By William Coleman
A couple of weeks ago I tried my hand at a spot of winter touring at the Caravan and Motorhome Club site in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire. While I was there I took full advantage of The Club’s new restaurant concept The Wanderer Bar And Kitchen.
The Knaresborough Site
The Knaresborough site has changed recently following a £1m redevelopment late last year. A number of additions and adjustments were made to make your stay more comfortable and convenient. The entrance to the site was changed to make access to the site a lot easier as well as upgrades to the service points throughout the site.
There are 79 pitches available at the site, 12 or which are fully serviced. The site was at about 95% capacity, which proves the point that the public are doing a lot more touring during the winter months. The site has all the things you’d expect from a Caravan and Motorhome Club site, clean large pitches, nice quiet surroundings and staff on duty making sure the site stays clean and well kept.
The renovation also saw the addition of a new shower/toilet block. During my 3 day stay the blocks were always spotless and well stocked with soap and toilet roll. The showers get warm very quickly, something very important when the temperature was around -1 outside, and the pressure was spot on.
There is so much to do and see in Knaresborough so you will never be short on days out. The historic town of Knaresborough features the equally historic Knaresborough Market which is within walking distance from the site. The market takes place on a Wednesday so put than into your weekly plans when visiting. When you are in town you need to make sure you visit the Knaresborough castle ruins and be sure you take your camera with you.
If you want to tour in the winter, spring or summer the Knaresborough site is ideal. The site is spotless and the surrounding area is full of things to do and see. Also the new addition of the The Wanderer Bar and Kitchen certainly makes it a stand out Caravan and Motorhome Club site.
The Wanderer Bar and Kitchen
I have covered The Wanderer Bar and Kitchen a couple of times before, firstly when it was opened following the redevelopment and secondly when I met the team behind the restaurant. Now I get to give you a first had review of the food, the place and the people.
The first thing that stood out to me was just how welcoming the staff are. When dining out for the evening poor service can ruin a good meal, so no worries on that front. The waitress took her time going over the weekly specials and what else they had on offer.
Once we were seated it came time to choose a drink to open up the meal. The drinks menu is quite large with a wide range of each beverage. If you like gin or want a nice whiskey to warm you up then you are in the right place. The wine menu is also extremely impressive so be sure to take some time have a browse.
The main selling point for meis that the Wanderer makes sure that they source most of their food locally. All their fruit, veg, meat and fish is all sourced within a certain mile radius of the restaurant, depending on the season and availability. It is so important to buy local and support small independant farms and other produce companies. As well as supporting the economy it also makes for fresh tasting food.
For a starter we shared a Plank Platter which was almost too much for me and my better half. Although I stayed determined and managed to get through all the cheese, meats, olives and pickled veg.
Once the main course came I was almost too full to carry on. As soon as that perfectly cooked 10oz rib eye steak appeared my appetite came back with a vengeance. You could really taste how fresh the meat was and it was genuinely cooked to perfection. The homemade fries must have been made from about 2 whole potatoes and were so nice that I ate all mine and had a couple that were left over on the partners plate.
At this point I was far too full up to even entertain the idea of pudding, which is a shame as I had my eye on pretty much the whole dessert menu.
The next day we decided to have lunch at The Wanderer, as they were kind enough to open early for us as we were going to be doing some filming and photography of the site. I had my eyes set on the Wanderer Burger. This burger really has to be seen to be believed, it even defeated our cameraman! With three large homemade onions rings on top of a massive beef patty it was almost too large, thankfully I have an abnormal appetite.
I was able to topple the burger but had to leave the very generous portion of chips, as I was dead set on having something sweet. Once the main was done I dived into my panna cotta that came with fruit compote and an amazing shortbread biscuit.
So overall the whole experience at the Wanderer was great. I got to speak to the head chef about the food and the whole process from field to fork. The food portions and generous and all freshly prepared and cooked on site.
