• Simon Rogan's restaurant L'Enclume makes a return to the top spot
• The Channel Islands is number one place to visit for foodies
• The Guide calls out the best budget eateries, with more than 350 restaurants offering three-course meals for £30 or less
• The Good Food Guide poses the question, should under-12s be welcomed in fine dining restaurants?
• Are diners calling time on no-reservation restaurants?

The Good Food Guide 2020 by Waitrose & Partners (GFG) has revealed this year's very best places to dine in the UK, with 1,200 eateries from big names to best-kept secrets, included in the trusted restaurant handbook.

The Guide, which is published on Thursday 12th September, announces its Top 50 restaurants alongside its Editors' Award winners - including its first Sustainability Champion - as well as unveiling which regions are serving up the very best food in the UK. And with over 350 restaurants in the Guide offering three-course dinners for £30 or less, enjoying good food on a budget is easier than ever.

350 under £30

Alongside fine dining establishments, the GFG champions local eateries, small chains, simple restaurants and cafés that deliver freshly cooked, delicious food at great value for money.  This year's guide features more than 350 restaurants, nearly a third of its restaurant selection, which offer diners a three-course dinner (excluding drinks) for £30 or under.

As diners move away from large chain restaurants, independent restaurateurs recognise the need to differentiate themselves by offering a distinctive, customer-focused experience, great choice and most of all, value for money.

Elizabeth Carter, Editor of The Good Food Guide by Waitrose & Partners, comments: “Seven decades of publication have given The Good Food Guide a unique insight into eating out in Britain. And the more we conduct our lives online, the more we look for care, provenance and thoughtfulness – especially when it comes to food. With diners increasingly looking for flexible eating options and value for money, there has been a surge in inexpensive  cafés and restaurants that rank quality of ingredients above all else. Small, owner-run dining rooms across the country provide clear examples of how they can and do work in direct opposition to the pizza-burger overload on the British high street.”

This year's Best New Entry for London, Peg in Hackney, proves that it's not just grand dining rooms being celebrated by the Guide. “An exciting little place” this cool Hackney newcomer offers beautiful, low-budget dishes, prepared with a precision that the paper napkins and reusable bamboo plates belie. 

Nico Simeone's Six by Nico chain of crowd- pleasing restaurants which serve up a six-course tasting menu at £28 changing every six weeks, is a modern example of wallet-friendly, enthusiastic restaurants making dining out more accessible. 

Other fine examples of eateries offering delicious food at great prices include the GFG's Best Local Restaurants Brassica, Woolf & Social, Route and The Warren, as well as the The Small Holding in Kent, whose chef Will Devlin is Editors' current Chef to Watch . 

Crossing the Channel to find the No.1 foodie hotspot

Editors at The Good Food Guide have uncovered the foodiest regions spread right across the British Isles, adding up the cooking scores for each county or region to create a list of foodie hotspots. Entries in the GFG are awarded a score from one to ten, based on anonymous inspections. By taking the total for each area (with half a point for each Local Gem entry) and dividing by population size, the editors have identified the regions with the best eating out per capita.

Diners, however, may have to cross the English Channel to visit the place in the top spot! Leading the way at number one is the Channel Islands, where you will find restaurants such as Bohemia in Jersey, the highest scoring restaurant on the Channel Islands, placed at number 21 in the Guide's Top 50. The GFG calls it a sophisticated dining room, which “is in many ways peak St Helier... sourcing primarily from Jersey's abundance.”

Along with top restaurants, a number of 'Local Gems' can also be found on the Channel Islands. Eateries such as No 10 Restaurant & Bar on St Helier - with its style of cooking that is 'unostentatious yet ringing with exciting flavours and combinations', Stocks on the small island of Sark - an oak-panelled dining room in a country hotel, and Octopus on Guernsey - a seafood restaurant “with an all-day menu touting everything from fish and chips to tofu ramen” make the Channel Islands a foodie haven. 

Cornwall, with the likes of Restaurant Nathan Outlaw, which achieved a perfect cooking score of ten for the fourth year in a row, and Local Gems such as Blas Burgerworks - an eco-friendly burger bar on the harbour in St Ives, has secured second place on the list. It's  closely followed by Bristol at number three, Somerset at number four and Cumbria at five.

In sixth place is Mid-Scotland & Fife, London and Wiltshire follow in seventh & eighth place and Oxfordshire and Mid-Wales complete the top ten line-up in ninth & tenth respectively. 

The price is right

Love it or hate it, consumers are no strangers to dynamic pricing – the term used to explain why the cost of hotel rooms and flights fluctuates depending on demand, dates or times. The GFG has observed a number of restaurants starting to follow suit, charging different amounts for the same dining experience to encourage people to book when demand is typically lower.

