Time to Wine & Brine
Good Food Guide 2017 reveals its best eateries, with Wine & Brine recognised as best new entry for NI
• Winner of the recent Local Restaurant of the Year Award, Wine & Brine, features on The Good Food Guide’s best new entries list
• Restaurants in Bangor and Belfast are the highest scoring restaurants for Northern Ireland in the guide.
• Belfast’s industrial-chic Muddlers Club makes a splash on best new entries list
The top entries and award winners from the 2017 Good Food Guide have been revealed today. The Good Food Guide (GFG), owned by Waitrose, is a guide to the very best restaurants and eateries across Britain. Northern Irish newcomer Wine & Brine, the winner of the Local Restaurant of the Year Award* announced last month, is also recognised in this year’s guide on the best new entries list.
Wine & Brine, “a relaxed town-centre venue” is located in the picturesque market town of Moira in Armagh. Chris McGowan and his wife Davina offer regional produce using on-trend preserving techniques such as ageing, curing and pickling.
Speaking about Wine & Brine, Elizabeth Carter, Waitrose Good Food Guide Editor says, “High Georgian ceilings and an open kitchen make the place feel airy and relaxed, but the next thing to catch your eye may well be the astonishingly restrained prices. There’s certainly no stinting on quality, as witnessed in a pair of chorizo dumplings smothered in a creamy onion soup, with hints of fennel adding edge.”
Helping to sustain the culinary excitement in Northern Ireland are the highest scoring restaurants, which can be found in Belfast and Bangor.
A former harbourmaster’s office and lifeboat station by the marina, The Boat House in Bangor, Co Down, is recognised as one of the top scorers for its “diverting blend of European and Asian elements in dishes that don’t stint on complexity of construction”. The guide notes that “the roughcast stone walls and tiled floor make a clean, simple backdrop for the Castel brothers’ classy operation.”
Another restaurant highlighted is OX in Belfast, a “contemporary venue for a transformed city dining scene” with an emphasis on seasonality throughout its dishes. “Technical wizardry” adds lustre to its desserts menu and an expertly chosen list makes it well worth a visit.
Continuing in OX’s modernist vein is new entry the Muddlers Club, whose industrial chic decor and modern Euro dishes are setting a high standard for Belfast’s hip Cathedral Quarter – it rightly earns its place on The Good Food Guide’s best new entries list.
The Good Food Guide’s annual Top 50 restaurant ranking is highly regarded by chefs and restaurant-goers alike. The top restaurant this year is L’Enclume in Cumbria, which scored a perfect 10 and kept the number one spot for the fourth year running.
The guide celebrates the tenth year of editor Elizabeth Carter at the helm. She has experienced many changes in restaurant culture during her decade at The Good Food Guide, which is still compiled by coupling reader feedback of eateries up and down the country with anonymous inspections by a team of experts.
Says Carter, Consultant Editor of the Waitrose Good Food Guide, “I’ve certainly seen changes in the UK restaurant scene in my ten years as consultant editor – what a golden era for restaurants it has been. London will always have an extraordinary wealth of top restaurants and chefs but I love the fact that the burgeoning restaurant scene beyond the capital, driven by more affordable start-up costs, has made our other great cities viable dining destinations.
“At the same time, dining out everywhere has become less structured, less formal, with more flexible opening times and menus, and with a much broader choice of quality venues in the lower price bracket. It means we’ve all had to come to terms with exposed ductwork, hard seats, small plates and communal tables – but it’s well worth it when you consider the all-day eateries, cafés, pizzerias, seafood shacks and pubs of genuine high quality offering everyday eating at everyday prices.”
The GFG, along with its team of anonymous inspectors and loyal readers, has uncovered a range of foodie finds in unconventional settings and structures. There are three restaurants housed in shipping containers featuring in this year’s guide: Cook House in Newcastle, Craftworks Street Kitchen in Truro, Cornwall and Kricket in Brixton in London. Then there’s a “modern marvel” in a service station. Gloucester Services on the M5 is an “independently run motorway pit-stop” with a gourmet café that is “committed to locally sourced food”. Also new to the guide this year is reader discovery Shuck’s at the Yurt, a restaurant housed in a quirky tent in Norfolk. The yurt eatery, located in a beautiful orchard, is run by husband and wife team Philip (Head Chef) and Beth Milner. And in Bristol, you’ll find a brilliant brunch and tasty tapas at Spoke and Stringer, a seriously cool café which is part of a bike and surf shop.
