Can you guess who the new entry is?...
The restaurants in the 2018 edition of Waitrose’s Good Food Guide have been announced, with new entries in Leeds and Yorkshire, and one Leeds restaurant climbing into the UK’s top 50.
Unsurprisingly, it’s Michael O’Hare’s Man Behind The Curtain (read our review here) that sits among the country’s top half-century, scraping in at number fifty with a score of 7. His new Manchester venture The Rabbit in the Moon has also earned inclusion in the guide.
From last night's tasting menu which was a bit of a greatest hits set. Iberico Pork, ajo blanco, charcoal cinders, "egg" and anchovy. Great food, *impeccable* service. I reckon this Man Behind The Curtain might be the next big thing, mark my words.
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There are over 1,200 entries in this year's guide, based on anonymous inspections from experts combined with reader feedback. “Once again the readers of the guide have pointed our experts towards some brilliant eating in unexpected places.” says Elizabeth Carter, Waitrose Good Food Guide Editor.
“Whether it’s fine-dining in a former strip-club, sushi under a railway arch or a fish supper in a shipping container, we find and celebrate culinary flair in all its forms. The Good Food Guide continues in its mission to uncover great cooking whatever the venue, wherever the talent. We think that eating out should be fun – and that’s something these restaurants deliver in spades.”
Leeds’ only new entry this year is Vice & Virtue, so named as a tongue-in-cheek reference to the fact it was once a strip club, the Good Food Guide commended it on bringing “solid technical skill and innovations” to the Leeds’ restaurant scene, and commenting that “with its Art Deco style interior, this venue is now poles apart from its previous life” - ha ha ha. It now serves up three tasting menus, with dishes including ‘perfect’ lobster ravioli and organic apple strudel.
This week's special - Octopus, dill, Romesco and lentils
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It joins returning entries like the intimate, innovative The Swine That Dines (our review here), grown-up grill restaurant Ox Club (review here), Brasserie Forty 4, D&D’s Trinity Leeds fine-diner Crafthouse, Friends of Ham, old school and modern neighbourhood Italians Salvo’s (review here) and Zucco, The Reliance, and Tharavadu (review here)
White chocolate, @mattbigland 's Swiss mint, koji caramelised chocolate
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Outside of Leeds, new entries include modern fine dining inside recycled shipping containers at Sheffield’s Jöro (review here), Rudding Park Hotel’s Horto (review here), and York’s Skosh (review here). Meanwhile Harrogate’s Norse, Drighlington’s Prashad (review here), Ilkley’s The Box Tree, Le Cochon Aveugle in York, Stuzzi in Harrogate, and Sowerby Bridge’s charming and peculiar Gimbals (review here) all keep their spots in the guide for another year.
For the full list of Leeds and nationwide entries, the Good Food Guide is available to buy from Monday 4 September (RRP £17.99).
