each of the cakes sold at the bar, and was far too much for the two of us to eat in one sitting. The staff saw us struggling and gave us some boxes to take the leftovers away, which was really kind and proactive of them.

On arrival we had the Sunday roast. This is apparently quite in demand - when we booked it they advised us to come fairly early (I think we arrived around 2pm) and the place was pretty full. They had I think three options - a seitan "beef", chicken, and a Wellington. I had the seitan and enjoyed it, but found it fairly salty; everything else was wonderful.

The only meal I found a bit underwhelming was the tofu scramble at breakfast. Wasn't bad, but I've had better and given the very high standard of everything else it was a bit of a let down.

The drinks

I'm not much of a drinker, but they have a decent selection of wines, spirits, and cocktails. A highlight was the flight of three wines, I think all from the same vineyard, one red, one white, one rose. I think it was £12 or so for three 70 ml glasses which felt like a pretty good deal given that one 125 ml glass of each wine was £8 or so. The rose in particular was great - my partner enjoyed it and she isn't generally a fan of wine.

The location

Malham is gorgeous. It's easy enough to get to by car; I don't know about public transit. We came in from Lancashire so ended up driving over the moor in our rather crap car, which was an experience! But entering from the south is much easier (albeit busier; surprising number of lorries on those narrow roads).

There's not really much to do in the village, though there is a really cute tea room called The Old Barn which sells some local crafts and has a really friendly owner. Not much there for vegans beyond tea and coffee but still worth a visit.

The walking in the area is great for a range of abilities. We're both able-bodied but potato-shaped, not hardcore walkers. The path up to the famous Malham Cove is smooth and paved, and we saw wheelchair users heading up for the view. The climb to the top is I think 400-odd limestone steps, and we found it quite doable and well worth the trip. We also walked from there up to Malham Tarn, which was again worth the deviation from the standard circular route, but it did mean we were too tired to visit Gordale Scar on the way back.

Staff in the visitors' centre were really helpful.

Downsides

Only had a handful of small points of constructive criticism, but they're trivial and nothing that should put anyone off staying. A little more communication around things like how to check in and check out, and how breakfast works, would've been good. (We just sort of announced ourselves at the bar to check in, and hung around in the guest lounge to check out, not really feeling sure what we were meant to do. Likewise at breakfast I always felt like I'd snuck in and started helping myself to the buffet).

I wished the espresso machine had been on at breakfast, as only filter coffee and tea were available. I like a flat white so that was a shame. But breakfast was more than good enough to compensate. At some points in the day cakes were available in the bar, but these seemed to disappear mid-afternoon for no obvious reason.

My partner found a few inconvenient points in how the bedroom was laid out - a lack of bedside tables and handy power sockets - but we disagreed on this to be honest. It's an old building and it seemed to me they're pretty constrained in how the rooms can be furnished. I mention it since maybe other people will feel the same way she did. But these two points were literally the only things that could have been improved, and they're minor and petty as hell.

Photos:

• Sunday roast with seitan
• Our room (the blue room)
• Sticky toffee pudding
• The guest lounge
• Pancake stack
• Scones (part of the cream tea - I can't share my photo of the full service as my partner is in it)
• "Chicken" & "pancetta" suet pudding with celeriac stack
• Hotel exterior (the upper room is the bedroom we stayed in; the restaurant entrance is visible on the left)