The top entries and award winners from the 2016 Good Food Guide have been revealed today ahead of the launch of its 65th anniversary issue. The Good Food Guide, owned by Waitrose, is a guide to the very best restaurants and eateries across Britain.  And it’s not just fine dining that is being recognised. Whilst one leading restaurant has secured a hat trick of consecutive years in the top spot, a caravan park café in Wales has also been included in the guide for its high quality menu.

Taking the top spot of ‘number one restaurant’, for the third year running, is L’Enclume, which also secured four years of ‘perfect ten scores’. L’Enclume, located in the historic village of Cartmel in Cumbria, is run by chef Simon Rogan. The guide entry calls it the “the UK’s greatest restaurant” and “an unassuming location for an undoubted pinnacle of the new British cooking.” It was awarded the very best score possible because “many of the dishes have become long-running masterpieces” with the most noteworthy the Cartmel Valley venison tartare and a “really special” apple tart with gingerbread ice cream. Many dishes at L’Enclume are made with ingredients sourced from the establishments own farmland. 

Speaking about his top entry in the Guide, Chef Simon Rogan said, “There are a lot of amazing restaurants around and for L’Enclume to be awarded #1 in the Good Food Guide for the 3rd year running is very special. And us having three restaurants in the top 17 is a massive achievement from the team.”

The guide celebrates its 65th anniversary this year, with the very first Good Food Guide published in 1951. It was a hardback of 224 pages, cost five shillings and listed ‘600 places throughout Britain where you can rely on a good meal at a reasonable price’.  The guide is still compiled with the reliance on reader feedback of eateries up and down the country together with anonymous inspections by a team of experts. 

It was a Good Food Guide inspector who suggested that a café in an unexpected location was worth further investigation. The Marram Grass Café, a new entry into the 2016 guide, is run by twenty-something brothers, Liam and Ellis Barrie, on their parents’ White Lodge Caravan Park in Newborough on the Isle of Anglesey. The café is housed in an old breeze block potting shed with a tin roof but offers a menu focussed on local ingredients sourced directly from farmers and fishermen in Anglesey.  

Speaking about The Marram Grass Café, Elizabeth Carter, Waitrose Good Food Guide Editor said, “When one of the guide’s longest serving inspectors tipped us off about a restaurant in a shed on a campsite, our curiosity was piqued. And what an extraordinary find Marram Grass Café turned out to be. The low building with its corrugated iron roof may channel scout hut and air raid shelter in equal measure, but the interior charms and the cooking shows ambition and skill. It’s a simple recipe for success that not many manage to get so right.”

Joint owner of The Marram Grass Cafe, Liam Barrie, 27, said, “When we first started out in 2009, we’d taken over what had been a greasy spoon with only four tables. It was just my chef brother Ellis and I with a couple of Saturday staff but now we have 30 people on our books and 40 covers. We changed the existing menu from one that relied on frozen food to ours which sources from as many local producers as possible. We are really proud of that. We like staying creative and are always experimenting with our dishes made with ingredients such as Menai mussels and line caught Anglesey sea bass.”

On the launch of the 65th anniversary edition, which goes on sale on the 7th September, Elizabeth Carter, has also spoken about the guide’s history and its founder. “Raymond Postgate’s passionately held belief that if you shouted loud enough, the standard of restaurant food in Britain could and would be raised, inspired an army of like-minded people to report on places where the food was decent – and the rise of the consumer group as a force in the market place was born.

“Back in 1949, when Raymond Postgate wrote a heartfelt piece calling for a ‘campaign against cruelty to food’, a typical restaurant meal included soup from a tin, soggy steak from Argentina, synthetic cream and tinned Empire fruit. Postgate’s article inspired an army of like-minded people to report on places where the food was decent and The Good Food Guide was created.  Sixty-five years of championing the best food around Britain – now that’s what I call a brilliant achievement.”

Waitrose has also announced the Editors’ Awards from The 2016 Good Food Guide. These awards recognise restaurants and chefs who have shown excellence in their field. This year, Chef of the Year has been awarded to Robin Gill from The Dairy and The Manor, Clapham, London.  Restaurant of the Year has been named as Ox in Belfast and Best New Restaurant Entry is Lake Road Kitchen in Ambleside, Cumbria. The guide also highlights Britain’s best pubs. Along with highlighting the top 50 public houses, the editors of the guide have awarded Best New Pub Entry to The Lickfold Inn, Lickfold, West Sussex. 

