REVEALED | Good Food Guide's Top 50 Restaurants 2017

CHEF Simon Rogan's flagship Cumbrian restaurant, L'Enclume (pictured above), has topped the Waitrose Good Food Guide for the fourth year running, securing five years of perfect ten out of ten scores from judges.

Lancashire's Northcote dropped out of the Top 50 for the first time in three decades

The Good Food Guide awarded the restaurant top billing due to the ‘soaring sophistication of Mr Rogan's cooking’. In particular, it highlighted the seventeen course tasting menu, which offers ‘clever elements of technical wizardry to keep the oohs and aahs going’ (alright, calm down), with ‘the cooking forever breaking new ground’. Many ingredients are local and grown on L’Enclume’s own twelve-acre farm.

Good Food Guide editor, Elizabeth Carter, said: Rogan is a chef who never stands still - you feel he's always forging ahead, restlessly inventing and pushing his ingredients to extract maximum flavour and interest.” 

Elsewhere, Rogan's Manchester restaurant (and the city's only entry in the Top 50) The French at The Midland dropped one spot to eighteenth in the rankings.

Rogan's rival Aiden Byrne is likely to be smarting once more, after Manchester House was again overlooked despite picking up four AA Rosettes earlier this year, whilst Lancashire's Michelin-starred Northcote dropped out of the Top 50 for the first time in three decades.

Another notable entry for the North West is Fraiche in Merseyside, which makes a return to the Top 10 restaurants, and it's another good year for last year's 'Best Pub in the UK', as The Freemasons in Wiswell, Lancashire retained its spot amongst the elite.

Chef Simon Rogan tops the list... again

Cumbria picked up a further top accolade in this year's guide, as the Forest Side scooped ‘best new entry’ - perhaps unsurprising considering head chef Kevin Tickle formerly worked at L’Enclume - and goes straight to number 37. Forest Side is well known for its own ‘gathering, growing, brewing and preserving’ and is located in a ‘fairytale gothic mansion’ in Wordsworth’s village of Grasmere. 

Tickle (clearly tickled) said: "I'm completely blown away to be entering The Good Food Guide with such a high score on our first year, and it's the icing on the cake to win the best new entry award! I am incredibly proud of my team for helping to creating such a strong foundation from which we can progress.”  

The Good Food Guide’s annual Top 50 restaurant ranking is one of the most highly regarding in the business, recognising the very best talent in the country, with 'each position earned by its score in The Good Food Guide, editor appraisal and strength of reader feedback’.  

A top score of ten means ‘just perfect dishes, showing faultless technique at every service; extremely rare, and the highest accolade the Guide can give’.

In which case, another slap on the back for Mr Rogan.

Here's the full Top 50 list (North West restaurants in bold):

1 L’Enclume, Cumbria (10)

2 Restaurant Nathan Outlaw, Cornwall (10)

3 Restaurant Sat Bains, Nottinghamshire (9)

4 Pollen Street Social, London (9)

5 Hibiscus, London (9)

6 The Fat Duck, Berkshire (9)

7 Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, London (9)

8 Hedone, London (8)

9 Restaurant Andrew Fairlie, Tayside (8)

10 Fraiche, Merseyside (8)

11 The Ledbury, London (8)

12 Midsummer House, Cambridgeshire (8)

13 Le Champignon Sauvage, Gloucestershire (8)

14 Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester, London (8)

15 Fera at Claridges, London (8)

16 Le Gavroche, London (8)

17 Marcus, London (8)

18 The French, Manchester (8)

19 André Garrett at Cliveden, Berkshire (8)

20 The Peat Inn, Fife (8)

21 Whatley Manor, The Dining Room, Wiltshire (8)

22 Castle Terrace, Edinburgh (7) New to the Top 50 this year

23 The Kitchin, Edinburgh (7)

24 Bohemia, Jersey (7)

25 The Greenhouse, London (7) New to the Top 50 this year

Forest Side head chef Kevin Tickle

26 The Waterside Inn, Berkshire (7)

27 Casamia, Bristol (7)

28 Paul Ainsworth at No. 6, Cornwall (7)

29 Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, London (7)

30 Artichoke, Buckinghamshire (7)

31 Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, Oxfordshire (7)

32 Restaurant Story, London (7)

33 Gidleigh Park, Devon (7)

34 Restaurant James Sommerin, Glamorgan (7)

35 Simpsons, Birmingham (7) New to the Top 50 this year

36 Sketch, London (7)

37 Forest Side, Cumbria (7) New to the Top 50 this year

38 Murano, London (7)

39 Restaurant Martin Wishart, Edinburgh (7)

40 Ynyshir, Powys (7)

41 Adam’s, Birmingham (7)

42 The Raby Hunt, Durham (7)

43 Freemasons at Wiswell, Lancashire (7)

44 Orwells, Oxfordshire (7) New to the Top 50 this year

45 Restaurant Marianne, London (7) New to the Top 50 this year

46 Hambleton Hall, Rutland (7)

47 The Whitebrook, Gwent (7) New to the Top 50 this year

48 Llangoed Hall, Powys (7)

49 Lake Road Kitchen, Cumbria (6)

50 The Dairy, London (6)

Waitrose has also announced the Editors' Awards from the 2017 Good Food Guide, which recognise restaurants and chefs who have shown excellence in their field: 

Chef of the Year: James Close - The Raby Hunt, Durham 

Chef to Watch: Ben Murphy - The Woodford, South Woodford, London 

Restaurant of the Year: Orwells, Oxfordshire 

Best New Entry: Forest Side, Cumbria 

Best Front-of-House: Pollen Street Social, London 

Best Small Group: Dishoom, London 

Local Restaurant of the Year: Wine & Brine, Moira, Armagh