‘World’s best restaurant’ is this English pub in the middle of nowhere
The chef of Black Swan thought it was a ’spoof’ when chosen for online travel site TripAdvisor’s award – but it is very good, writes chief food critic Richard Vines
If you had to describe a restaurant declared the best in the world, you might think of somewhere distinctly glamorous.
I’ve eaten at six establishments that have held that title. My travels have taken me to glorious locations, from a hillside villa overlooking the sea in Catalonia to the back streets of Modena, Italy.
If I’m honest, when someone told me, I thought it sounds like a bit of a spoof, someone pulling our leg or some sort of scam
I never expected to journey to a village pub deep in the countryside of northern England, reached by a narrow and winding road, where the first thing you see when you finally arrive is a group of locals enjoying a pint of beer on a bench outside.
The Black Swan at Oldstead scooped the title last week in the TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice Restaurants awards in the fine dining category. That is rather different and (let’s face it) much less prestigious than the title handed out annually by “The World’s 50 Best Restaurants” awards, closely watched in the restaurant industry.
Who would have thought that peas could taste like heaven?
In fact, it looks as if it may be almost life-changing for chef Tommy Banks and his family.
“If I’m honest, when someone told me, I thought it sounds like a bit of a spoof, someone pulling our leg or some sort of scam,” Banks said in an interview in the stone-paved bar, with a log fire, panelled walls and a blackboard listing cocktails.
“We never imagined quite how big it would become. Things just went crazy. The phone rang off the hook, and e-mails, e-mails, e-mails. We took 1,200 bookings in four hours, and that has filled us up for the rest of the year.
We never imagined quite how big it would become. Things just went crazy ... We took 1,200 bookings in four hours
“There were reporters outside when I came in the next morning to cook breakfast and we had TV trucks all day. We had 90,000 people on our website in one afternoon.”