A TUCKED-AWAY Oxford eaterie is giving Michelin triple-starred chef Heston Blumenthal a run for his money after finishing neck-and-neck in a competition to find the nation’s best Sunday lunch.

Mr Blumenthal may have been making waves by reintroducing 500 year-old dishes and offering diners delicacies such as steak with bone marrow sauce.

However, the Fishes in North Hinksey has proved it is no small fry after finishing joint runners-up in an award for Britain’s best traditional Sunday roast — as voted for by readers of the Observer newspaper.

The picturesque gastropub was one of two in the South East to make the esteemed shortlist, with the other being the Hinds Head, Mr Blumenthal’s bistro in Bray, Berkshire.

The Observer Food Magazine complimented The Fishes on its roast chicken, canon of lamb for two and its seasonal deli board of home-smoked ham and potted crab.

The managers of the restaurant, which appears in this year’s Michelin Guide, believe its simple approach to good old-fashioned British tucker is the secret of its success with customers.

General manager Katie Robertson, 26, said: “Our Sunday lunch is very important to us because it is definitely our busiest daytime meal.

“We are really happy to be considered as good as Heston’s restaurant but I think we’re a lot different to the Hinds Head.

“We’re not elaborate. Our emphasis is less on the tables and chairs and what they look like, and more on the training of the staff and quality of the food.

“We just cook good honest British food and it is made by really talented chefs. We feel like Oxford’s best-kept secret, tucked away off the A34, we are a real hidden gem.”

The pub, owned by the Deddington-based Peach Pub Company, is no stranger to awards in recent years.

In 2006, it received the award for Britain’s best al fresco dining pub by providing picnic hampers for customers to feast outside with punters given a pager to let them know when their hamper is ready.

Last year, former head chef Corin Earland was nominated for an Acorn Award, an accolade which Gary Rhodes and Marco Pierre White have won in the past.

And its sumptuous Sunday lunches are definitely a winner with punters, with the pub catering for more than 280 covers on a busy Sunday. Regular Avril Collins, 63, from Southmoor, near Kingston Bagpuize, said: “The food is great, the quality of the ingredients is really good and the veg is always spot-on.

Truly, I can’t fault the pub – I think the service is excellent.”

The winner of Britain’s best Sunday Lunch was The Albion gastropub in Islington, North London.

cwalker@oxfordmail.co.uk