How did the North fare in the Top 50 Gastropubs list 2020?

Northern restaurants made up almost half the top ten in last night’s announcement of the Estrella Damm Top 50 Gastro Pubs 2020. 

Food critics, hospitality experts and chefs from all over the UK vote in their hundreds to put together this list of the ultimate pubs with the most impressive grub. 

Steven Smith’s Freemasons at Wiswell, Lancashire was the highest rated gastropub in the north maintaining its very respectable No.3. position. Recently refurbed to provide beautiful animal-themed rooms, The Freemasons is a firm favourite of several of the Confidentials team - it’s also in the top ten of our Top 100 restaurants in the North. Lancastrian Steve's cooking is rooted in the traditional recipes of his home county while cleverly flirting with world flavours.  

Current menu highlights include Herdwick lamb kebab cooked yakatori style with miso aubergine, mint & yoghurt or salt aged duck breast & leg meat spring roll, puree & spiced January King cabbage with rhubarb hoisin. Essential eating always is Steve's outrageous lamb fat brioche. 

The Star Inn in the pretty village of Harome near Helmsley in North Yorkshire is No.4 in the list having maintained its top five position for over 20 years. Chef-patron Andrew Pern is well-loved by the locals - there’s even a special menu named for them - and he prides himself in rustling up beautiful dishes using ‘God’s own produce’ from the Yorkshire larder. 

Back in Lancs, Stosie Madi’s Parkers Arms continues to rise having shot up the list from 48th to 13th in 2017 and now parked at No.7 in 2020. Another Confidentials’ favourite at 15 in our Top 100 restaurants in the North. We love this unpretentious pub with its perfect pies and endlessly creative menus that make use of the glorious bounty that the surrounding Newton in Bowland has to offer. 

Endlessly modest, Northcote alumni Tom Parker at The White Swan at Fence has been showered with attention since bagging a Michelin star back in 2018 (maintained in 2019). It’s the fourth northern restaurant in the top ten, swanning in at No.9 having moved up the ranks ten spots since it first joined the list in 2018. It’s also one of the more affordable options on the list with two courses for just £30 and three for £40.

Northern English pubs make up just under a quarter of the list with 11 of the top 50 spots. Apart from the four pubs in the top ten there are three in the top 20: The Angel at Hetton (11), The Staith House in North Shields (13) and The Rat Inn (15) in Northumberland. The rest of the list includes The Pipe and Glass Inn, Dalton (24), The Black Bull Sedbergh (26), The Broad Chare, Quayside, Newcastle Upon Tyne (30) and Shibden Mill Inn, Halifax (41).