The Crown Inn, York

Thriving on its prize winning food like many rural pubs it's less the village inn and more a smart modern restaurant style place. Walking in is like walking into a restaurant with almost every table laid out with placemat, cutlery, wine glasses and of course candles although the landlord cleared the eating equipment from my table after ascertaining I wasn't dining with them today. Formerly a double fronted building it now is an open plan L shape with a central counter housing three pulls on each of its two faces. Black Sheep Bitter, Hambleton Stallion and (reversed clip) a house beer brewed by Rudgate, quality was pretty good, the food looked pretty good too. A lager and a Cider are also available. Decoration is mix of bleached recovered old wood, old photos and a few eclectic touches. Furniture as expected is a mix of wooden tables and chairs although a couple of bench seats still remain. There is a blackboard listing the many awards received recently – no “1998 best this or that” in this pub, all are up to date but some are more relevant that others. I would be interested to see the pub on a Friday or Saturday night rather than a lunchtime with sedate diners, I suspect the atmosphere might be different.