Yorkshire pub named world’s best restaurant
The Black Swan in Oldstead offers home-grown seasonal British fare

North Yorkshire pub The Black Swan has been named the best restaurant in the world in a TripAdvisor poll based on millions of customer reviews.
The family-run inn, located in the tiny village of Oldstead, beat out the likes of Heston Blumenthal and Raymond Blanc to top the site’s Travellers' Choice Favourite Fine Dining Restaurants Worldwide poll.
Local farmers Tom and Anne Banks bought the Black Swan in 2006 and set about revamping the dilapidated boozer with the help of sons James and Tommy.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The pub’s kitchen is the domain of younger son Tommy, the youngest ever chef to receive a coveted Michelin star and a familiar to TV audiences as a contestant on last year’s series of Great British Menu.
Remarkably, Banks, 28, has no formal training and started out in the kitchen as a teenager simply to help the family business.
“My dad said, ‘Well you’ll just have to cook’,” Banks told the Daily Telegraph.
After heading to London to hone his skills with unpaid placements alongside some of the capital’s top chefs, he took over as head chef in 2013.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
The Black Swan won its Michelin star in 2011 with classic French cooking, but when Banks took over he decided to stay close to his roots, developing a menu of seasonal British fare, using ingredients grown in the pub’s own vegetable garden.
The gamble paid off. The Black Swan has retained its Michelin star for the sixth year in a row, while the latest honour proves that Banks’ menu is a hit with customers, too.
Banks told the Yorkshire Post that tougher financial times following the 2008 crash paradoxically helped turn the Black Swan into an upmarket foodie destination.
“We are sort of in the middle of nowhere, so people would not travel here for a two-for-one steak meal,” he said. “We had a choice to make: we would have to go cheap or hit the top end of the market and try to become a real destination place.”
Second place in the global ranking went to another British kitchen, Raymond Blanc’s Le Manoir in Oxfordshire.
Here are the top ten restaurants in the world, as per the TripAdvisor’s poll
1. The Black Swan, Oldstead, North Yorkshire, UK
2. Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons, Great Milton, Oxfordshire, UK
3. Maison Lameloise, Chagny, France
4. L'Auberge de l'Ill, Illhaeusern, France
5. Martin Berasategui, Lasarte, Spain
6. Daniel, New York City, United States
7. La Colombe, Constantia, South Africa
8. David's Kitchen, Chiang Mai, Thailand
9. Maido, Lima, Peru
10. El Celler de Can Roca, Girona, Spain
-
Bluetoothing: the phenomenon driving HIV spike in Fiji
Under the Radar ‘Blood-swapping’ between drug users fuelling growing health crisis on Pacific island
-
Marisa Silver’s 6 favorite books that capture a lifetime
Feature The author recommends works by John Williams, Ian McEwan, and more
-
Book reviews: ‘We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution’ and ‘Will There Ever Be Another You’
Feature The many attempts to amend the U.S. Constitution and Patricia Lockwood’s struggle with long Covid
-
Critics’ choice: Celebrating rare Asian cuisines
Feature The 2025 Restaurant of the Year, a Hmong culinary tribute, and an Uyghur feast
-
Critics’ choice: Three small yet magical Korean restaurants
Feature A chef creates magic from scallops, a restaurant’s no-waste ethos, and more
-
The 9 restaurants to eat at this very moment
The Week Recommends They’re award-winning. Isn’t that reason enough?
-
Critics' choice: Three chefs fulfilling their ambitions
Feature Kwame Onwuachi's grand second act, Travis Lett makes a comeback, and Jeff Watson's new Korean restaurant
-
Critics' choice: Outstanding new Japanese restaurants
Feature An all-women sushi team, a 15-seat listening bar, and more
-
Critics' choice: Delights from the African diaspora
Feature Mahari in Chicago, Kabawa in New York City and Elmina in Washington, D.C.
-
The 2025 James Beard Award winners
Feature Featuring a casually elegant restaurant, recipes nearly lost to war, and more
-
Bangkok: the new 'international capital of fine dining'
The Week Recommends Six Bangkok restaurants rank among the world's best