are getting noisier - that’s what our readers, this year in unprecedented
numbers, are telling us. Noise levels, already amplified by bare-bones design, are being raised by music played at Glastonbury force. Everyone loves a restaurant that has a buzzing, vibrant atmosphere, but it becomes exhausting and self-defeating when, as one old hand told us: ‘I have never heard such loudly amplified music in an eating place. It was so loud that I couldn’t hear a word the waitress was saying, and vice versa. We had to gesture and point.’ The reporter was not recommending inclusion in the guide.”
Small plates or sharing plates?
“As for that other trend that’s been warmly embraced by chefs and restaurateurs across the country - let’s be honest, small plates are frequently not designed to be shared. Why the reduction in size if more than one person is supposed to be eating it? If plates are for sharing, there ought to be more, not less, food – after all, a dish featuring a fried egg is best tackled by a solo diner. Moreover, these plates often come out in a random, inhospitable manner. As customers, we have let this weak formula go unchallenged for too long.”
Elizabeth said: “Once again the readers of theguide have pointed our experts towards some brilliant eating in unexpected places. Whether it’s fine-dining in a former strip-club, sushi under a railway arch or a fish supper in a shipping container, we find and celebrate culinary flair in all its forms. With this year’s new entries including an ‘ecological canteen’ constructed from renewables in a holiday park, and a former town library playing host to one of Devon’s best new openings, The Good Food Guide continues in its mission to uncover great cooking whatever the venue, wherever the talent. We think that eating out should be fun – and that’s something these restaurants deliver in spades.”
The full list of the Good Food Guide 2018's top 50 Restaurants
(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.)
1 Restaurant Nathan Outlaw, Cornwall (10)
2 L’Enclume, Cumbria (10)
3 Pollen Street Social, London (9)
4 Restaurant Sat Bains, Nottinghamshire (9)
5 The Fat Duck, Berkshire (9)
6 Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, London (9)
7 Hedone, London (8)
8 Restaurant Andrew Fairlie, Tayside (8)
9 Claude Bosi at Bibendum, London (8) New
10 Casamia, Bristol (8)
11 Bohemia, Jersey (8)
12 Ynyshir, Powys (8)
13 Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, London (8)
14 Fraiche, Merseyside (8)
15 Marcus, London (8)
16 Le Champignon Sauvage, Glos (8)
17 Adam Reid at The French, Manchester (8)
18 The Ledbury, London (8)
19 André Garrett at Cliveden, Berkshire (8)
20 Midsummer House, Cambridgeshire (8)
21 Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester, London (8)
22 The Peat Inn, Fife (8)
23 The Kitchin, Edinburgh (7)
24 Sketch, Lecture Room & Library, London (7)
25 The Three Chimneys, Isle of Skye (7) New
26 Moor Hall, Lancashire (7) New
27 The Greenhouse, London (7)
28 The Ritz, London (7) New
29 Castle Terrace, Edinburgh (7)
30 Forest Side, Cumbria (7)
31 Orwells, Oxfordshire (7)
32 Paul Ainsworth at No. 6, Cornwall (7)
33 Restaurant Marianne, London (7)
34 The Waterside Inn, Berkshire (7)
35 Restaurant James Sommerin, Glamorgan (7)
36 Artichoke, Buckinghamshire (7)
37 The Raby Hunt, Durham (7)
38 Whatley Manor, The Dining Room, Wiltshire (7)
39 Restaurant Story, London (7)
40 Simpsons, Birmingham (7)
41 Restaurant Martin Wishart, Edinburgh (7)
42 The Sportsman, Kent (7) New
43 Adam’s, Birmingham (7)
44 Freemasons at Wiswell, Lancashire (7)
45 Gidleigh Park, Devon (7)
46 Le Gavroche, London (7)
47 Hambleton Hall, Rutland (7)
48 Murano, London (7)
49 The Whitebrook, Gwent (7)
50 The Man Behind the Curtain, Leeds (7) New
