Competition at the top as The Good Food Guide announces best restaurants in the UK

Chef Simon Rogan’s Cumbrian restaurant, L’Enclume, has achieved a perfect 10 in The Good Food Guide 2013* for the very first time, it is revealed today, as the bestselling restaurant guide publishes its annual ranking of the UK’s Top 50 restaurants**.

Restaurants in The Good Food Guide are awarded a cooking score out of ten, with L’Enclume joining Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck as one of only two restaurants in the UK to achieve this hallowed rating. Whilst The Fat Duck retains the number one spot in the Top 50 ranking, L’Enclume is biting at its heels at number two.

Elizabeth Carter, Consultant Editor of The Good Food Guide, explains what makes L’Enclume so deserving of its perfect 10 cooking rating: ‘L’Enclume is mind-blowing. It’s a world-class destination in harmony with its local community, serving food that is hard-wired to the Cumbrian soil. Rogan creates miracles from nature; he cooks what the land can provide – nothing more, nothing less. Eating at L’Enclume is a unique, almost one-to-one experience. It is quite simply astonishing.’

Simon Rogan, chef patron of L’Enclume, comments on his success: ‘We are over the moon and never in my wildest dreams did I think we would get the maximum score. It’s brilliant for the team as now we are among a very elite company of people who have achieved this status, but we will continue to push forward with all the projects we have going on up here and try our best to make it even better.’

The Good Food Guide’s annual Top 50 restaurant ranking is highly regarded by chefs and restaurant-goers alike, with particular attention paid to those chefs and restaurants who make it into the top 10.  Restaurant Sat Bains, in Nottinghamshire, and Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, in London, stick at the number three and four spots respectively. Cornish favourite Restaurant Nathan Outlaw retains the number five place with Jason Atherton’s Pollen Street Social, in London, rising to number six. Raymond Blanc’s always-popular Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons is ranked seventh; Hibiscus in London, eighth, and The Square, also in London, is ninth.  London restaurant The Ledbury, hit by rioters a year ago, features in the top 10 listing for the first time at number ten.

The sheer quality of all the restaurants who take the top 10 places in the restaurant listing begs the question: are we living in a culinary golden age?

Elizabeth Carter answers: ‘As far as The Good Food Guide 2013’s top 10 restaurants list is concerned, the answer is unquestionably yes. Times might be hard but at the top end each restaurant which features in the top 10 is hitting new heights in terms of creativity, confidence and sheer flavour. If ever there were a blueprint for world-class restaurants, this top 10 is it, and they are all here for us to enjoy in the UK.’

The Good Food Guide 2013

Top 50 Restaurants – Complete List

Cooking score shown in brackets

1. The Fat Duck, Berkshire (10)
2. L’Enclume, Cumbria (10)
3. Restaurant Sat Bains, Nottinghamshire (9)
4. Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, Royal Hospital Road, London (9)
5. Restaurant Nathan Outlaw, Cornwall (9)
6. Pollen Street Social, London (9)
7. Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, Oxfordshire (8)
8. Hibiscus, London (8)
9. The Square, London (8)
10. The Ledbury, London (8)
11. Marcus Wareing at the Berkeley, London (8)
12. Le Champignon Sauvage, Gloucestershire (8)
13. Adam Simmonds at Danesfield House, Buckinghamshire (8)
14. Le Gavroche, London (8)
15. Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester, London (8)
16. Whatley Manor, The Dining Room, Wiltshire (8)
17. The Waterside Inn, Berkshire (7)
18. Midsummer House, Cambridgeshire (7)
19. Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, London (7)
20. Pied-à-Terre, London (7)
21. The Kitchin, Edinburgh (7)
22. Murano, London (7)
23. Restaurant Martin Wishart, Edinburgh (7)
24. Gidleigh Park, Devon (7)
25. Fraiche, Merseyside (7)
26. Robert Thompson at the Hambrough, Isle of Wight (7)
27. The Crown at Whitebrook, Gwent (7)
28. The Pass, West Sussex (7)
29. Michael Wignall, the Latymer at Pennyhill Park Hotel, Surrey (7)
30. Fischer’s Baslow Hall, Derbyshire (7)
31. Hambleton Hall, Rutland (7)
32. The Peat Inn, Fife (7)
33. Andrew Fairlie at Gleneagles, Tayside (7)
34. The Old Vicarage, Derbyshire (7)
35. The Artichoke, Buckinghamshire (7)
36. The Hand & Flowers, Buckinghamshire (6)
37. Purnell’s, West Midlands (6)
38. Tyddyn Llan, Denbighshire (6)
39. Mr Underhill’s, Shropshire (6)
40. Bohemia, Jersey (6)
41. The Sportsman, Kent (6)
42. The Creel, Orkney (6)
43. Simon Radley at Chester Grosvenor, Cheshire (6)
44. The Yorke Arms, Ramsgill, North Yorkshire (6)
45. The Royal Oak, Paley Street, Berkshire (6)
46. Galvin La Chapelle, London (6)
47. Paul Ainsworth at No. 6, Cornwall (6)
48. The Box Tree, West Yorkshire (6)
49. Castle Terrace, Edinburgh (6)
50. Tuddenham Mill, Suffolk (6)