The Shibden Mill Inn has just been named Best Pub Food in a national competition - we check it out

No strangers to awards, the Shibden Mill Inn is having a moment - the mantelpiece has had to be reinforced as a couple of prestigious gongs have recently headed their way.

They’ve been at the hospitality coal face for a quarter of a century and weathered many a storm, including the most recent one, when they took the bar outside into the garden, covered part of it, parked up a pizza van and did great business.

The Great British Pub Awards have been running for more than 20 years and are the Oscars of the industry.

A record number of pubs entered this year; participants are put through two rigorous rounds of judging to determine the best in the country. I was part of the process for a year or two in a previous life and I can tell you that the static in the room on the night is palpable. To win in any of the categories can sometimes be the difference between staying afloat or going under – particularly in these tricky times, and the Shibden has walked away with Best Pub for Food against stiff competition. Earlier in the year they hit number 31 in the highly respected 2022 Estrella Damm Top 50 Gastropubs keeping company with The Star at Harome, the Pipe & Glass, Tommy Banks’ Black Swan and the Angel at Hetton - all with Michelin stars – and the extraordinary Moorcock at Norland, and took home the title of Foodie’s Favourite.

It’s a while since I’ve been and I’m keen to see what the judges saw. I never tire of the place; rattling down the dizzying, ever-narrowing cobbled lane as it drops to the valley bottom, it’s easy to imagine the satnav is taking you nowhere near your dinner. But hold on tight; take a hard left and the handsome 17th century Shibden Mill Inn heaves into view. Smartly whitewashed and still wearing its glorious wisteria coat (in November – that can’t be right) it hunkers by Red Beck. Three hundred and fifty years ago it was a corn, then textile mill, where the enterprising Holdsworth brothers manufactured serge, selling ‘pieces’ of woven cloth in one of the 315 rooms at the Piece Hall; it became an inn in 1890 when Halifax brewers Websters bought it. If you’re hoping for beams and wonky walls you’re in luck; the place is riven with history. The menu though is bang up to date; Chef Will Webster has consolidated his strong start and the menu bristles with seasonal diversity, and there’s a heavy reliance on the herb and veg garden as well as local farmers and producers.

There’s a lot going on. Alongside the eight course tasting menu is an a la carte and it all jumps off the page, starting with ‘Nibbles’ and the likes of honey glazed truffle and cheese bread with homemade butters, and smoked haddock kedgeree Scotch egg with chip shop curry sauce. Roe Deer tart kicks things off nicely; it’s a neat, bijou beauty with BBQ hispi cabbage, leek emulsion and pickled root veg in perfect pastry. I came close to ordering Hen of the Woods crumpet with root veg jam and fermented mushroom butter, but XO glazed pig cheek in langoustine bisque with turnip and apple won – I couldn’t wait to see how THAT might work (langoustine and turnip? What?) But it does, and it soon becomes clear that Webster’s unlikely pairings are part of his MO.

Cod loin, mussels, broccoli, peanuts and curry sauce: five ingredients – no odd couplings here, but it still manages to be better than the sum of its parts – perfectly cooked fish in a deep fragrant broth, with care taken plating up. Venison, sausage roll, hen of the woods – so good, quite gamey and with smoked beets cutting through the richness. A side of squash, honey and goats curd compliments both dishes nicely. There’s a good-looking wild mushroom and truffle mac & cheese, or how about a mushroom hotdog with red onion marmalade and Yorkshire Blue? More prosaic choices are game pie with cabbage, chips and port gravy and fish & chips – but you just know there’s every chance he’s got another trick up his sleeve.

Will Webster is one of those gifted, instinctive chefs who “never really wanted to cook but sort of fell into it”. He went from pot washing to an apprenticeship at Craven College then had various jobs before leaving Yorkshire to work at Hipping Hall in Lancashire under the tutelage of Oli Martin. In June 2018 he joined the team at the Shibden Mill as sous chef but jumped ranks to become Head Chef just three months later.

Desserts bring more wild pairings: Jerusalem artichoke, Darkwoods coffee, hazelnut – tiramisu by any other name and a very fine one, sweet in all the right places and exquisite with its lacy ginger tuile. So too is squash custard with cream cheese ice cream and candied carrot. I’m not making it up. Manager and front-of-house supremo Oliver Roberts (surely the safest pair of hands in the country) tells me they often raise an eyebrow when Webster’s menu testing. But no, he says, turns out he’s rarely wrong. If you baulk at sesame ice cream or squash custard there’s always the peerless STP which I swear has been on the menu since 1993.

It won’t have escaped your notice that I love this place; the beams and burnished furniture, roaring fires and faultless service. But most of all I love the food; masterful, playful, sophisticated, and ever-so-slightly slightly bonkers, it brims with brio. And the trophies? Well done Team Shibden for bringing them home.

The Shibden Mill, Shibden Mill Fold, Halifax HX3 7UL t: 01422 365840

www.shibdenmillinn.com