The Waitrose Good Food Guide 2016 Editors’ Awards

Chef of the Year

Robin Gill, The Dairy and The Manor, Clapham, London

Restaurant of the Year

Ox, Belfast

Best New Restaurant Entry

Lake Road Kitchen, Ambleside, Cumbria

Best New Pub Entry

The Lickfold Inn, Lickfold, West Sussex

Local Gem of the Year

Flour & Ash, Bristol

Wine List of the Year

Tyddyn Llan Llandrillo, Wales

Readers’ Restaurant of the Year

The Miller of Mansfield, Goring, Oxfordshire

Top 50 Restaurants

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.  The Top 50 recognises the very best talent in the country; a place on the list represents a huge achievement, with each position earned by its score in The Good Food Guide, editor appraisal and strength of reader feedback.  A top score of 10 means “Just perfect dishes, showing faultless technique at every service; extremely rare, and the highest accolade the Guide can give.” New in the top 10 this year are Fraiche and Midsummer House and new in the Top 50 are Adams, Lake Road Kitchen, The Dairy, Llangoed Hall and Sketch. 

1 L’Enclume, Cumbria (10)

2 Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, London (10)

3 Pollen Street Social, London (9)

4 Restaurant Nathan Outlaw, Cornwall (9)

5 Hibiscus, London (9)

6 Restaurant Sat Bains, Nottinghamshire (9)

7 Midsummer House, Cambridgeshire (8) (new in top 10 this year)

8 The Ledbury, London (8)

9 Fraiche, Merseyside (8) (new in top 10 this year)

10 Le Champignon Sauvage, Glos (8)

11 The Square, London (8)

12 Fera at Claridges, London (8)

13 Le Gavroche, London (8)

14 Andrew Fairlie at Gleneagles, Tayside (8)

15 Marcus, London (8)

16 Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, Oxfordshire (8)

17 The French, Manchester (8)

18 André Garrett at Cliveden, Berkshire (8)

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

20 The Kitchin, Edinburgh (7)

21 Bohemia, Jersey (7)

22 The Waterside Inn, Berkshire (7)

23 Artichoke, Buckinghamshire (7)

24 Restaurant James Sommerin, Glamorgan (7)

25 Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester, London (7)

26 Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, London (7)

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

28 Casamia, Bristol (7)

29 Adam’s, Birmingham (7) (new in top 50 this year)

30 Restaurant Martin Wishart, Edinburgh (7)

31 Pied à Terre, London (7)

32 Restaurant Story, London (7)

33 Murano, London (7)

34 Ynyshir Hall, Powys (7)

35 Sketch, London (7) (new in top 50 this year)

36 Llangoed Hall, Powys (7) (new in top 50 this year)

37 Hedone, London (7)

38 Hambleton Hall, Rutland (7)

39 The Peat Inn, Fife (7)

40 Gidleigh Park, Devon (7)

41 Fischer’s Baslow Hall, Derbyshire (7)

42 Freemasons at Wiswell, Lancashire (7)

43 The Hand & Flowers, Buckinghamshire (6)

44 Yorke Arms, Ramsgill, Yorkshire (6)

45 The Dairy, London (6) (new in top 50 this year)

46 OX, Belfast (6)

47 The Raby Hunt, Durham (6)

48 Lake Road Kitchen, Cumbria (6) (new in top 50 this year)

49 The Sportsman, Kent (6)

50 Northcote, Lancashire (6)

Top 50 Pubs 

The list below is unique in the UK: every pub has earned its place through its score in The Good Food Guide, inspector reports and strong reader feedback.  There are some strong new entries this year including The Woodspeen, The Lickfold Inn (both new to Top 10) and

The Pony and Trap which has roared up the list to No 5 (it was No 25 last year).

