Moor Hall - Aughton
The dining room and kitchen are modern additions to the centuries-old building
Rating: 17/20
Where: Aughton, UK
When: Dinner for 2 on 14 March 2025
Cost per Person: Tasting menu £235, Wine Pairing £145-£295
Accolades: 3 Michelin Stars
Why: Cuisine that sources most ingredients locally; lovely cottages to stay onsite
“Moor Hall” is a restaurant that would require the proverbial “special journey”, whether it held three Michelin stars (as it does now) or not. It is located on the outskirts of Aughton, a small town about a 30 minute train ride north of Liverpool. Moor Hall is a historic site, with mentions going back to 1282. The main building of the complex dates to 1533 - I’m not sure if that makes it the oldest building housing a three Michelin starred restaurant, but it's probably up there. The current owners bought the building and surrounding grounds in 2015, and put it through a multi-million-pounds renovation project, adding an annex with a modern kitchen and dining room, and hiring chef Mark Birchall who had previously cooked at the not-yet-three-starred L'Enclume. In 2024, several small modern cottages were added to the property, allowing overnight stays for two people each. The rooms are not cheap (especially on the weekend, when they go for more than a dinner for two), but very comfortable, and come with a nice breakfast served at Moor Hall's one-starred sister restaurant.
Moor Hall serves a single tasting menu, and dietary restrictions are accommodated if they are communicated early enough. My wife even got printed versions of her pescatarian menus, not just for dinner, but also for our breakfast. Two wine pairings were offered, at £145 and £295, respectively, and I tried the lower-priced one. The wines were all quite unusual, mostly from producers that I'd never heard of before and with unique taste profiles and histories that our sommelier was more than happy to relate. Maybe not the kind of wines I'd necessarily drink without food, but they went well with their matched courses (with one exception). Note that the pairing started only with the eleventh (!) dish, so an aperitif might be a good idea to tide one over the preceding ten.
Our dinner at Moor Hall started in a lounge inside the historic building. In the winter, one might even sit in front of a blazing fireplace - alas, it was “too warm” for that during our visit in mid-March.
The first dish was a charcuterie plate, with house-made coppa, prosciutto and salami. Nice enough, but it might have been even better with some condiments, bread or cutlery 15. The pescatarian alternative was cured trout served with a chive emulsion and some crackers. This was more distinctive than the charcuterie, very savory with an almost firm, meaty consistency 18.
Next came a little black cracker pillow filled with black pudding and pickled gooseberries. Crunchy, light and a bit sour, it was a nice surprise - I had been slightly apprehensive after hearing “black pudding” 17. The pescatarian version was filled with mushrooms, thyme and a mushroom ketchup. Reportedly very nice, but I didn't get to try it.
A little tartlet cup was filled with white asparagus, chorizo (for meat eaters) and topped with crispy leeks. The cup was very crunchy and the most intense flavor here was of the sausage, in fact, the asparagus was hard to detect. A nice, rustic bite 18.
An English muffin was topped with a lobster seasoned with butter, garlic and citrus. Additionally, there were some pickled celeriac and pancetta. This was the first dish that was served warm, and it had a nice seafood flavor throughout. The muffin was suffused with a sauce, but maybe a tad on the bready side 17.
Our final bite in the lounge was a caviar course. Cod roe cream was topped with a chicken consommé jelly and kaluga caviar. On the side were some shortbread crackers meant for dipping. A salty dish that arguably tasted more of chicken than of caviar - with that caveat, though, it was pretty nice 17.
At this point, we were taken to the main dining room, via a brief stop in the kitchen. Here, we got an overview of the kitchen's layout, a couple of words with the chef, a display of the ingredients used in the upcoming dinner and another small bite. This one was smoked eel served with crispy potatoes, garlic and some edible flowers. I couldn't really taste the eel, making this dish feel more like a (very nice) potato cracker with sour cream 17.
