Review: First In: The Abbey Inn, Yorkshire

Why book?

Well, it’s a helluva lot easier to bag a table here than at The Black Swan – Tommy Banks’ Michelin-starred restaurant down the road in Oldstead – down the road. So The Abbey Inn, run by the same family, is a brilliant chance to experience the chef’s farm-to-fork experience without forking out for a tasting menu. It’s also a good excuse to explore a beautifully mellow part of the North York Moors, with its spooky ruined abbeys, country ambles and small villages to rootle around in.

Set the scene

They’re getting ready for race day in Thirsk as my train pulls in – glad rags on, suits tight at the seams, pubs likewise, the lines of a Larkin poem floating in the air – but over in the little village of Byland there’s just the sound of the sheep and the occasional Lycra blur of a cyclist. Over the road from the inn is its namesake, a monumental gothic monastery that’s been gently crumbling since the 16th century; the half-moon of its impressive rose window still visible, glazed now just by sky – arrives at night, and the monastery acts as a beacon, walls glowing like a Halloween pumpkin. But if you arrive by day, then walk through the abbey entrance first and into the grounds then turn around so the inn is framed by the stone arches – it’s a wonderful sight. A former farmhouse, this is a Yorkshire pub, not a soft southern milksop of a boozer, albeit a Yorkshire pub that serves cortados. You can stomp in wearing hobnailed boots with your labrador and order a pint of Black Sheep at the bar; or trip in daintily and ask for a glass of cremant. Spruce tips and wild garlic sit in jars on the shelves, a unicorn gallops across a tapestry on one wall, and there’s a wood-burning stove to gather around. It’s all very cosy.

The backstory

Tommy Banks always wanted to be a cricketer, but he ended up hitting sixes in the kitchen instead, learning his craft through stages at Le Quat’Saisons (one of the UK's best hotel restaurants) and other spots before taking over the kitchen at The Black Swan at Oldstead, which his farming family had bought in 2006. He was the youngest chef in Britain to retain a Michelin star (aged 26), has won Great British Menu three times, and nailed York’s first Michelin star with his second restaurant, Roots. In some ways, he’s the Rick Stein or Simon Rogan of North Yorkshire, turning his love for food into a cottage industry – using ingredients grown and reared on the Banks’ 160-acre farm, developing a Made in Oldstead food box service and even launching a Banks Brothers canned wine range. Tommy had his eye on the Abbey Inn before The Black Swan opened – as a young whippersnapper, he washed pots here – but it was bought by English Heritage, which ran a tea shop for visitors to the monastery. Now former Roots and Black Swan chef Charlie Smith heads up the kitchen, although Tommy often pops in for lunch.

The rooms

I love a view of a ruined abbey at night and one of my favouritest ever places to stay is Llanthony Priory in Brecon, where you scamper up a turreted tower and gaze out over the shadows from a mullioned window and shiver a little… but I think I’ve found a new favourite Gothic bedroom (look, Whitby’s not far from here and everyone knows who arrived there in 1897). So make sure to book one of the two rooms with abbey views: I had Abbey Lynn with its wood-panelled four-poster and copper bed-warming pan (on the wall), but its neighbour was also lovely – no four-poster but double-aspect windows. All rooms have thick timber beams, frame prints of local photography, leather sofas and spacious bathrooms with standalone tubs and walk-in showers, along with tables on which to unpack the breakfast hamper.

Food and drink

Ah, some of the best I’ve had this year. Unlike the Black Swan, there isn’t a tasting menu and you can order a burger, but the Tommy Banks ethos runs right through this – he talks about food metres rather than miles, so as many ingredients as possible are sourced from the farm (home to rescue chickens and an advocate of regenerative farming), and hardly anything is wasted. The signature burger, weighing in at £21, is a Tudor king of a burger, a hunk of Dexter beef layered with cheese and bacon and chicory-root jam, escorted by beef-fat fries. But that will leave you in need of a sedan chair. Better to try as many things as you can, from the glazed chipolatas and mouth-sized pies, made from the farm’s rare-breed pork to seared mackerel with a buttery puddle of elderflower Hollandaise and mains of hogget rump with fermented turnip, or halibut in a soup of whey. They’re all very pretty – a lamb rib is almost dessert-like, peppered with rainbow carrots, the hogget strewn with courgette ribbons and flowers – and show off Tommy’s circular dining approach, with foragers’ butter flavoured with sweet cicely and nettles from the fields, a mackerel sauce made from umeboshi strawberries (green strawberries hot pickled), and surplus crops making fermented carrot puree, while another jam was made from Japanese knotweed picked from Newburgh Priory Estate (where Tommy plays cricket).

At the bar you can grab a draught pint of the brilliantly named Turning Point Disco King, from Knaresborough, and the drinks list includes a lot of interesting wines such as a German sauvignon blanc from Pfalz and a smoky Mexican petite sirah from Baja. But it’s also a treasure trove of homemade and curated concoctions, from gooseberry and lavender iced tea and sweet vermouth, cocktails such as a barrel-aged Damson Metropolitan with a dash of hogweed, and a light rhubarb negroni with just vermouth and lavender in the mix. While we’re on the subject, I’ll have another of those very moreish Black Swan rhubarb schnapps, please.

For breakfast, a hamper is delivered to your door at a time of your choosing; it’s a very Blyton-esque hamper with goodies including Oldstead eggs and charcuterie, mead-and-seed sourdough, spruce-and-verbena smoked salmon and rhubarb compote. You set out the napkins and crockery neatly on your little window side table and then slowly graze while looking at the Abbey.

The service

Grace Hynes, who runs front of house, is as bright as a button and effortlessly informative about what arrives on your plate. Plenty of the young staff are from roundabouts and can share their knowledge.

The area

All those 18th-century aristos who dallied around Europe on their Grand Tours were missing a trick: this part of North Yorkshire has a surfeit of romantically ruined abbeys to sketch, moon around in and compose stanzas about. You can’t miss Byland Abbey (neither did the Reformation, hence its current appearance), of course: try and join one of the free and very informative tours run by English Heritage, telling the story of England’s most ambitious Cistercian abbey – its rose window inspired that of York Minster and there are surviving sections of beautiful, mosaic-tiled floor from the 13th century. Rievaulx Abbey is just a few miles away. Just a mile and a half down a country lane is Oldstead and the Black Swan, but ask about the circular walking route that Tommy’s dad drew. Foodies may want to extend their trip to The Star Inn at Harome, and the towns of Thirsk and Helmsley are nearby; a little further is the Yorkshire Sculpture Park near Wakefield.

Anything else to mention?

It’s possible to stay two nights and combine a dinner here with one at the Black Swan at Oldstead. Ask Grace about the unusual stone faces set into the wall in one of the dining rooms, which were carved by a pub regular after returning from World War I to commemorate fallen friends.

From £375 for a double including breakfast hamper and £100 towards dinner.