In March 2024 Mr and Mrs Punter invaded York to experience the city’s history, attractions, hotels and food and drink scene. Here’s what the Savour Magazine writers got up to in the first 24 hours…
Yorks are much like Minis. The New Mini is big and shiny with electric windows and Bluetooth but most will agree that it is a not a patch on the original Mini for sheer class and iconic status. In the same way New York is big and shiny and it moves at a frantic pace but the original York just can’t be beaten.
York is the capital of the biggest county in England, and arguably the capital of the North, sorry Manchester and Leeds. People have settled there since 8,000BC and it was invaded by the Romans in 71AD and named as Eboracum. The Vikings invaded it in 866AD and renamed it Jorvik.
In March 2024 it was invaded by the Punters to sample what the Splendid Hospitality Group’s venues in the area could offer. As it turns out, Splendid by name and splendid by nature. We decided to leave the name alone.
Vespasian and Aethelred had to travel for days to get to York. The Punter’s, however, got there in just over an hour by car from Leeds and those living further afield can get there by train in under two hours from London and two and a half hours from Edinburgh. The historic train station sits just outside the City walls but as York is comparatively small, pretty much everywhere is within walking distance and it is thankfully free from steep hills.
Our base for day one was the Hotel Indigo which is in Walmgate, and just a short walk from the exact centre of York – but it may take you a while to get there as the road into the City centre has a mix of shops, delis, bars and restaurants.
The hotel itself offers decent opportunities to eat and drink at No.88 Walmgate with a range of local gins and craft ales where you can sample one of their rustic pizzas.
The hotel has a style which is comfortably on the quirky side without being over-cluttered and it feels curated rather than stylised for the sake of being different. A prime example is the coat hooks in the bar area which were made from bent cutlery, and we did wonder if a previous guest had been Uri Geller.
There are 103 individually designed rooms and the beds are large and fitted with local fabrics. The furniture is all designed and crafted in Yorkshire and was particularly of note for us was that this was the first hotel room we had ever been in which had a separate recycling bin. In a city with abundant shopping and eating opportunities, this was a very welcome addition.
As ever we arrived early, before check-in, but the staff were happy to let us drop our bags so that we could go out and explore. This was indicative of the excellent service that we received throughout our time there. No wonder that they have recently been featured in the Travel & Hospitality Awards 2024.
We were equipped with a Visit York Pass which allows free or discounted entry to the vast majority of the best tourist attractions in York. Passes in hand we sauntered down Walmgate and up one of the most famous streets in the world. The Shambles is one of the best-preserved medieval shopping streets in Europe with some of the shop fronts dating back 100s of years. It is said to have been the inspiration behind Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter books and films.
Our destination was the York Chocolate Story which is at the far end of The Shambles. After a great deal of dithering about what to buy in the Wonka-esque shop we went for a fully guided tour through 4000 years of chocolate. It featured the Incas through to the Rowntrees and beyond – including facts about the most successful chocolate bar in the world, the Kit-Kat which was developed as the “Chocolate Crisp” more than 80 years ago and is Time Magazine’s “Most Influential Confectionary Bar Of All Time”.
Chocaholics will be pleased to know that throughout the interactive tour there are plenty of free samples and the opportunity to make your own chocolate lolly and to ignore the instruction not to put too many toppings on. There is then a demonstration by a chocolatier and yet more chocolate to sample.
Laden with products of the cacao fruit we strolled around for a while, taking in the splendour of the nearby York Minster and take part in the game of “guess how many people are queuing to get into Betty’s”.
Passers-by may have been forgiven for thinking that Mrs Punter and I were entrants into the “Most Romantic Couple 2024” awards, such was the level of arms round waist and firm holding of hands which was going on. In reality, I was merely trying to stop Mrs Punter from charging headlong into every single one of the many and varied jewellery shops around and about the winding streets.
