A cosy pub dating back to the 1800s, with an outlook over the iconic ruins of Byland Abbey, which itself dates back to the 1100s, and Michelin star food – what’s not to love?!
My parents gifted us a voucher for this local pub for Ben’s birthday last year and we got the chance to use this summer while the kids were with grandparents. With it being run by a Michelin chef, we’d assumed this eatery, which was once a pretty standard local pub near us, wouldn’t be child friendly, however we saw a few children there enjoying meals, including a little girl at the table next to us who was around Archie’s age. They seemed more than welcome there and the menu catered for them too, so I think in future we’ll have to take ours too – although it was nice to have a child free date!
As I’ve alluded to, this pub is pretty close to home for us – so close in fact that we managed to sneak out on a lunchbreak there in September again to celebrate my birthday (there’s a spoiler for how this review is going to go, considering we’ve already been back!), and were back within the hour! So with the proximity, we do have some history with the location. We ate at this pub when it was just a proper pub, then when it closed for a while, my uncle hired it as a wedding venue, and later on, it reopened but with more of a cafe vibe, and I took the kids there for lunch while we explored Byland Abbey which is right across the road.
Speaking of which, take a look at the view!
So we’re pretty familiar with the location and the pub interior! Much of the interior is the same as it’s always been, with exposed stone walls, worn down stone floors and fireplaces in every room. It’s gorgeously cosy and surprisingly sprawling inside with a couple of smaller dining rooms and one larger more airy one.
Since we had a generous voucher to cover our meal, we decided to go all out with all the courses and some nice drinks too. While this pub is owned by Michelin chef Tommy Banks, this location doesn’t have a Michelin star or the tasting menu that the Black Swan at Oldstead just a few miles down the road has – you can see my review of this pub here. Instead, it has a normal menu where you can choose from starters, mains and desserts, but most of these have a slight twist to make them just a tiny bit more interesting than the standard pub meal. The big USP of the Abbey Inn is their local connection with a seasonal menu composed of carefully curated ingredients sourced from their own nearby family farm and gardens.
First up, drinks – I like to choose an interesting non-alcoholic option where I can as I’m not really a drinker, but I enjoy tasty drinks! Fortunately they had a lovely selection of drinks which weren’t just your usual lemonade and coke, including gooseberry and lavender iced tea, rhubarb and verbena tonic, a shrub and a choice of seasonal cordials. I started with a rhubarb cordial, which came with a sprig of thyme – seems a bit odd, but it was a lovely touch that actually worked very well! You couldn’t necessarily taste it, but the aroma added a savoury element to the sweet rhubarb.
Later in the meal, I decided to try the strawberry shrub. We’d recently come across shrubs and tried making our own blood orange one at home – we weren’t sure how successful it was as it turned out very vinegary! This one was less vinegary than ours, but still had that distinct tang. It was nice but I probably wouldn’t choose it off the menu again – just personal preference.
Ben chose an IPA from a local micro brewery based in Knaresborough called Turning Point Brew Company. The Verbalist is a light and refreshing lemon verbena beer – a very interesting choice! He enjoyed this and I think would have had another, but we had plenty of food to get through!
To start, I chose a Heritage Tomato Salad – this was so good! I can never resist when there’s a caprese salad or version of one on a menu, and this didn’t disappoint. It was served with seeded sourdough “croutons” which were flat and almost cracker like rather than the usual cube ones. The tomatoes were flavourful and the mozzarella was beautifully creamy, and the basil leaves that topped it were small and peppery. Due to the seasonality of the menu, this was the perfect time of year for this dish for the tomatoes to be beautifully ripe, but unfortunately it meant it wasn’t on the menu when we returned in September!
Ben chose the Spiced Herdwick Sausage which was served with pickled cucumber and lemon verbena yoghurt (a good match for his drink!) and served on a flatbread. He tells me that it was delicious! We asked our server about the origins of the sausage – the Herdwick sheep are Tommy Banks’ own family herd on their local farm (you can see them here) and had been developed into sausages by R and J Butchers which is why they seemed familiar to us – this is the Yorkshire butchers that Thomas the Baker (my family business) uses!
Onto the main event, well the main courses at least (spoiler: I think the dessert was my main event!). I chose the Rare Breed Pork Schnitzel and Ben chose a Hogget dish from the specials, but we shared the dishes between us. The schnitzel was served with a fermented celeriac remoulade which was delicious – it was tangy and sharp which cut through the richer meat perfectly. You also can’t beat proper chips! The hogget was the star of the show though – hogget is older lamb meat which means it often has a punchier flavour than lamb but is more tender than mutton, the perfect in between! This one was cooked beautifully, I would 100% order it again!
And like I said, we went all out for this meal and had desserts too! I was torn between getting a “proper” dessert or trying their own soft serve ice cream – I was worried this would seem like a childish option if that makes sense, despite the flavours being adventurous! In the end, we decided that splitting desserts would appease me!
I chose the Lovage and Applemint Brownie Sundae – this is described as a homemade soft serve with toasted hay and locally foraged ingredients, so it’s a lot more grown up than it sounds, I promise. And oh my goodness, this was amazing – I’m so glad I chose it! The applemint was a mild minty flavour injected with little bursts of chocolate (I think it was mousse), small but rich dark chocolate Brownie chunks, and little minty bites – the only way I can describe these is like mint Aero! It was served in a frosty freezing glass. Honestly, I dream about this now.
Ben chose a tarte tatin which was also excellent, however I was too busy devouring my sundae to pay it too much heed – sorry! It was rich, caramelised and sweet but served with a creme fraiche and damson brandy to cut through it.
So I guess the only way to end this review is to let you know if we would go back, but as I’ve already spoiled that – absolutely, yes we would and we have! We’re now planning to take family there for birthday treats too. The menu is more expensive than a regular pub, but not hugely expensive. For me, it falls into the realm of “special birthday meal” where you would spend more than just a quick bite at the pub, but you don’t need to turn up too fancy and expect a tasting menu.
If you’re interested in visiting, you can view some sample menus and find out more about the Abbey Inn at Byland here. Cheers!