Seated at our table, we were served a Mylor prawn covered with preserved raspberries, plums, radishes and crispy kombu. A very acidic dish that actually tasted more of fruit than of seafood 16.
An Irish oyster had been poached in buttermilk and was served with white beets, toasted quinoa, little cubes of lardo, dill oil and the buttermilk that the oyster had been cooked in. The dish was served warm and the oyster had a light flavor and a meaty texture. The beets were cooked as well, and there was some crunch from the quinoa and umami from the lardo. The sauce was fine, but more emphasis on the dill might have given this dish more flavor 17.
The bread for the evening was a small seeded sourdough that was accompanied by two toppings: a parsley-chive butter and a sour cream. The bread had a nice crunch but otherwise was pretty light in flavor, just like the two spreads - they could have used some more salt 15.
The next course was technically the “true beginning” of the tasting menu, as evidenced by the start of the wine pairing. Its main ingredients were baked Paris Market carrots - where “Paris Market” referred to a specific kind of carrot, and not their provenance. (Most ingredients at Moor Hall were sourced locally - ideally from the restaurant's own farm -, so going to Paris for carrots would have been a big no-no.) The carrots sat atop a cheese custard covered with chives, and came with a sea buckthorn dressing and a snow of Doddington cheese - a British cheese that is similar to Parmesan. Lots of different flavors here: some sweetness from the carrots, tartness and a touch of sweetness from the sea buckthorn, creaminess from the cheese - a winning combination. I just wish that the carrot flavor had been more pronounced 17.
Lots of ingredients went into the following dish. Brown and white Cornish crab, turnips, anise hyssop, Douglas fir, dehydrated turnips, kombu, a sunflower cream and a turnip broth. I can’t claim that I could taste all of these individual components, but the result was extremely flavorful, mostly thanks to the broth. The crab was nice enough, but its innate flavor was a bit lost among everything else. The turnip was cooked, but still had some bite left - very nice. There was a hint of sweetness, but overall this dish was mostly salty 18.
An 80-day-aged beef tartare came with beets, lovage, onion ash and mustard. The beef was tender and nicely flavorful, and the dish had a hint of sweetness 17. The pescatarian version replaced the beef with salt-baked bbq'ed beets and also added some horseradish. This beets had a lightly leathery texture, and the horseradish really livened the dish up. Sweet + savory = yum 18.
The next dish looked a bit busy. A langoustine was served with roasted green asparagus, truffled fermented grains, truffle slices over dollops of apple puree and a green tomato sauce. Let's run through the components. The langoustine was very well executed: sweet and lightly smoky. The asparagus was also very good, with a strong vegetable flavor. The green tomato sauce was flavorful and a bit acidic, but I wouldn't have guessed tomatoes as its main ingredient. I was less enamored by lightly sweet and earthy grains, a more pronounced truffle flavor would have been nice. The apples and truffles were also less than exciting. So in the end, there was a lot going on, some of it very good, but I didn't get what the “whole” was supposed to be 17. My wife loved this dish, though, so ymmv.
One more seafood course. Cornish turbot had been cooked in brown butter, and was served with violet artichokes, pears, and a sauce made with mussels and fish roe. The turbot was cooked with a firm texture, and went great with the amazingly flavorful sauce that tasted of seafood, caviar and butter. The marinated artichokes had a good flavor as well, and the pear was fresh, crunchy and - interestingly - not that sweet. I'm not sure whether the artichoke and pear were really necessary for this dish, but the rest was amazing 18.
The last savory dish of the night was based on a ten-day-aged guinea hen. But before we were served this main course, we were given a kind of preview. A small bowl contained guinea hen offal, crispy leg meat, a whey foam and a salsa verde. This was probably the heaviest dish of the entire tasting menu. The offal was very earthy and heavy, with a hint of sweetness. I couldn't really taste the salsa verde at all. Admittedly, I would have preferred a slightly lighter preparation here 15. The pescatarian version replaced the meat by Cornish monkfish. The fish was hard to taste, it just provided texture, but the rest of the dish was lovely: salty, grainy, acidic and much lighter than the meat version. Not fancy maybe, but tasty 17.
