The Good Food Guide unveils the UK’s top 50 restaurants

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.

10. Pollen Street Social

Location: London

Cooking score: 9

Chef proprietor: Jason Atherton

Previous ranking: 9

9. Casamia

Location: Bristol

Cooking score: 9

Chef proprietor: Peter Sanchez-Iglesias

Previous ranking: 8

8. Restaurant Sat Bains

Location: Nottingham

Cooking score: 9

Chef proprietor: Sat Bains

Previous ranking: 4

7. Restaurant Gordon Ramsay

Location: London

Cooking score: 9

Chef proprietor: Gordon Ramsay

Previous ranking: 7

6. Claude Bosi at Bibendum

Location: London

Cooking score: 9

Chef proprietor: Claude Bosi

Previous ranking: 6

5. Moor Hall

Location: Lancashire

Cooking score: 9

Chef proprietor: Mark Birchall

Previous ranking: 11

Commenting on Moor Hall’s achievement of making it into the top 10 for the first time, editor Elizabeth Carter said: “It’s been a delight to watch Mark Birchall of Moor Hall making his way through the guide’s ratings at such an electric pace, achieving a cooking score of nine. Moor Hall is, without doubt, one of the hottest restaurants in the UK.”

4. Ynyshir

Location: Powys, Wales

Cooking score: 9

Chef proprietor: Gareth Ward

Previous ranking: 5

3. Restaurant Nathan Outlaw

Location: Cornwall

Cooking score: 10

Chef proprietor: Nathan Outlaw

Previous ranking: 1

While still achieving a perfect cooking score of 10, Restaurant Nathan Outlaw has been knocked off the top spot, after holding the crown for the previous two years.

The Good Food Guide judges commented: “We love the fact that the setting is as reserved and devoid of ego as the chef behind this remarkable fish restaurant. Yet there’s no doubt that RNO is a resolutely modern restaurant operating on a world stage. This is not about a chef simply showing off cleverness or cutting-edge technique, it is about the unimpeachable quality of Cornish fish and seafood executed in a simple, brilliant and utterly confident manner.”

2. Core by Clare Smyth

Location: London

Cooking score: 10

Chef proprietor: Clare Symth

Previous ranking: 2

Last year’s highest ever new entry, Core by Clare Smyth in London’s Notting Hill, has gone one better this year, coming in 2nd place.

Of Core by Clare Smyth, the editors of The Good Food Guide commented: “You only have to see how hard it is to get a table 18 months on from opening to see that there is already a devoted following for an undoubtedly world-class restaurant. Clare Smyth takes unruffled perfection, choreographed precision and faultless pedigree to hitherto unexplored levels, delivering meals that are technically outstanding, sophisticated without losing sight of ingredients’ essential flavours.”

1. L’Enclume

Location: Cumbria

Cooking score: 10

Chef proprietor: Simon Rogan

Back in at number one is Simon Rogan’s L’Enclume, based in the historic and picturesque village of Cartmel. Rogan has regained the crown after coming top in the 2017 edition of the guide.

Of L’Enclume, Elizabeth Carter, editor of The Good Food Guide, said: “There was very strong competition among the top-scoring restaurants this year, but there was no ignoring the fact that L’Enclume is a really extraordinary restaurant, once again topping the bill after a two-year sojourn in second place. It dazzles; not with glitter-ball ritz and razzmatazz, but with the understated glow that comes from being indisputably world-class.”

On leading the top 50, chef Simon Rogan added: “I couldn’t be happier with the news that L’Enclume has returned to the No.1 spot in The Good Food Guide. It is a huge achievement which we have worked exceedingly hard towards, and I am very proud of my team who have made it possible. I am privileged to work alongside such talented individuals, and making the number one spot again has only fuelled our collective determination to get better and better.”