1 Freemasons at Wiswell, Lancashire

2 The Hand & Flowers, Buckinghamshire

3 The Sportsman, Kent

4 Red Lion, East Chisenbury, Wiltshire

5 The Pony & Trap, Chew Magna, Somerset

6 The Lickfold Inn, Sussex

7 The Woodspeen, Berkshire

8 The Ancrum Cross Keys, Borders, Scotland

9 The Pipe and Glass Inn, Yorkshire

10 The Royal Oak, Paley Street, Berkshire

11 The Coach, Marlow, Buckinghamshire

12 The Butcher’s Arms, Eldersfield, Glos

13 The Treby Arms, Devon

14 The Cross at Kenilworth, Warwickshire

15 The White Oak, Cookham, Berkshire

16 The Hardwick, Abergavenny

17 The Star Inn, Harome, Yorkshire

18 The Stagg Inn, Titley, Herefordshire

19 The Harwood Arms, Fulham, London

20 The Plough, Bolnhurst, Bedfordshire

21 The Plough Inn, Longparish, Hampshire

22 The Hinds Head, Berkshire

23 The Nut Tree Inn, Oxfordshire

24 The Masons Arms, Knowstone, Devon

25 The Broad Chare, Tyne & Wear

26 The Miller of Mansfield, Oxfordshire

27 The Wellington Arms, Baughurst, Hampshire

28 The Falcon Inn, Withernwick, Yorkshire

29 The Lamb Inn, Crawley, Oxfordshire

30 The Springer Spaniel, Cornwall

31 The Star Inn, Sparsholt, Oxfordshire

32 The Felin Fach Griffin, Powys

33 The Duke of Cumberland Arms, West Sussex

34 The Purefoy Arms, Hampshire

35 The Duke of York Inn, Grindleton, Lancashire

36 The Kinmel Arms, Conwy

37 The Richmond Arms, West Ashling, West Sussex

38 The Five Alls, Oxfordshire

39 The New Inn, Great Limber, Lincolnshire

40 The General Tarleton, Yorkshire

41 The White Hart, Lydgate, Greater Manchester

42 The Sun Inn, Dedham, Essex

43 The Bay Horse, Hurworth-on-Tees, Durham

44 The Kingham Plough, Oxfordshire

45 The Square and Compasses, Essex

46 The Star at Sancton, Yorkshire

47 Bunch of Grapes, Glamorgan

48 Beckford Arms, Wiltshire

49 Wheatsheaf Inn, Northleach, Gloucestershire

50 The Camberwell Arms, London

Longest serving establishments in The Good Food Guide

The Good Food Guide was founded in 1951. The following restaurants have appeared consistently since their first entry in the Guide.

The Connaught, London, 63 years

Gravetye Manor, West Sussex, 59 years

Porth Tocyn Hotel, Gwynedd, 59 years

Le Gavroche, London, 46 years

Ubiquitous Chip, Glasgow, 44 years

Plumber Manor, Dorset, 43 years

The Druidstone, Pembrokeshire, 43 years

The Waterside Inn, Berkshire, 43 years

Airds Hotel, Argyll & Bute, 40 years

Farlam Hall, Cumbria, 39 years

Corse Lawn House Hotel, Glos, 37 years

Hambleton Hall, Rutland, 37 years

The Pier at Harwich, Essex, 37 years

Magpie Café, Whitby, North

Yorkshire, 36 years

RSJ, London, 35 years

The Seafood Restaurant, Padstow,

Cornwall, 35 years

The Sir Charles Napier, Oxfordshire, 35 years

Le Caprice, London, 34 years

Little Barwick House, Somerset, 34 years

Inverlochy Castle, Fort William, 33 years

Ostlers Close, Fife, 33 years

The Angel Inn, Hetton, 32 years

Brilliant, London, 31 years

Clarke’s, London, 31 years

Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons,

Oxfordshire, 31 years

Blostin’s, Somerset, 30 years

Read’s, Kent, 30 years

The Castle at Taunton, Somerset, 30 years

The Three Chimneys, Isle of Skye, 30 years

Northcote, Lancashire, 29 years

The Old Vicarage, Ridgeway, 28 years

Cnapan, Pembrokeshire, 28 years

Kensington Place, London, 27 years

Le Champignon Sauvage, Glos, 27 years

Quince & Medlar, Cumbria, 27 years

Silver Darling, Aberdeen, 27 years

Harry’s Place, Lincolnshire, 26 years

Plas Bodegroes, Gwynedd, 26 years

Bibendum, London, 26 years

The Great House, Suffolk, 26 years

Ynyshir Hall, Powys, 26 years

The Creel, Orkney, 26 years

Dylanwad Da, Gwynedd, 26 years

Crannog, Fort William, 26 years

Melton’s, York, 25 years

Eslington Villa, Tyne & Wear, 25 years

Castle Cottage, Harlech, 24 years