The Best Pubs Near The Owl, by the Record
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Rank 1. The Abbey Inn
British
Flagstone floors, colourful throws, and a blazing fire in winter frame the view across to the Gothic ruins of Byland Abbey from this classic North Yorkshire gastropub with rooms. The kitchen runs on produce from the owners' own farm, and the menu moves with the seasons while keeping a few crowd-pleasers nailed down permanently. Come summer, the garden terrace is a perfectly reasonable excuse for a pint in the afternoon.
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Rank 2. Star Inn at Harome
Modern British Pub
A thatched fourteenth-century pub in a tiny North Yorkshire village, the Star Inn holds a Michelin star and sits at number five on the Top 50 Gastropubs list, which tells you this is not your average moorland local. Fish comes from Whitby, game from the moors, and vegetables from the kitchen garden, all finding their way into cooking that is classical underneath and quietly inventive on top. The charred beams from a 2021 fire were left exactly where they fell.
- Michelin Guide 1 Star
- Top 50 Gastropubs 2026 · #5 · Top 50 Gastropubs
- National Restaurant Awards 2026 · #78 · The National Restaurant Awards
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Rank 3. The General Tarleton
Modern British Pub
A glass-roofed courtyard and a big terrace where walk-ins are always welcome set the tone at this gastropub near Knaresborough, part of Tommy Banks' growing Yorkshire operation. The kitchen runs on local produce and day-boat fish, mixing pub classics with the odd more ambitious move, all with a seasonal logic baked in from the start. The service team have the warmth the setting asks for, which, in a coaching inn this old, is quite a lot.
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Rank 4. Blind Jack
Beer Bar
A 400-year-old timber-framed building on Knaresborough's market square, Blind Jack's is a proper beer pub with five cask and ten craft lines pouring from a tiny bar that has no business handling that much traffic. Draught Bass sits alongside Black Sheep, but the rotating pumps wander toward American brown ales and porters. The 2025 Great British Pub Awards named it Best Beer Pub. You walk in feeling like a regular before you've ordered.
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Rank 5. Pipe and Glass
British Pub
A Michelin-starred gastropub hidden down the country lanes of East Yorkshire, where Barnsley chops and locally shot game arrive in portions that mean business. The kitchen refines pub classics without making them feel precious, and the wine list runs deep enough to keep you at the table longer than planned. Smart rooms converted from old lambing buildings make spending the night a reasonable excuse.
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Rank 6. Pinnacle Sports & Games
Beer Bar
Seventeen screens, three Sky boxes, and sound zones that let different matches play in their own corners of the room: Pinnacle takes the sports pub formula pretty seriously. Pool, darts, and electronic basketball keep things moving between kickoffs, and the family-friendly hours mean it's not purely a fortress of lager and shouting. The 2025 Great British Pub Award for Best Pub to Watch Sport suggests the rebrand landed.
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Rank 7. The Angel
Modern New American Pub
A 15th-century pub on a quiet lane in the Yorkshire Dales that now holds a Michelin star, which tells you something about what Michael Wignall has been up to since taking over. It remains a proper pub in spirit, but the kitchen runs tasting menus alongside à la carte, and the plating is a long way from anything on a chalkboard. Nine bedrooms upstairs mean you don't have to rush back over the moors afterward.
- Michelin Guide 1 Star
- Top 50 Gastropubs 2026 · #6 · Top 50 Gastropubs
- National Restaurant Awards 2026 · #47 · The National Restaurant Awards
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Rank 8. The Highland Laddie
British Pub
Sausage rolls baked to order, ham carved from the joint and finished on the open fireplace, a dedicated mustard menu: the Highland Laddie is a pub that takes the pub seriously. It landed on the Top 50 Gastropubs list, and Jimi Famurewa called it out in The Observer as a northern boozer of unexpected finesse. Come for a pint and leave having somehow eaten rather a lot.
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A pub in a Leeds conservation area that won the Great British Pub Awards' Best Pub Garden two years running, and once you see the place, that tracks. What was a car park and field is now a two-tiered outdoor space with a terrace bar, wooden huts, and views over a cricket pitch. The planting is genuinely cared for, pollinator-friendly and all. A solid neighborhood pub where the garden is the whole point.