Is London losing its touch?

London restaurants have their UK supremacy questioned with next month’s release of The Good Food Guide 2011.

Gordon Ramsay’s Royal Hospital Road flagship is the only London restaurant to make it into the top five for the guide’s 60th anniversary edition.

Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck in Bray, Berkshire, holds onto the number one spot for the third year in a row. The guide, which awarded the restaurant full marks, remarked: “A razor-sharp culinary intelligence is at work here, summoning up a procession of ‘world-beating’ dishes for the bedazzled throngs.”

Ramsay’s fellow London restaurateurs may be slightly irked by the guide’s description of his venue, which took second place, as “the nearest thing to a world-class restaurant experience currently on offer in the capital.”

While Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons offered a high profile name in third place, the next two top slots were filled by the relatively underexposed L’Enclume in Cumbria and Restaurant Nathan Outlaw in Cornwall.

Elizabeth Carter, consultant editor for The Good Food Guide, said: “We’ve seen significant changes in the UK restaurant scene over the last year. A crop of talent has sprung up all over the country, pushing London restaurants out of the top spots with their culinary delights.”

The Good Food Guide 2011 is published on 8 September, with an RRP of £16.99.

Gabriel Savage, 17.08.2010