Good Food Guide 2020: which North West restaurants made the Top 50?

THE 2020 edition of the Waitrose Good Food Guide has announced this year’s top restaurants and award winners.

Published on Thursday 12th September, The Guide announces its Top 50 restaurants made up of the highest scoring establishments and celebrating brilliant, innovative and consistent cooking and world-class service.

This year, there are nine restaurants in the North in the Top 50. These include three new entries and four in the Top 20.

Chef Simon Rogan's L'Enclume in Cumbria makes a triumphant return to the number one spot after temporarily dropping to second place in 2018.  

Elizabeth Carter - editor of the Good Food Guide - 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.”

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.”

Moor Hall continues to move up and up, making it into the top ten this year, up six places from No.11 to No.5.

“It’s been a delight to watch Mark Birchall making his way through the Guide’s ratings at such an electric pace, achieving a cooking score of nine.” says Elizabeth Carter, “Moor Hall is, without doubt, one of the hottest restaurants in the UK.”

Stockport’s Where The Light Gets In, The Man Behind The Curtain in Leeds and The Black Swan in York all enter the top 50 for the first time with Elizabeth Carter praising the new entries, saying: “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.”

Fraiche in Merseyside remains in the top 20, moving down one place from nineteenth place last year, while Forest Side in Cumbria maintains at no.27 and Adam Reid at The French moves up two spots to No.11. 

Lake Road Kitchen, Ambleside makes the biggest jump, going from No.45 to No.26 while Simon Radley at the Chester Grosvenor, Cheshire - a new entry at at No.36 last year - slips out of the top 50 again for now.

The Good Food Guide as a whole is championing budget restaurants this year, with more than 350 places offering three-course meals for £30 or under. Nico Simeone’s Six by Nico chain which recently opened in Manchester, being one example of wallet-friendly ‘fine-dining’, serving up a six-course tasting menu at £28 which changes every six weeks.

The North West region boasts 15 new entries to this year’s GFG which are: Mana, Next Door, Gilpin Spice, Lounge on the Green, Tast, The Spärrows, Wood, Kala, 1863, The Black Bull, Porta, Dishoom, The Allotment, Pinion and Chaat Cart.