World’s best restaurant revealed ... it’s a family run pub in Yorkshire!
‘Michelin star aged 24’
HOUSED in an historic drovers’ inn perched on the edge of North York Moors, The Black Swan is a quintessentially English pub.
But it can also compete on the world stage – as the family-run establishment tucked away in a tiny village has been named the best restaurant in the world.
However, if you come expecting bangers and mash and a pint, you may be disappointed. Instead, the pub grub on offer includes the more refined turbot with strawberries and cream, which you can wash down with a £550 bottle of wine.
The Black Swan, in the pretty Yorkshire village of Oldstead, near Thirsk, is the first British restaurant to have claimed the top spot at the TripAdvisor Traveller’s Choice awards.
The Michelin-starred gastropub saw off competition from the likes of Heston Blumenthal and Raymond Blanc.
Head chef Tommy Banks, 28, opened the restaurant with his brother James, 29, in 2006 when they were just 17 and 18 years old. He had gained just a week’s experience at Raymond Blanc’s Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons – which came second in yesterday’s poll.
Despite having no formal training, Tommy was awarded his first Michelin star aged 24.
He is the youngest person to hold the accolade in Britain, and The Black Swan is one of a handful of restaurants to be awarded four AA rosettes.
Diners pay £95 a head for an 11-course tasting menu, which changes daily, while paired drinks cost an extra £60.
A sample menu includes the dishes strawberries and hay, crapaudine beetroot cooked in beef fat, followed by cake made from chicory root and blackcurrant.
Bottles of beer from local microbreweries in Leeds, York and Huddersfield start at £5.
While the cheapest glass of wine costs £6, the most expensive bottle on the menu, a BonnesMares Grand Cru Comte Georges de Vogue 2007, will set you back £550.
The Black Swan also boasts rooms for weary diners to stay in, starting from £330 a night.
Running the establishment is a true family affair. The Banks grow almost all their vegetables used in The Black Swan in a garden at the back of the restaurant. While Tommy has been the head chef since 2013, his older brother James runs front-of-house.
Parents Tom and Anne reared Aberdeen Angus cattle before moving to arable farming.
The food comes from local sources, and even the restaurant’s plates and bowls are made to order by a ceramicist in York.
Originally an aspiring cricketer, he had never thought about being a chef and was told by his father, ‘well, you’ll just have to cook’, when he struggled to recruit kitchen staff.
Speaking in July, he said: ‘We had no idea what we were doing, and would just invite our mates round to get drunk.’
Despite struggling with ulcerative colitis and undergoing three operations in nine months when the restaurant first started, Tommy was determined that The Black Swan should do well.
And the pub’s success has been matched with Tommy’s triumphs on BBC2’s Great British Menu, a cooking competition for professional chefs.
Appearing in 2016 and 2017, he won the right to cook the fish course at banquets in the House of Commons and Wimbledon.
In 2016, he served a pickled mackerel ‘ kebab’, with mackerel tartar, as well as blow- torched, cured and smoked mackerel with mushroom and sea veg broth, served with woodruff beer.
The TripAdvisor award, launched in 2012, is based on thousands of customer reviews left on the travel website over the past year. Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck in Bray, Berkshire, came 12th while Raymond Blanc’s Le Manoir came second.
Two French restaurants featured in the top five: Maison Lameloise in Chagny, and L’Auberge de L’Ill in Illhaeusern. Restaurants in New York City, South Africa, Thailand and Peru featured in the top ten.
Tommy, who regularly works 16hour days at the restaurant, said: ‘We are so happy with the news and would like to thank all of the TripAdvisor users who have rated their experience with us so highly, and recognised the hard work each member of the team puts into every element of running The Black Swan.’