This year, the GFG features several restaurants doing this to help spread demand across the week. The Man Behind The Curtain in Leeds, a GFG Top 50 restaurant, charges £75 for 10 courses at dinner Tuesday to Thursday; later in the week you'll pay an extra £15 or £25. Soho restaurant Bob Bob Ricard has a peak and off-peak system which means it's around 20% cheaper to eat at lunch time, as well as at dinner on Sundays and Mondays, than on other days of the week. 

Diners might well feel an injustice at having to loosen their purse strings at the weekend and pay a premium for the busiest nights of the week, but on the flip side, rates will also get cheaper when demand is lower, so restaurant-goers could bag themselves a bargain destination dining experience for less than they would usually pay.

It's a growing trend in the restaurant world, but not a format for everyone. The Good Food Guide Editors suggest when it comes to dining, it may pay to shop around and keep dates flexible.

No reservations

To queue or not to queue? That is the question diners face at restaurants where no-bookings policies ask them to wait patiently in line. While the presence of a large crowd outside creates a buzz for 'no bookings' restaurants, the tide could finally be turning as a number of places change their policies. If time is on your side, you may be willing to wait your turn but if the meter is running for the babysitter, or you've got theatre tickets, you'll want to make sure your table is secured before you head out.

Hip bistro 10 Greek Street in Soho now takes reservations at lunch and dinner while holding back several tables for walk-ins. Soho favourite Pastaio operates a virtual queueing system so you don't have to stand outside in all weathers and you can even skip the line at Padella in London's Borough Market by using the WalkIn app. 

Perhaps the wait is over and the curtain will fall on no-res restaurants. However with the popularity of places such as Riley's Fish Shack in Tynemouth and the growing Dishoom chain, the Guide believes there will always be a discerning diner or two willing to queue if the end result is worth the wait. 

A childish debate? 

It's the time-old debate of the eating out world: should children be allowed in restaurants? This year, the Guide features 170 places which have restrictions on kids dining with them, which vary from allowing children at lunchtime only to setting an age limit for younger guests, and even those that don't accept children at all.

When the Guide put the question 'Should under-12s be welcomed in fine dining restaurants?' to its Twitter followers, 54% answered 'yes', 31% responded with 'no' and 15% suggested that it would depend on the time of day. 

The debate is still wide open on both sides. Some argue that by having an open door policy for youngsters, it encourages them to learn about good food at a young age, while on the flip side, children could be seen as a distraction for those looking to have an adults-only outing. 

Whatever side of the fence you sit on, the Guide ensures its readers are able to make an informed decision, with restrictions on younger diners clearly marked at the bottom of each restaurant review. 

Rogan makes a return to No.1 in the Top 50

Made up of the Guide's highest scorers, the Top 50* is all about celebrating brilliant, innovative and consistent cooking and world-class service. This is wonderfully epitomised by Cumbria's L'Enclume and Core by Clare Smyth in London's Notting Hill which are No.1 and No.2 respectively this year.

Chef Simon Rogan's restaurant L'Enclume in the historic village of Cartmel in Cumbria,  makes a welcome return to the top spot this year, having previously graced the top of the best restaurant list in 2017's GFG (published September 2016). 

Of L'Enclume, Elizabeth Carter, Editor of The Good Food Guide by Waitrose & Partners, says, “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 says, “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.”

Also remaining in the elite club of restaurants achieving a perfect cooking score of ten is Core by Clare Smyth - which moves up one place from last year to No.2 and Restaurant Nathan Outlaw at No.3. The Guide states that the highest score is only awarded for 'just perfect dishes, showing faultless technique at every service; extremely rare, and the highest accolade the Guide can give.'

Of Core by Clare Smyth, the Editors remark: “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.”

And of Restaurant Nathan Outlaw, they comment: “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.”

A new entry into the top 10 is Moor Hall, moving from No.11 last year to No.5 in this year's Good Food Guide. Elizabeth Carter comments: “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.”

* The full Top 50 list can be found in the notes to editors.

In with the new

The Top 50 features an array of exciting and diverse new entries. This year sees 11 new restaurants taking their place  in the Top 50, compared with seven in 2019, six in 2018 and seven in 2017. 

Elizabeth Carter notes that “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 Good Food Guide 2019 by Waitrose & Partners Editors' Awards

Each year, the Guide announces its Editors' Awards in recognition of those restaurants and chefs who have shown excellence in their field along with exceptional talent. 

This year, in a time of ever increasing interest in sustainability and the environment, the Editors have acknowledged a Sustainability Champion. In recognition of his tremendous work in this field, Douglas McMaster of Silo has been chosen to receive this accolade. His work at Silo Brighton, moving later this year to Hackney's Crate Brewery, is utterly pioneering. 

