The Sportsman's Arms is a privately owned & run, albeit slightly quirky "Yorkshire" country hotel, and this comes through, not being your twee chain hotel norm, which for us was part of the enjoyment & attraction.

We spent a grown up family weekend at the hotel starting 7th Oct to celebrate my 60th Birthday. The Hotel and Staff went out of their way to be helpful & accommodating with a very friendly and genuine manner, making the weekend very relaxing, and a great success.

The private dining room was appreciated, allowing us to chat & share the Celebration, but not to disturb other guests. Despite comments in an ealier review for the same night, our food on the 7th was excellent and of a very high standard across the whole menu, as indeed it was for the whole weekend, including Breakfast, seconded by the Professonal Chef in the party!

The limited Breakfast time "window" I can imagine would not be to everyone's liking, and a degreee more flexibility round this would I sure be appreciated by guests.

Location is stunning, being virtually on the Nidderdale Way, and nearby Pately Bridge has some very enticing shops, not least being a Old World sweet shop!!

A great peaceful place to get away from it all & just relax!!

Attended the restaurant on Friday 7th October after deciding to visit based on the reviews here on Trip Advisor. Booked at the very last minute and arrived literally half an hour after booking. The hotel is very impressive from the outside and situated in beautiful surroundings. Inside a small but cosy bar area awaits with real fires to keep you warm on a cold & damp Yorkshire evening. My wife and I decided when we booked to eat at the restaurant not at the bar area but when we saw that the place was very quiet we decided to eat in the bar with a few others - Note that the restaurant and bar have slightly different menus and prices to reflect were you are eating.
For my starter I chose a home cured Gravlax with quail egg mustard mayo and rocket salad and the wife had moules mariniere. The courses arrived with a nice selection of bread & butter. Firstly to be very, very critical the mussels were finished in cream which takes them from moules mariniere actually to moules a la creme. However they were a decent sized potion and the wife finished them off saying that they were very nice. The gravlax was a great disappointment. Three incredibly thin slices of salmon with very little flavour and a very overpowering mustard mayo that dominated the whole dish at £8.80 I felt short changed.
Mains - I went for the local crumbed pork loin with a haggis & black pudding mash and devilled sauce the better half chose locally shot partridge with bacon & mushrooms. The courses arrived and what a disappointment. The partridge which according to the restaurants webpage says that it specializes in game was the driest overcooked bird you could imagine. The sauce that accompanied it tasted like they had dropped a whole load of pepper in it and then burnt it. As we had been walking all day we ate the food but left some to point out to the chef that we were not happy. The pork too which should be cooked slightly under was, way way over cooked and tough. If anyone knows about game birds they should be aware the partridge should be left slightly under with a little pink flesh.
I pointed this out to the staff who came back from the kitchen saying that the chef says that game should be well cooked. My suggestion is that the owner either gets rid of the chef or buys them a game cookbook for Christmas as they should know right from wrong. Dessert we left as we did not trust the chef to get it right. The staff there although a little under knowledgable about the food cooked here were polite and attentive. The restaurant did take off the partridge from our final bill but the chef should have known better. A massive disappointment to a meal we had looked forward to so much. One out of 5 only for the nice staff I'm afraid !!!

Reception or lack of it is unprofessional. Bedroom 4 is ordinary and cramped (tub chair and luggage rack crammed into an unusable corner), The bathroom is good EXCEPT it was spoilt by cracked basin and window. Not worth £120 a night.

Dinner was not cheap but at least the food was EXCEPT it is taking the mickey to charge £8.00 for what are basic desserts and £20 for Picpoul de Pinet. Service was excellent.

Breakfast was good EXCEPT for the supermarket 'value' sausages that were barely cooked and barely reheated from being kept in the fridge. Service good.

In this day and age it is INEXCUSABLE to state that breakfast is served "between 9:00 and 9:30". What is this place - a pantomime Blackpool guest house?

lovely location ideal for walkers.we were put in an outside annexe ,a barn conversion with a large window overlooking fields and woods fantastically good for a quiet night,which was just as well because the hotel seemed to be extremely quiet after about 8.30pm when the diners had left,there was no impression of it being a local bar and we had no alternative but an early night.service seemed quite good overall but the food was only served for one hour on sunday night which seemed strange as we noticed several cars arriving after 8.00pm which drove off again upon being told service was over. overall though it is a peaceful location and the room was spotless ,we would go back because its such a nice area