GRENACHE in Greater Manchester has today been named as the North West regional winner in the The Good Food Guide Readers’ Restaurant of the Year Awards.

"It’s a fantastic achievement to win the Best North West Restaurant Award."

44,500 food-loving members of the public put forward their favourite restaurants, pubs and cafés from around the UK for the annual awards. The Good Food Guide award judges have sifted through all the nominations to pick the winners and celebrate some of the best dining experiences around the country.

To qualify for the awards, aimed at championing local neighbourhood eateries, restaurants needed to be independently run and offer regional or local produce where possible. Grenache fought off stiff competition from others in the region to win the award for the North West.

Hussein Abbas, owner of Grenache, was delighted to be named as the winner, saying:  "It’s a fantastic achievement to win the Best North West Restaurant Award. I believe winning this award is a testament to the quality of food and service that my team provides and we are all really proud of the number of customers that voted for us." 

Elizabeth Carter, Consultant Editor of The Good Food Guide said:  "It may be small but Hussein Abbas’s high street restaurant has a big heart and a huge and very vocal fan base totally smitten by the generous cooking of fresh, seasonal ingredients." 

Grenache is one of ten regional winners rom around the UK, one of whom will go on to be named as the overall The Good Food Guide Readers’ Restaurant of the Year. The winner of this award will be announced on 20 June 2012.

 The ten regional winners are:

-      East of England – Maison Bleue, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

-      London – Charlotte’s Place, Ealing

-      Midlands – The Bluebell, Henley-in-Arden, Warwickshire

-      North East – Van Zeller, Harrogate

-      North West – Grenache, Walkden, Manchester

-      Northern Ireland – Mourne Seafood Bar, Dundrum, Belfast

-      Scotland – Ubiquitous Chip, Glasgow

-      South East – Jeremy’s Restaurant, Haywards Heath, W Sussex

-      South West – The Swan, Wedmore, Somerset

-      Wales – Y Polyn, Carmarthen

Thanks to Phil Taylor for the photo.