“Waste is a failure of the imagination” he says. Silo has been reverse-engineered to ensure there's no need for a bin: foods are bought whole, flour is milled and butter churned on-site; milk is turned into cheese and yoghurt. And any waste that's produced is organic and fed to Bertha, a closed-loop compost machine or aerobic digester. McMaster'sbook, 'The Zero Waste Blueprint' is an inspiration to other restaurateurs, encouraging them to follow in his footsteps, but also to question the status quo.  

Chef of the Year has been awarded to Pam Brunton at Inver in Strachur, Argyll & Bute. She's commended in the Guide, with Elizabeth Carter saying: “Although perfectly attuned to the Scottish context and natural larder on her doorstep, chef Pam Brunton is adept at weaving in wider geographic or historic influences with a high level of ambition and individuality.” One diner observed of Inver that “the whole atmosphere is superb from the beautiful setting to the pitch perfect service - however the food remains the star of the show, pulsating with pops of flavour and pristine natural ingredients.”

Chef to Watch has been named as Will Devlin from The Small Holding in Kilndown, Kent. Elizabeth Carter says, “With a number of young chefs cooking to such a high standard, the Chef to Watch award was a tough judging assignment this year. But, ultimately, Will Devlin won our hearts. His is a simple formula: an instinctive feel for food, a refreshing down-to-earth approach with the emphasis on seasonality and quality - ingredients are grown in the restaurant's own small holding or sourced locally.”

This year's award for Restaurant of the Year goes to The Mash Inn in Radnage, Buckinghamshire. The grown-up pub dishes up a daily four-course menu or ten-course taster, where 'pretty much everything is exposed to naked flames or burning charcoal', resulting in dishes that feel fresh but not slavishly fashionable. Often using ingredients from the kitchen garden, highlights from the menu include darkly blistered chapa flatbread with clean, aerated romanesco and green apple soup, simple just-pulled radishes with hay mayo, and a memorable côte du boeuf with silky, umami-rich sesame miso sauce.

The Woodsman in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, described as 'a welcome beacon of hospitality in Shakespeare's birthplace', is announced as Best New Entry, UK. The Guide describes the restaurant as being 'a smart-casual place with an urban vibe that suits this ancient building, dating from the 17th century. Passion for quality runs through every aspect.'

The Best New Entry, London is Peg in Hackney. Serving small, Japanese inspired plates, this compact restaurant 'looks like it's come straight from the pages of a style magazine and yet it's possible to eat three courses at dinner for £30 or less. The tableware is pastel - sunny yellow, baby pink, vibrant coral - the menu's a retro pegboard and the counters are terrazzo, fashioned from recycled yoghurt pots'. The Guide notes that dishes are 'light and low carb' saying 'it wouldn't be hard, between two, to see off the entire menu (13 dishes or so).'

Best Local Restaurant

The Best Local Restaurant Awards recognise fabulous neighbourhood eateries up and down the country.  Each region has a local winner, outlined in the Guide** and this year's Best Local Restaurant Overall Winner is The Little Gloster in Gurnard on the Isle of Wight. 

The GFG felt it was a worthy champion with its menu that emphasises its maritime location. The Good Food Guide by Waitrose & Partners describes the restaurant as “a real family affair”, saying “islander Ben Cooke and his wife Holly run this Scandi-style seaside restaurant with help from mum Eileen, Ben's Danish granny 'Mormor' and even little Uffa - the couple's young son who lends his name to the popular pasta made in-house. They work closely with local suppliers, most of whom have become personal friends.”   

Notes to editors

The Good Food Guide is published by Waitrose & Partners on 12th September, available in Waitrose & Partners shops, via Waitrose.com and thegoodfoodguide.co.uk. The 2020 edition is the seventh to be published by the supermarket. RRP £17.99.

The Good Food Guide publishes a regular round-up of the latest openings, chef moves and restaurant news. Visit thegoodfoodguide.co.uk or follow @goodfoodguideuk.

** The list of Best Local Restaurant regional winners can be found in the Best Local Restaurants release, in The Good Food Guide by Waitrose & Partners and on the Good Food Guide website.

The Top 50

 

1 L'Enclume, Cumbria (10)

2 Core by Clare Smyth, London (10)

3 Restaurant Nathan Outlaw, Cornwall (10)

4 Ynyshir, Powys (9)

5 Moor Hall, Lancashire (9)

6 Claude Bosi at Bibendum, London (9)

7 Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, London (9)

8 Restaurant Sat Bains, Nottingham (9)

9 Casamia, Bristol (9)

10 Pollen Street Social, London (9)

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)

 

For more information please contact hayley.soper@waitrose.co.uk