A huge thank you to everyone who took part in our quest to find the SquareMeal Best UK Restaurant of 2017. Thousands of votes have flooded in from readers and reviewers from all over the country. So – drum roll, please – here are our top 100 restaurants outside London for the year ahead.
Congratulations to our Best UK Restaurant 2017, The Sportsman in Seasalter, Kent. It has been 18 years since self-taught chef Stephen Harris left a career in the City to take over what he called “a grotty run-down pub by the sea” with his brother.
The Sportsman is still a pub by the sea (Shepherd Neame is on tap at the bar) but the airy interior is anything but grotty. The kitchen garden outside the dining room window provides ingredients for the menus, food is seasoned from salt made from seawater while Harris sources other produce from as close to the restaurant as possible.
On hearing the news of his win, Harris said, “I was always determined that we were going to be the best restaurant in the country, and that doesn’t happen accidentally. But you don’t tell anyone that. And we don’t take it for granted. You have your time in the sun and ours has come after 18 years – and that’s quite nice. We’re not trying to be flash. We find really good ingredients and we base our menu around that.”
Voters applaud the “locally sourced and home-created ingredients” that The Sportsman’s kitchen puts to use in “sublime dishes evocative of the seaside”. An “unpretentious and remote setting”, “surprising and well-chosen wine list” and “friendly, caring service” also get the thumbs up. All in all, readers say that, The Sportsman offers “fantastic food at affordable prices” and “a wonderful warm welcome” – “please don’t shout about it though!”
Apologies, but the secret is out – and we’re very happy to tell everyone.
A place anywhere on the list is a major achievement – congratulations to all of the restaurants in our top 100. The full list is below, but you can also find more information on each individual restaurant in our SquareMeal UK top 100 selection.
Restaurants 1 - 10
Restaurants 11 - 30
11. Restaurant Sat Bains, Nottingham
12. Casamia, Bristol
13. Fraiche, Merseyside
14. Sticky Walnut, Chester
15. Restaurant Mark Greenaway, Edinburgh (pictured)
16. Stovell’s, Surrey
17. 64 Degrees, Brighton
18. Lake Road Kitchen, Cumbria
19. Raby Hunt, County Durham
20. Y Polyn, Carmarthenshire
21. Treby Arms, Devon
22. Andre Garrett at Cliveden, Berkshire
23. Gidleigh Park, Devon
24. Manchester House, Manchester
25. Simpsons, Birmingham
26. Adam Reid at The French, Manchester
27. The Kitchin , Edinburgh
28. Forest Side, Cumbria
29. The Man Behind the Curtain, Leeds
30. Restaurant James Sommerin, Cardiff
Restaurants 31 - 50
31. Orwells, Henley
32. Northcote, Lancashire
33. Craig Millar @ 16 West End, Fife (pictured)
34. Alimentum, Cambridge
35. Read’s, Kent
36. The Hardwick, Monmouthshire
37. Restaurant Martin Wishart, Edinburgh
38. Adam’s Restaurant, Birmingham
39. The Walnut Tree Inn, Abergavenny
40. Paul Ainsworth at No. 6, Cornwall
41. Freemasons at Wiswell, Lancashire
42. Bohemia, Jersey
43. Le Champignon Sauvage, Cheltenham
44. Restaurant Andrew Fairlie, Perthshire
45. Moor Hall, Aughton, Lancashire
46. The Three Chimneys, Skye
47. Hambleton Hall, Oakham, Rutland
48. Burnt Truffle, Merseyside
49. The Loft at the Bull, Anglesey
50. Castle Terrace, Edinburgh
Restaurants 51 - 70
51. Purnell’s, Birmingham
52. Roger Hickman’s, Norwich
53. Winteringham Fields, Lincolnshire
54. Sir Charles Napier, Oxfordshire
55. The Salt Room, Brighton (pictured)
56. Little Fish Market, Brighton
57. The Pig, Hampshire
58. Oli’s Thai, Oxford
59. Bulrush, Bristol
60. Mr Cooper’s House & Garden, Manchester
61. Pompadour by Galvin, Edinburgh
62. The Seahorse, Devon
63. The Lord Clyde, Cheshire
64. Rocksalt, Kent
65. Seafood Restaurant, Cornwall
66. The Star Inn, North Yorkshire
67. Norn, Edinburgh
68. The Hinds Head, Berkshire
69. The Pointer at Brill, Buckinghamshire
70. The Crown at Burchetts Green, Berkshire
Restaurants 71 - 100
71. Galvin Brasserie de Luxe, Edinburgh (pictured)
72. The Cross at Kenilworth, Warwickshire
73. Ondine, Edinburgh
74. Bourne Valley Inn, Hampshire
75. Benedict’s, Norwich
76. Ben’s Cornish Kitchen, Cornwall
77. The Pony & Trap, Somerset
78. Iberico World Tapas, Nottingham
79. The Art School, Liverpool
80. Ynyshir, Powys
81. The Great House, Suffolk
82. The Black Swan at Oldstead, North Yorkshire
83. Morston Hall, Norfolk
84. The Coach, Buckinghamshire
85. The Gardener’s Cottage, Edinburgh
86. L’Ortolan, Reading
87. The Witchery by the Castle, Edinburgh
88. Simon Radley at the Chester Grosvenor, Chester
89. Coombeshead Farm, Cornwall
90. The Peat Inn, Fife
91. Chapter One, Kent
92. The Clink, Cardiff
93. Luscombe’s, Oxfordshire
94. The Dining Room at Chewton Glen, Hampshire
95. Turners at 69, Birmingham
96. The Whitebrook, Monmouthshire
97. Llangoed Hall, Brecon
98. Hispi, Manchester
99. Timberyard, Edinburgh
100. El Gato Negro, Manchester
Congratulations to all at The Sportsman who join last year’s winner The Fat Duck in our SquareMeal Hall of Fame.
We conducted our survey in May and June this year, so you can rest assured that this is the freshest UK list there is. Don’t forget, you can find out more information on each individual restaurant in our SquareMeal UK top 100 selection.
Portrait by Peter Smith
This article was published 25 July 2017
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