'Beautiful' North East restaurant awarded three AA Rosettes - have you dined here?
The UK's top restaurants have been recognised in the highly anticipated AA Rosette Awards 2025, including a new addition in the North East.
Since 1956, the AA Rosette Awards have been awarded to leading restaurant and hotel venues across the UK.
The awards highlight the evolution of the UK's food scene, as 'boundary-pushing' chefs and pioneering restaurants set new standards in British and global cuisine.
Among the newly awarded, two restaurants have received four AA Rosettes, while 15 have been awarded three AA Rosettes.
You can see the full AA Rosette Awards for 2025 here.
Among the 15 new three AA Rosettes was Emerald Restaurant located at Matfen Hall, in Maften, Northumberland.
It featured alongside the likes of North Yorkshire establishments Chef's Table by Josh Barnes in Ripon and Fifty Two in Harrogate.
Earning three AA Rosettes elevates restaurants to a level of national acclaim, recognising their outstanding culinary excellence far beyond their local footprint, the awards explain.
The AA overview of Emerald Restaurant reads: 'Set in 300 acres, 17th-century Matfen Hall is an elegant, impressive place with a classy stately home vibe.
'The Emerald Restaurant is beautiful, with its amazing original carved wooden fireplace and overmantel, an astonishing ceiling, richly patterned wall hangings, and book-lined shelves.'
It adds: 'Begin perhaps with crisp coated sweetbread with a Roscoff onion sauce. This might be followed by textures of beetroot, set on top of puréed cod roe.
'A main course of beautifully timed venison, served with parsnip and plum, is first rate.
'Dessert might be forced Yorkshire rhubarb with yogurt and lovage, or perhaps the Tunworth banana bread – a creamy cheese parfait with a banana centre, topped and tailed with thin, crisp banana.'
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Simon Numphud FIH, managing director at AA Media commented: 'We're thrilled to celebrate the latest collection of outstanding restaurants.
'From innovative tasting menus to a renewed focus on provenance and seasonality, these establishments showcase the very best of what the British food scene has to offer.
'Huge congratulations to the remarkable chefs and front-of-house teams whose dedication have earned them this well-deserved recognition.'
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