Eventually it was time to head back to the hotel to re-charge but not before sampling one of the seemingly infinite cocktails at Evil Eye on Stonegate and avoiding the urge to play “Shots Snakes & Ladders”. Not before dinner time anyway.
Back to the Indigo to freshen up, dump our accumulated chocolate hoard and ready ourselves to head back out to The Fat Badger on High Petergate. Did I say it was within easy walking distance? Of course it is, it’s in York so everywhere is within walking distance. It is one of the most loved venues within the City walls, and we literally mean “within” the City walls. It is packed full of charm with an array of nooks and crannies which echo The Shambles’ character. In addition to the beer garden, somewhat of a rarity in a City centre, it also has 12 ensuite rooms, each individually styled.
We were there to dine though and were comfortably seated in a cosy, dark panelled dining room with leather seating and hanging oil lamps. There was a pleasingly pared back menu with enough options to give choice but not so many as to offend the “less is more” rule.
I went for the Pig’s Head Croquette with a celeriac remoulade and burnt apple sauce. It was the Chicken Parfait with a bitter orange chutney and hazelnuts for Mrs Punter. My croquette was the second-best thing I ate during the whole trip (you will have to wait until the end of York Part II to find out what the best was). It was crispy and flavoursome with exactly the right level of peppery spice. Mrs Punter was equally pleased with her chicken parfait which was full of rich iron flavour as all good liver-based dishes should be.
Mains were a hearty size, some good crispy chips to go with my generously proportioned Badger Beef Burger which was succulent and oozing with Monterey Jack and a chipotle mayo. Mrs Punter’s Pea and Shallot Ravioli was her highlight and described as “delicious and very pea-ey” (OK, you find a better way to spell it). Mrs Punter trumped me on the chips front as she went for the truffled chips option which, annoyingly, weren’t shared.
Afters were a Dark Chocolate and Orange Cheesecake with a hazelnut and orange tuile and chocolate ice cream for her and I went for my go-to pud of sticky toffee pudding which had a deep and rich butterscotch sauce with an excellent salted caramel ice cream. Again, not too much sharing going on.
It wasn’t long before a day’s “Yorking” caught up with us and we laboured our way back to the hotel, often making the sort of noise that octogenarians make when getting out of a chair. We celebrated our successful return to Hotel Indigo with a couple of nightcaps and, almost out of habit, a couple of Baby Guinness’s.
Rested and refreshed we almost skipped down to breakfast the next morning to find an extensive continental offering waiting for us and a good selection of made-to-order cooked dishes. Fuel tanks fired up and ready we had to decide what the morning’s activity was going to be. It was a choice between two.
The Jorvik Centre is about as popular as it gets in York. It is a trip through the history of York from the Viking times with sights, sounds and even smells of the era. Oddly enough it came about by accident. Situated on Coppergate the old Craven’s Chocolate factory was demolished in the late 1970’s to make way for a new shopping area. It was during that demolition that the Viking remains were found leading to a change of tack and the Jorvik Centre opened in 1984 and since then has seen more than 20,000,000 visitors including both Punters and our offspring.
The alternative was York Dungeons which is located close to the York Castle Museum, Clifford’s Tower and the Hollywood-worthy York Crown Court. Imagine the horror section of Madame Tussaud’s but with history thrown in. And the dummies aren’t wax, they’re real people. And they scare you. A lot. That’s York Dungeon. I am a self-confessed coward and won’t watch anything scarier than Countryfile after 5pm so you can imagine my joy and delight when Mrs Punter opted for the Dungeons over the Vikings.
As it was, it was a brilliant choice. I spent almost the whole time laughing my head off as Mrs Punter screamed and shrieked her way round the sections, each of which told of a different era in York’s history and the various revolting things that happened. The crowning glory was the almost perforated eardrum I received at the appearance of Dick Turpin.
That brought to an end the first 24 of our 48 hours in York. There had been some great food, some fascinating history, some good laughs and quite a bit of screaming. We headed off to The Grand, York to start our next 24 hours hoping for more of the same. Except for the screaming obviously.
