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A pub in North Yorkshire has won TripAdvisor’s Travellers’ Choice Awards

55 points by lnguyen 9y ago

killbrad 9y ago
The first few paragraphs of this article put me off of the entire thing.
dtf 9y ago
The Trip [1] is a worthwhile TV comedy series, wherein the protagonists visit a number of these haute cuisine pubs-in-the-middle-of-nowhere. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trip_(2010_TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trip_(2010_TV_series)
- pjc50 9y ago
  .. starring two of the UK's great impressionists. It's lowkey hilarious.
gehsty 9y ago
Family owned and ran Michelin starred restaurant who grow the majority of the food they serve with rave reviews on major review websites....are we still shocked? It looks like they have managed to walk the line of fine dining while avoiding the excess / pretentiousness / intimidation that can come with it, which in the UK is rarely done well.
pjc50 9y ago
By "middle of nowhere", they mean "A 40-minute drive from York". While it's technically in the North York Moors it's hardly remote or inaccessible. Although it will probably now be hard to park there. (I suspect that this is the usual London bias of journalists and especially "UK" restaurant critics that regard everywhere not reachable with an Oyster card as "nowhere") Edit: HN title has been edited to say North Yorkshire rather than the article title of "nowhere". Anyway, there are quite a lot of these places. For a rural pub to survive at all it has to get most of its income from food. Other examples you might like are Applecross Inn http://www.scotsman.com/news/landlady-of-remote-applecross-pub-crowned-britain-s-best-1-4226095 http://www.scotsman.com/news/landlady-of-remote-applecross-p... (genuinely quite remote from any major city), or these (including several which are not reachable by road) http://www.outdooradventureguide.co.uk/10-of-britains-most-remote-pubs/ http://www.outdooradventureguide.co.uk/10-of-britains-most-r...
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
jzwinck 9y ago
I've noticed when looking at "democratic" restaurant rankings, they tend to be dominated by places that cater to some common denominator. Cafes with latte art, dessert shops, drinking spots. Those are what win, even in rankings nominally about food. In many cities it becomes tricky to find an actual restaurant. The top ten spots might only contain one or two, plus everyone's favorite ice cream parlor.
- L_Rahman 9y ago
  For all the democratic aggregators, there seems to be a inflection point beyond which they stop being as useful. In their earliest days, the primary user base is made of enthusiasts. They bring opinions and experiences not available through mainstream critics but with an eye for quality. At some point, the places being reviewed realize how important the rankings are. They start building things specifically to improve their position on these rankings and you reach a trend-driven, inoffensive mid-market nothingness in the app and in the place itself. The answer to this problem has always been the same - find and follow a set of critics that you like - keep an eye out for popular food trends and apply a negative bias towards restaurants nakedly following it - start understanding the texture of neighborhoods and the chefs within them: if Alex Stupak opens a new place in Lower Manhattan for example, it would be an automatic stop for me.
  - ido 9y ago
    If you're looking for a hidden gem in your home town that will provide something amazing, you may be disappointed. But when traveling and wanting to grab lunch, looking around rankings in google maps/yelp you know everything 4-5 stars will at least be decent, which is not useless information.
    - L_Rahman 9y ago
      You're entirely correct and I apologize for not acknowledging this in my original comment.
- icebraining 9y ago
jstanley 9y ago
When I first clicked on this there was a tiny auto-playing video that I couldn't work out how to close. Clicking again, it's gone. If this is some sort of A/B test, I really hope "auto-playing video that you can't close" doesn't win.
- trqx 9y ago
  Same here, my first reaction was looking for a way to punish such a behaviour. I then opened the same URL from a private window outside the VM I was using on the same laptop, and from a different IP (disabling the socks proxy I usually use), No autoplay this time. This is spooky. EDIT: it does autoplay if not in a private session.
- Nux 9y ago
  Got that too. Bloody bloombergers..
- stefemea 9y ago
  That is the worst. It is all over that site, but usually you can pause it?
footest 9y ago
WHY a post that has NOTHING related with hackers in front page of hacker news?! Food should be used only to feed us, not for pleasure! HUMANS
Woofles 9y ago
I feel it's kind of disingenuous to call it a "pub in the middle of nowhere" when it's a Michelen star rated restaurant that only offers a tasting menu. Also the article doesn't describe why it was named the World's Best Restaurant. It just says they used "an algorithm that takes into account the quantity and quality of millions of reviews". Reviewers on Yelp/TripAdvisor/etc are generally really terrible and know nothing about food, so this accolade is probably not worth much in real value. However it's crazy how quickly it affected their publicity.
- jdmichal 9y ago
  Also when the article itself says it was converted from a pub to a restaurant... "Banks’ parents, who are farmers, bought the North Yorkshire pub and converted it into a restaurant."
- SeanDav 9y ago
  > " so this accolade is probably not worth much in real value" Not entirely sure what the parent post was trying to imply here but, from the Article: - "We never imagined quite how big it would become. Things just went crazy. The phone rang off the hook, and e-mails, e-mails, e-mails. We took 1,200 bookings in four hours, and that has filled us up for the rest of the year." Unless the OP was trying to say the value was in the judgement of quality of the restaurant, in which case one has to ignore the 1000's of rave reviews...
  - apetresc 9y ago
    Literally the next sentence after your quote was "However it's crazy how quickly it affected their publicity."
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- stefemea 9y ago
  tbf, most people in the wide world would consider a restaurant in the North York Moors, where there's just green on Google maps, the middle of nowhere. As opposed to, say, Paris or some other city. It's a bit of hyperbole but not wild or inaccurate. Plus the location has nothing to do with its tasting menu or Michelin star.
belenos46 9y ago
"Today, in Places That I Can Never Go, Now"....

