A Fleet Street pub has been voted the UK’s fourth best outlet in an industry publication survey having recently been crowned regional winner in an awards scheme by the same title.
The Punch Tavern, namesake of the UK’s second largest pub operator, has come up trumps in the Morning Advertiser (MA) Top Pubs Surveys, voted for by industry executives and pub landlords.
The triumph comes on the back of winning the ‘Best Innovation’ award for London and the Home Counties by the MA, as well has having been short-listed in the Best Innovation and Best Healthy Food categories by MA rivals, The Publican Newspaper.
Sunnil Panjabi, licensee of the outlet with business partner John Taylor, said: “Compared to some of the other pubs in the top five we’re the new kids on the block and I’m delighted that we’re being continually rewarded for introducing fresh ideas and running an enterprising business.”
Central to the success and popularity of the Punch Taverns owned pub has been the self service Mangia Buffet Table – a lunchtime bar consisting of 20 fresh salad items which caters for almost any modern diets, from GI to the recent raw phenomenon.
Sunnil added: “The idea for a buffet table came from a visit to New York where, like in London, the lunch hour is incredibly frantic and buffets are available on every street corner to provide a fast, efficient, high volume service.”
In addition to the buffet service, Sunnil and John have also introduced a number of further innovations into the business including a customer loyalty scheme, network evenings, free WIFI internet connection and stylish toilets equipped with books, magazines and grooming products.
Mark Francis, business relationship manager for Punch Taverns, said: “Sunnil and John have catapulted the Punch Tavern onto the London pub scene with thoughtful and imaginative ideas. I’d recommend anyone visit this outstanding example of the great British pub, with its own twist.”
Two other Punch Taverns outlets have been voted in the top ten; Mr Thomas’s Chop House in Manchester and the Rose & Crown in Warwick.
Punch is the UK’s second largest pub operator with an estate of over 8,000 outlets.
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