Seasons at The Station, Richmond, North Yorkshire

This week’s post is something that I’ve been meaning to put up for a while now - and I always try to blog about things around the same time that they happen - but for various reasons this one slipped by the wayside for a little while.

When we were in Richmond for the Jubilee weekend (yes, it was THAT long ago), me, Mat’s sisters and his cousin went for a short walk around the town, ending at The Station.

The Station is a restored Victorian railway station that now boasts a two-screen cinema, an art gallery, a heritage centre, six local produce retailers (a bakery, a cheese-maker, a micro brewery, an ice-cream parlour, a fudge house and a honey maker), and ‘Seasons’ - a restaurant/café that was the main reason for our visit.

The menu at Seasons is – as the name suggests – seasonal, they use locally sourced ingredients wherever possible, and they have both a café and a separate restaurant area, depending on whether you’re there for a full meal or a light snack/coffee and cake, like we were.

I had a chocolate brownie, which was overall really good. For the most part it was gooey, very chocolatey, and the portion size was huge. My only negative was that the edge of the piece was a bit crispy and I prefer the whole thing to be squidgy. To be honest, though, the piece was so huge that I could have just cut off the end bit if I’d minded that much! (But we all know I’m never likely to do that…)

Meg had the ‘peanut chocolate stack’, which is basically a deconstructed Snickers bar. I know from personal experience that this is quite tasty, if a little rich for me considering the generous portion sizes. Meg really seemed to enjoy it, and I think it’s something that we’d both happily eat again.

I don’t actually know the official name given to Laura’s choice, as it had no name card, but it was essentially a blueberry sponge cake with vanilla frosting and a raspberry and some more blueberries on top. The sponge was light and fluffy and the blueberries added a nice fruity sweetness. The vanilla frosting was quite sweet but there was just the right amount of it and it was complemented well by the freshness of the fruit, so it wasn’t overpoweringly sweet at all. If I had to choose again, I think I’d go for this, and when Mat first saw the photo he seemed a bit jealous that he hadn’t been there to have a piece himself!

Mat’s cousin displayed much more restraint than the rest of us and had an impressive looking hot chocolate with cream and marshmallows, but no cake.  Although I’ve not had one myself, I’m assured that the hot chocolates there are always good, and as this one came with a generous sprinkling of marshmallows it almost made me feel better about her not having any kind of sweet treat to accompany it.

The Station is a very unique place in a town that I’ve grown very fond of over the last four years, and I think Seasons fits in there perfectly. We all enjoyed what we had during our latest visit (as we did each time we’ve been before) and I’m sure I’ll be back there again before too long.

As a bit of an aside, while I’ve visited The Station many times during the years that I’ve been coming to Richmond, I’ve not yet actually ventured into any of the little shops that I mentioned earlier. In the spirit of supporting local businesses and eating fresh and local, I think I’ll make it my mission to try each one by the end of the year (everything looks and smells delicious, so I can hardly go wrong there!).

You can visit The Station Website to find out more about this unusual building, and The Station’s Restaurant Page, the Seasons Bar & Kitchen Page, or The Station's Food Artisans Page to learn more about the food on offer.