The main dish contained a roasted and carved breast of guinea hen, roasted white asparagus, morels filled with an herb cream, and a hen foam and sauce. On the side were an onion roll and a chicken liver pâté topped with truffle honey. The hen came in two parts: one from the center of the breast, and one from closer to the skin. The inner part was more tender, while the outer one was a bit mealy, with a flavor closer to a rotisserie chicken. The morels were quite nice as well 16.
The crunchy roll only had a light onion flavor, but it went nicely with the liver pâté that was lightened up by the honey on top 17. The pescatarian dish kept all the sides such as asparagus and morels, but replaced the hen by a monkfish filet that had been cooked in butter and then bbq'ed - very nicely done. It came with an acidic sauce that complemented it well 17.
An optional cheese course (£32 for two) consisted solely of British and Irish cheeses. We were able to select the cheeses in a “cheese room” that was adjacent to the dining room. The course came with marinated red onions, a quince paste and three different kinds of breads and crackers. The cheeses we tried were decent, the blues in particular were pretty good, but this was a far cry from what one might get at a three-starred restaurant in France. I liked that our sommelier adapted his selection of wine (not part of the pairing) based on the actual cheeses on our plate.
The first sweet course was inspired by the gingerbread that has been made in nearby Ormskirk for centuries. We received a gingerbread ice cream that covered candied root vegetables and macerated pines. The ice cream was very, very gingery. That had the interesting effect of making the candied root vegetables feel like candied ginger. A very focused and intense dessert 18.
Lightly poached rhubarb was paired with milk ice cream, meringues, blood oranges, some nuts and sweet cicely. The acidic, tart rhubarb was a nice match for the creamy, sweet ice cream 18. This was the only dish where I thought that the paired wine (a 2013 Dönnhoff Riesling Spätlese) was not a good match - it was a bit too dry for the sweet dish.
Baked apples came with a blackberry sorbet and were seasoned with muscovado sugar, birch sap, woodruff and oxalis. The apples and the acidic sorbet balanced each other well. A wintry dessert that thankfully was not too heavy 17.
For the remaining few bites, we were escorted back to the lounge. The next dish was a blackcurrant sorbet that came with cream, toasted buckwheat and honey. A nice combination of sweetness, crunchiness, creaminess, acidity and fruitiness 17.
Finally, we got seven petit fours to choose from. Only one of them was a required pick: a Parkin tart (a traditional ginger cake) filled with squash and lime zest. A warm, sticky, crumbly treat 16. We also tried the other six options. A white chocolate/sunflower seed brittle was caramelly, buttery and crunchy. A nice example of brittle 16. Chocolate/caramel shortbread was a crumbly, crunchy bite that oddly didn't taste too much of either chocolate or caramel 15. A chocolate/pear macaroon had a good sticky texture, but the pear was more of an aftertaste 15. A whey fudge bonbon was caramelly and soft 15. A green rosemary chocolate praline had a surprisingly liquid filling, but only an aftertaste of rosemary 14. What looked like a little roll was a blackberry/elderflower pate de fruit. Pretty, but also fruity and sweet 15. A rum/raisin ganache didn't contain any whole raisins, but was chocolaty with a noticeable rum flavor 14.
Overall: There was much to like about our dinner at Moor Hall. Good service, a modern ambiance, and a sense of place - the ingredients were mostly sourced locally, but also came from further afield when it benefited the resulting dishes. My favorite courses were the ones that had a singular focus, for example the very intense turnip broth, or the extremely gingery dessert - these were truly impressive. Others balanced lots of different components, which in the best case meant that the dishes were tasty, but didn’t feel especially product-driven, and in the worst case led to plates that looked too busy. All in all, then, this was a very enjoyable dinner, albeit with some upward potential 17.
