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Pignut & The Hare restaurant at Scawton in Good Food Guide
The couple who run The Pignut & The Hare in Scawton near Helmsley, Tom and Laurissa Heywood met at the former Rattle Owl restaurant in Micklegate in York – where Laurissa was restaurant manager and Tom head chef.
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Now their restaurant has received a ‘very good’ overall rating in the guide, just six months after opening. The rating marks a high level of ambition and individuality and restaurants with this rating are considered among the best places to eat in a county or region.
The nationally recognised dining guide described the restaurant as “a dazzling culinary adventure in a remote Yorkshire inn”, and gave exceptional scores for both uniqueness and deliciousness, alongside very strong ratings for warmth and strength of recommendation. The review firmly positions the restaurant as one of the most exciting dining destinations in the region, praised for its originality, technical confidence and sense of place.
In the couple moved their previous restaurant, Pignut, from Helmsley in August last year and opened at the renowned Hare at Scawton under a new name, Pignut and The Hare.
Tom and Laurissa said: “We’re incredibly proud to receive a ‘very good’ rating from the Good Food Guide, especially after only six months of being open. To have our work recognised at this level so early on in our new location means a huge amount to us and the whole team.
“Moving was a leap of faith, but this review reassures us that we’ve found the right home for what we do. We’re passionate about cooking with the seasons and creating an experience that feels both special and welcoming – and we’re excited to keep building on that.”
The building was formerly a village pub and later operated as a tasting-menu restaurant with rooms before being taken over by Tom and Laurissa in summer 2025.
Following the change of ownership, the Heywoods carried out a light refurbishment, creating what the Guide describes as a calm, contemporary dining space using muted and neutral tones. Pignut & the Hare now operates as a tasting-menu restaurant with rooms, offering a two-tier menu priced at £65 for the half tasting menu and £110 for the full tasting menu, with optional organic and biodynamic wine pairings.
Dishes singled out in the review include trout tartare with fig-leaf emulsion, pork belly cooked over a Konro grill with a sweet cicely-infused barbecue sauce, and a dish of brown butter hollandaise with glazed lion’s mane mushroom. Later courses feature lamb, mussels, hake and venison.
Desserts received particular acclaim, with an “outstanding” penny bun and lion’s mane mushroom ice cream topped with mushroom and coffee crumb, followed by a playful final course, ‘Nan’s cake tin’ — a nostalgic reference to Tom’s childhood, served as a retro tin filled with miniature butterfly buns.
The Good Food Guide also commends the front-of-house team, led by Laurissa, for creating “a warmth and informality that’s sometimes absent from high-end dining.”
The guide concluded that, in this quiet corner of North Yorkshire, the Heywoods have found “the perfect home for Tom’s considerable talent”, firmly establishing Pignut & the Hare as a standout destination for modern British dining.