The Waitrose Good Food Guide 2017 Editors’ Awards
Waitrose has also announced the Editors’ Awards from the 2017 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 James Close from the Raby Hunt in Darlington, Durham. Restaurant of the Year has been named as Orwells in Shiplake, Oxfordshire and Best New Restaurant Entry is Forest Side in Grasmere, Cumbria. A new award for this year is Best Front-of-House, which celebrates the best restaurant customer service in the UK. This has been awarded to Jason Atherton’s Pollen Street Social in London.
Chef of the Year
James Close
The Raby Hunt, Durham
Chef to Watch
Ben Murphy
The Woodford, South Woodford, London
Restaurant of the Year
Orwells
Oxfordshire
Best New Entry
Forest Side
Cumbria
Best Front-of-House
Pollen Street Social
London
Best Small Group
Dishoom
London
Local Restaurant of the Year
Wine & Brine
Moira, Armagh
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.” Straight into the Top 50 at no. 37 is Forest Side, Cumbria and also new in the Top 50 are Castle Terrace, The Greenhouse, Simpsons, Orwells, Restaurant Marianne and The Whitebrook.
1 L’Enclume, Cumbria (10)
2 Restaurant Nathan Outlaw, Cornwall (10)
3 Restaurant Sat Bains, Nottinghamshire (9)
4 Pollen Street Social, London (9)
5 Hibiscus, London (9)
6 The Fat Duck, Berkshire (9)
7 Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, London (9)
8 Hedone, London (8)
9 Restaurant Andrew Fairlie, Tayside (8)
10 Fraiche, Merseyside (8)
11 The Ledbury, London (8)
12 Midsummer House, Cambridgeshire (8)
13 Le Champignon Sauvage, Gloucestershire (8)
14 Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester, London (8)
15 Fera at Claridges, London (8)
16 Le Gavroche, London (8)
17 Marcus, London (8)
18 The French, Manchester (8)
19 André Garrett at Cliveden, Berkshire (8)
20 The Peat Inn, Fife (8)
21 Whatley Manor, The Dining Room, Wiltshire (8)
22 Castle Terrace, Edinburgh (7) New to the Top 50 this year
23 The Kitchin, Edinburgh (7)
24 Bohemia, Jersey (7)
25 The Greenhouse, London (7) New to the Top 50 this year
26 The Waterside Inn, Berkshire (7)
27 Casamia, Bristol (7)
28 Paul Ainsworth at No. 6, Cornwall (7)
29 Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, London (7)
30 Artichoke, Buckinghamshire (7)
31 Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, Oxfordshire (7)
32 Restaurant Story, London (7)
33 Gidleigh Park, Devon (7)
34 Restaurant James Sommerin, Glamorgan (7)
35 Simpsons, Birmingham (7) New to the Top 50 this year
36 Sketch, London (7)
37 Forest Side, Cumbria (7) New to the Top 50 this year
38 Murano, London (7)
39 Restaurant Martin Wishart, Edinburgh (7)
40 Ynyshir, Powys (7)
41 Adam’s, Birmingham (7)
42 The Raby Hunt, Durham (7)
43 Freemasons at Wiswell, Lancashire (7)
44 Orwells, Oxfordshire (7) New to the Top 50 this year
45 Restaurant Marianne, London (7) New to the Top 50 this year
46 Hambleton Hall, Rutland (7)
47 The Whitebrook, Gwent (7) New to the Top 50 this year
48 Llangoed Hall, Powys (7)
49 Lake Road Kitchen, Cumbria (6)
50 The Dairy, London (6)
The Good Food Guide will be available to buy at Waitrose from 5th September priced at £12.99 (rrp £17.99). The guide can also be pre-ordered now at thegoodfoodguide.co.uk
