The Black Swan
Oldstead, North Yorkshire
* Senior sous-chef Alice Power has been promoted to head chef, replacing Callum Leslie who now has an executive chef role within the Tommy Banks group. Watch for a new review coming soon.*
while Callum Tommy Banks has covered a lot of ground in his 33 years. You may have seen him on TV, winning Great British Menu in 2016 or as a regular on Saturday Kitchen; you might even have received his cookbook as a Christmas present. The chef made his name at the Black Swan, his family’s charming, picturesque old-stone pub with rooms set within the glorious North York Moors National Park. Upstairs, three dining areas neatly accommodate both traditional charms and contemporary expectations, while Callum Leslie is the head chef now tasked with delivering Banks' approach to fine dining – with the fabulous bounty of a 20-acre kitchen garden at his disposal. While enthusiasm can outstrip technique, ideas are interesting and ingredients are used imaginatively on the 11-course tasting menu. At a test meal, things got off to a flying start with some fabulous little snacks: a venison tartare with blue-cheese foam and fermented mushroom dust; a delicate waffle filled with pea purée topped with freshly picked petits pois, tiny vetch flowers and a sharp but fragrant elderflower vinegar gel; and finally a lobster claw and rhuboshi (salt-pickled rhubarb) topped with a hollandaise-style espuma that was ‘sharp, balanced and fun’. However, a watercress and chicken raviolo dish, its 'delicious' chicken fat and truffle jus poured over at the table, was then topped with a few shavings of truffle of the Périgord type, artificially implanted in Australia then flown over in the previous 48 hours – ‘completely at odds with the picked-this-morning-from-the-garden rhetoric’. Elsewhere, gloriously tender Herdwick lamb aged in a Himalayan salt chamber was over-seasoned, which ‘would have been OK had the jus not been intensely salty too’. Adroit execution and bags of creativity were back on show with a dessert of wood sorrel, woodruff and sweet cicely that was ‘rooted in Oldstead and transported the diner to this very specific time and place’, and ‘very bright and balanced’ petits fours included Jerusalem artichoke fudge, dark chocolate truffle with tagetes (Mexican marigold), and a mini tartlet filled with lemon-verbena curd. Service is a little light on Yorkshire wit and charm, and if you pass on one of the drinks 'packages', you are left to delve into the wine list on an iPad left at your table – ‘guidance on pairings beyond those packages would have been welcome’. Bottles start at £45.
Dining Information:
Accommodation, Separate bar, Parking, Deposit required, Pre-payment required
Main Street, Oldstead, North Yorkshire YO61 4BL
