The third venue from The Great British Menu' winner and Michelin-starred chef Tommy Banks is the Abbey Inn, Byland, is a historic Grade-II listed pub and restaurant in the heart of the North York Moors.
The relaxed country pub with rooms, overlooks the Gothic ruins of Byland Abbey, one of England’s grandest monasteries. The historic inn was first built by monks in 1845 and was originally used as a farmhouse and converted into a public house in 1853.
The gastropub has some nostalgia for the chef as it was where he worked as a pot washer as a child, being only a stone’s throw away from his childhood home. The whole of the Banks family joined in to refurbish the pub, which opened in May 2023, taking care to keep it authentic to its architectural history. The nineteenth century, historic inn was transformed into a relaxed country pub with rooms, overlooking the historic ruins of Byland Abbey in North Yorkshire.
Banks calls it "A proper, country pub serving up reimagined classics with our signature Oldstead style."
The luxury 70-cover inn serves a seasonal menu created by head chef Charlie Smith, and chef director Tommy Banks, alongside a curated drinks list from real ales to seasonal cocktails.
Ingredients for the seasonal menu that champions classic, British food, are sourced from the Banks family farm and restaurant garden. Located in nearby Oldstead its farm has a two-acre kitchen garden which has abundant seasonal produce.
Keeping its authenticity as a pub it also serves classics from ploughman’s boards and Byland burgers to chicken liver parfait with toasted milk bread, as well as soft serve Sundaes.
Banks also runs famous restaurant Roots York and sister gastropub The Black Swan, a Michelin-starred, 4 AA Rosette restaurant which was previously names best pub restaurant in the world by TripAdvisor.
