There were one or two surprises this year
The eleventh annual 'Estrella Damm National Restaurant Awards' were held this week with a shindig at London’s Hurlingham Club.
The National Restaurant Awards - voted for by a panel of judges including industry experts, chefs, restaurateurs and food writers - is generally recognised as being the largest annual gathering of chefs and restaurateurs in the UK.
Unsurprisingly, 53 out of 100 of the top 100 are based in London, with a very decent 9% of the top restaurants hailing from the North West.
The best UK restaurant 2018 was Kiln, an affordable 50-cover Thai restaurant in London’s Brewer Street. Last year’s number one venue, The Sportsman, a seaside pub in Seasalter, Kent (which had also topped the list the year before that) came ninth. Mayfair’s newly opened Spanish restaurant, Sabor was number two, while Michelin starred Chinese restaurant, A Wong placed third.
The highest-ranking North West establishment this year was Simon Rogan’s L’Enclume in Cartmel, Cumbria, which ranked fifth - an improvement on last year’s rank of seventeenth. L’Enclume also holds two Michelin stars, five AA Rosettes and is ranked at number two in The Good Food Guide’s top 50 best UK restaurants with a maximum score of 10/10.
Moor Hall in Aughton, Lancashire, run by chef patron Mark Birchill, who was Rogan’s head chef at L’Enclume for over a decade, was hot on his former boss’s heels at number six – a massive leap from last years position at number 70.
Predictably, a number of golden boy Gary Usher’s restaurants made the list with Liverpool’s Wreckfish placing a surprising 19th - meaning the crowdfunded Slater Street bistro ranked above esteemed establishments such as Raymond Blanc’s Le Manoir (25) and Heston Blumenthal’s Fat Duck (32). Meanhwile, Usher's Manchester restaurant, Hispi, placed at number 47 (above last year’s rank of 54).
Stockport’s Where The Light Gets In, which did not make last year’s list, despite a smattering of positive reviews from national critics, made a respectable 80th place this year. Chef owner Samuel Buckley had been recognised with a 'one to watch' award in 2017.
Other North West restaurants on the list include the Freemasons at Wiswell, which made a huge leap to 18th place after placing 77th last year; popular Clitheroe pub and restaurant the Parkers Arms, which placed 76th; Fraiche on the Wirral at 83rd, and Lancashire’s Michelin-starred Northcote at 97th.
A special OpenTable Diners Choice award was awarded to The Chef's Table restaurant in Chester.
The full top 100 UK restaurants 2018 (North West restaurants are highlighted):
- Kiln, Soho
- Sabor, Mayfair
- A Wong, Victoria
- Core by Clare Smyth, Notting Hill
- L’Enclume, Cumbria
- Moor Hall, Lancashire
- Lyle’s, Shoreditch
- Restaurant Sat Bains, Nottingham
- The Sportsman, Kent
- Nathan Outlaw, Cornwall
- Claude Bosi at Bibendum, Chelsea
- The Coach, Marlow
- Coombeshead Farm, Cornwall
- Brat, Shoreditch
- Padella, London Bridge
- The Quality Chop House, Clerkenwell
- The Ledbury, Notting Hill
- Freemasons at Wiswell, Lancashire
- Wreckfish, Liverpool
- The Black Swan at Oldstead
- The River Café, Hammersmith
- Indian Accent, Mayfair
- Paul Ainsworth at No 6, Padstow
- El Pastor, London Bridge
- Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, Oxford
- Ondine, Edinburgh
- Casamia, Bristol
- Ynyshir, Powys
- Som Saa, Shoreditch
- House of Tides, Newcastle
- The Clove Club, Shoreditch
- The Fat Duck, Bray
- Chez Bruce, Wandsworth
- Elystan Street, Chelsea
- The Crown at Burchetts Green, Maidenhead
- Trinity, Clapham
- The Little Fish Market, Hove
- The Walnut Tree, Abergavenny
- Quo Vadis, Soho
- The Seahorse, Dartmouth
- Barrafina, Covent Garden
- Lorne, Victoria
- The Waterside Inn, Bray
- Brawn, Bethnal Green
- The Raby Hunt, Darlington
- Hispi, Didsbury
- Hoppers, Soho
- Midsummer House, Cambridge
- Noble Rot, Bloomsbury
- Gymkhana, Mayfair
- Nuala, Old Street
- Hedone, Chiswick
- Alchemilla, Nottingham
- Kricket, Soho
- Pollen St Social, Mayfair
- Tyddyn Llan, Llandrillo
- Root, Bristol
- St John Bread & Wine, Shoreditch
- The Star Inn Harome, Yorkshire
- Farang, Highbury
- Holborn Dining Room, Holborn
- The Hand & Flowers, Marlow
- Wilson's, Bristol
- 40 Maltby Street, London Bridge
- Black Axe Mangal, Islington
- Carter’s of Moseley, Birmingham
- The Palomar, Soho
- Smoking Goat, Shoreditch
- The Beehive, Berkshire
- The Hardwick, Abergavenny
- Timberyard, Edinburgh
- Xu, Chinatown
- The Dairy, Clapham
- Le Gavroche, Mayfair
- Paco Tapas, Bristol
- The Parkers Arms, Clitheroe
- Rambla, Soho
- Wine & Brine, County Armagh
- Frog by Adam Handling, Covent Garden
- Where The Light Gets In, Stockport
- Bonhams, Mayfair
- Restaurant Andrew Fairlie, Edinburgh
- Fraiche, Oxton
- Restaurant Story, London Bridge
- Sardine, Hoxton
- The Ritz, Picadilly
- Kitchen Table, Fitzrovia
- Inver, Argyll & Bute
- Lima, Fitzrovia
- The Fordwich Arms, Canterbury
- Frenchie, Covent Garden
- The Elephant, Torquay
- Barbary, Covent Garden
- Neo Bistro, Mayfair
- Mark Greenaway, Edinburgh
- Morston Hall Hotel, Norfolk
- Northcote Manor, Langho
- Westerns Laundry, Highbury
- Perilla, Newington Green
- Ikoyi, Piccadilly