The Good Food Guide, published by Waitrose & Partners, has released its list of the top 50 restaurants in the UK, with 11 new restaurants in the line up compared to seven in the previous year.
This year’s list, published in the 2020 edition of The Good Food Guide, features 12 restaurants from London, down from 14 last year, while locations range from Jersey to Strathlachlan.
The 11 new restaurants in the line up are spread throughout the UK in Lincolnshire, Leeds, Cornwall, Nottingham, Bristol, Glasgow, Greater Manchester, Anglesey, Yorkshire, London and Argyll & Bute.
First published in 1951 by Raymond Postgate, The Good Food Guide reviews restaurants, pubs and cafés in the UK. Those that make it in the guide are awarded a score of between 1 and 10, with 1 signifying “capable cooking with simple food combinations and clear flavours, but some inconsistencies” while 10 indicates “perfect dishes showing faultless technique at every service. An extremely rare accolade”. Indeed, this year just three restaurants were awarded top billing while seven were awarded a 9.
Elizabeth Carter, editor of The Good Food Guide, said: “This year, an extraordinary number of promising and dynamic chefs have achieved a cooking score of seven in the Guide, making them all candidates for inclusion. We think it is crucially important to include the likes of Inver and Cail Bruich in Scotland, The Black Swan at Oldstead, Wilks in Bristol, Stockport’s Where the Light Gets In and London’s Trinity – we are incredibly lucky to have such talent in the list for the first time and we believe these places have the promise to reach the very top.”
The guide also has a ‘local gems’ section, which while not scored, are described as “simple cafés, bistros and pubs that are among the best neighbourhood eateries in the country”. This year it is drawing attention to those restaurants offering great value for money, with over 350 establishments, nearly a third of its restaurant selections, offering a three-course dinner (excluding drinks) for £30 or under.
Number’s 11-50 are as follows:
11 Adam Reid at The French, Manchester (8)
12 Restaurant Story, London (8)
13 The Raby Hunt, County Durham (8)
14 Restaurant Andrew Fairlie, Tayside (8)
15 The Greenhouse, London (8)
16 The Ledbury, London (8)
17 Marcus, London (8)
18 The Fat Duck, Berkshire (8)
19 Roganic, London (8)
20 Fraiche, Merseyside (8)
21 Bohemia, Jersey (8)
22 Midsummer House, Cambridgeshire (8)
23 The Peat Inn, Fife (8)
24 Le Champignon Sauvage, Gloucestershire (8)
25 The Kitchin, Edinburgh (7)
26 Lake Road Kitchen, Cumbria (7)
27 Forest Side, Cumbria (7)
28 Orwells, Oxfordshire (7)
29 A. Wong, London (7)
30 Whatley Manor, The Dining Room, Wiltshire (7)
31 Trinity, London (7) New
32 Matt Worswick at the Latymer, Surrey (7)
33 Inver, Argyll & Bute (7) New
34 The Black Swan, Yorkshire (7) New
35 Restaurant James Sommerin, Glamorgan (7)
36 Winteringham Fields, Lincolnshire (7) New
37 The Sportsman, Kent (7)
38 The Whitebrook, Monmouthshire (7)
39 The Man Behind The Curtain, Leeds (7) New
40 Paul Ainsworth, Cornwall (7) New
41 Alchemilla, Nottingham (7) New
42 Wilks, Bristol (7) New
43 Cail Bruich, Glasgow (7) New
44 Where The Light Gets In,
Greater Manchester (7) New
45 Sosban & The Old Butcher’s, Anglesey (7) New
46 Restaurant Martin Wishart, Edinburgh (7)
47 Le Gavroche, London (7)
48 Artichoke, Buckinghamshire (7)
49 Adam’s, Birmingham (7)
50 Castle Terrace, Edinburgh (7)
This year’s top 10 features one new entrant from Lancashire, with a familiar face regaining the top spot after placing second last year. Scroll through to view the top 10.