55 points by lnguyen 9y ago

The first few paragraphs of this article put me off of the entire thing.

dtf 9y ago

The Trip [1] is a worthwhile TV comedy series, wherein the protagonists visit a number of these haute cuisine pubs-in-the-middle-of-nowhere. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trip_(2010_TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trip_(2010_TV_series)

pjc50 9y ago
.. starring two of the UK's great impressionists. It's lowkey hilarious.

gehsty 9y ago

Family owned and ran Michelin starred restaurant who grow the majority of the food they serve with rave reviews on major review websites....are we still shocked? It looks like they have managed to walk the line of fine dining while avoiding the excess / pretentiousness / intimidation that can come with it, which in the UK is rarely done well.

pjc50 9y ago

By "middle of nowhere", they mean "A 40-minute drive from York". While it's technically in the North York Moors it's hardly remote or inaccessible. Although it will probably now be hard to park there. (I suspect that this is the usual London bias of journalists and especially "UK" restaurant critics that regard everywhere not reachable with an Oyster card as "nowhere") Edit: HN title has been edited to say North Yorkshire rather than the article title of "nowhere". Anyway, there are quite a lot of these places. For a rural pub to survive at all it has to get most of its income from food. Other examples you might like are Applecross Inn http://www.scotsman.com/news/landlady-of-remote-applecross-pub-crowned-britain-s-best-1-4226095 http://www.scotsman.com/news/landlady-of-remote-applecross-p... (genuinely quite remote from any major city), or these (including several which are not reachable by road) http://www.outdooradventureguide.co.uk/10-of-britains-most-remote-pubs/ http://www.outdooradventureguide.co.uk/10-of-britains-most-r...

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

jzwinck 9y ago

I've noticed when looking at "democratic" restaurant rankings, they tend to be dominated by places that cater to some common denominator. Cafes with latte art, dessert shops, drinking spots. Those are what win, even in rankings nominally about food. In many cities it becomes tricky to find an actual restaurant. The top ten spots might only contain one or two, plus everyone's favorite ice cream parlor.

L_Rahman 9y ago
For all the democratic aggregators, there seems to be a inflection point beyond which they stop being as useful. In their earliest days, the primary user base is made of enthusiasts. They bring opinions and experiences not available through mainstream critics but with an eye for quality. At some point, the places being reviewed realize how important the rankings are. They start building things specifically to improve their position on these rankings and you reach a trend-driven, inoffensive mid-market nothingness in the app and in the place itself. The answer to this problem has always been the same - find and follow a set of critics that you like - keep an eye out for popular food trends and apply a negative bias towards restaurants nakedly following it - start understanding the texture of neighborhoods and the chefs within them: if Alex Stupak opens a new place in Lower Manhattan for example, it would be an automatic stop for me.
- ido 9y ago
  If you're looking for a hidden gem in your home town that will provide something amazing, you may be disappointed. But when traveling and wanting to grab lunch, looking around rankings in google maps/yelp you know everything 4-5 stars will at least be decent, which is not useless information.
  - L_Rahman 9y ago
    You're entirely correct and I apologize for not acknowledging this in my original comment.
icebraining 9y ago

jstanley 9y ago

When I first clicked on this there was a tiny auto-playing video that I couldn't work out how to close. Clicking again, it's gone. If this is some sort of A/B test, I really hope "auto-playing video that you can't close" doesn't win.

trqx 9y ago
Same here, my first reaction was looking for a way to punish such a behaviour. I then opened the same URL from a private window outside the VM I was using on the same laptop, and from a different IP (disabling the socks proxy I usually use), No autoplay this time. This is spooky. EDIT: it does autoplay if not in a private session.
Nux 9y ago
Got that too. Bloody bloombergers..
stefemea 9y ago
That is the worst. It is all over that site, but usually you can pause it?

footest 9y ago

WHY a post that has NOTHING related with hackers in front page of hacker news?! Food should be used only to feed us, not for pleasure! HUMANS

Woofles 9y ago

I feel it's kind of disingenuous to call it a "pub in the middle of nowhere" when it's a Michelen star rated restaurant that only offers a tasting menu. Also the article doesn't describe why it was named the World's Best Restaurant. It just says they used "an algorithm that takes into account the quantity and quality of millions of reviews". Reviewers on Yelp/TripAdvisor/etc are generally really terrible and know nothing about food, so this accolade is probably not worth much in real value. However it's crazy how quickly it affected their publicity.

jdmichal 9y ago
Also when the article itself says it was converted from a pub to a restaurant... "Banks’ parents, who are farmers, bought the North Yorkshire pub and converted it into a restaurant."
SeanDav 9y ago
> " so this accolade is probably not worth much in real value" Not entirely sure what the parent post was trying to imply here but, from the Article: - "We never imagined quite how big it would become. Things just went crazy. The phone rang off the hook, and e-mails, e-mails, e-mails. We took 1,200 bookings in four hours, and that has filled us up for the rest of the year." Unless the OP was trying to say the value was in the judgement of quality of the restaurant, in which case one has to ignore the 1000's of rave reviews...
- apetresc 9y ago
  Literally the next sentence after your quote was "However it's crazy how quickly it affected their publicity."
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
stefemea 9y ago
tbf, most people in the wide world would consider a restaurant in the North York Moors, where there's just green on Google maps, the middle of nowhere. As opposed to, say, Paris or some other city. It's a bit of hyperbole but not wild or inaccurate. Plus the location has nothing to do with its tasting menu or Michelin star.

belenos46 9y ago

"Today, in Places That I Can Never Go, Now"....