The action moves into the main dining room after this, for a selection of more small bites – mini charcoal pies with roe deer and smoked caviar, and braised ox cheek in Yorkshire pudding batter. So far, so tasty. Then, BOOM, here comes the most amazing thing you may ever eat – a hand-dived scallop cooked in its own shell, in sea urchin butter. The smell is a mix of the sea and citrus. The taste is the same. Remarkable. It’s a huge beast of a scallop, but so soft.

Onward – a gorgeous little bowl of grilled peas, Scottish girolles and smoked eel; a big burst of flavour and texture. The monkfish course is small but wonderful, cooked over coals, with Isle of Wight tomatoes. Then a roast duck does a tour of the tables and comes back sliced up and served several ways across a couple of courses. It’s cleverly done and tastes good. But the scallop eclipses everything else. 

Mýse is obviously the best thing around for miles, but it’s a special occasion spot. It’s pure tasting menu territory (I was impressed by an inventive non-alcoholic pairing as well as two levels of wine pairing). You couldn’t eat here every week. Well, maybe you could – maybe that’s your low-level lottery-win fantasy. All in all, this is a very good place for dinner indeed. But it’s also accidentally a truly great bed and breakfast. One of the best in the country, perhaps.

Doubles from £280pp, including the evening tasting menu and breakfast. There are no accessible rooms. Mark C O’Flaherty travelled as a guest of LNER, which offers returns from London King’s Cross to York from £54.

Mýse, Main Street, Hovingham, York YO62 4LF