The Good Food Guide has revealed its Top 10 restaurants for the 2013 edition (publishing 3rd September). A placing within this listing is greatly coveted by chefs and restaurateurs and, this year, chef Simon Rogan’s Cumbrian restaurant, L’Enclume, has achieved a perfect 10 in The Good Food Guide 2013 for the very first time.
Restaurants in The Good Food Guide are awarded a cooking score between one and ten, and the Top 10 for 2013 are:
1. The Fat Duck, Bray, Berkshire. Cooking score 10.
2. L’Enclume, Cartmel, Cumbria. Cooking score 10.
3. Restaurant Sat Bains, Nottingham. Cooking score 9.
4. Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, London. Cooking score 9.
5. Restaurant Nathan Outlaw, Rock, Cornwall. Cooking score 9.
6. Pollen Street Social, London. Cooking score 9.
7. Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, Great Milton, Oxfordshire. Cooking score 8.
8. Hibiscus, London. Cooking score 8.
9. The Square, London. Cooking score 8.
10. The Ledbury, London. Cooking score 8.
Competition at the top
The great excitement in this year’s list is that L’Enclume has joined Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck as one of only two restaurants in the UK to achieve the hallowed score of 10. Whilst The Fat Duck retains the number one spot in the Top 10 ranking, L’Enclume is biting at its heels at number two.
Elizabeth Carter, Consultant Editor of the Guide, explains what makes L’Enclume so deserving of its 10 out of 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 best of the best
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.
A culinary golden age?
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 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
Publishes on 3rd September 2012, but is available to pre-order now. Or you can access the all-new review content online, as part of a subscription.
For more information click here
A placing within The Good Food Guide’s Top 50 listing is greatly coveted by all chefs and restaurateurs,
More information: www.thegoodfoodguide.co.uk