A tiny deli-cafe in a small village is a word-of-mouth hit – beating more than 400 other restaurants in the district to be named number one by a consumer reviews website.

Dozens of five-star ratings have propelled the Krave deli in Wilsden – with only three small tables – to the top spot on Tripadvisor, which collates reviews from users and ranks restaurants according to popularity. It has put the small venture above 406 other rated establishments in Bradford.

The ranking is validation for Krave owner Christian Lambert, who says he took a huge gamble when he opened up a little more than two years ago, pledging to bring a lifelong love of good food and a passion for cooking to Wilsden’s Main Street. Christian, 38, said: “I had no idea whether it was going to work. I live in Wilsden and when this premises came vacant I was pondering whether what I had in mind would work.”

What Christian had in mind was the culmination of life loving food, passed on to him from his mother and grandmother and their great home cooking.

His big thing is “street food” – great dishes using top ingredients, which he sources himself. There is no distance he won’t travel for the right ingredients to use in his food or sell across his counter, which is stuffed with bowls of olives, cheeses and cakes.

“I’ll drive to Tuscany to fill the car up with olive oil, like other people go to France to buy booze,” said Christian. It was a six-week holiday in Australia, while he was chewing over setting up in Wilsden, that finally convinced him he was on the right track. They’re so far ahead of us when it comes to good eating, especially with street food, that I was convinced I could make it work here.” It’s a gamble that paid off as not only is Krave now top of the Tripadvisor reviews list, the deli is packed out.

Christian – “I read cookbooks like other people read novels” – said that customers are coming from all across the district, and beyond. The business has expanded to take in regular weekend trips away with a portable pizza pod, to events up and down the country, a “pop up restaurant” in which the deli can be hired for private parties up to 14 people, and private dining, in which Christian will cook at dinner parties in people’s homes. He has previously worked for Yorkshire Water and had several office jobs. But food was always his passion, which led to him co-founding his first venture, the Terrace restaurant in Saltaire, which was sold in 2002, and then Krave. He said: “I will always keep Krave open in Wilsden but the plan is to open a second place somewhere nearby – much bigger but with the same feel and philosophy.”