The SquareMeal Top 100 Restaurants in London and the UK have been announced for 2025, shining a light on the best and brightest of the country's restaurant talent for another year.
With over thirty years’ experience, the SquareMeal team reviews hundreds of the UK’s best restaurants every year. SquareMeal’s annual Top 100 lists combine these expert reviews with input from thousands upon thousands of readers to compile the final rankings, to ensure that both lists reflect hundreds of real-life experiences as well as the professional opinions of our critics.
2025's SquareMeal UK Restaurant of the Year is Restaurant Sat Bains in Nottingham, which celebrates it's 25th anniversary this year. The UK's dining scene has come a long way since the turn of the millennium, and Restaurant Sat Bains has been a perennial trailblazer, setting the standard for fine dining in the UK over a quarter of a century. Chef-patron Sat and wife Amanda are the beating heart of that relentless drive to keep evolving and improving.
'It feels extraordinarily telling that Sat Bains' eponymous two Michelin-starred restaurant has been trading for 25 years,' says SquareMeal Managing Editor Ellie Donnell. 'The UK's dining scene becomes more competitive by the year, so for the team to be celebrating a quarter of a century pays testament to its enduring relevance.
'Sat's creative tasting menus are brave and unique - taking risks that pay off and interweaving clever surprises - but more importantly they celebrate the joy of eating thanks to a deep-rooted understanding of flavour developed over decades.'
Chef-patron of this year's SquareMeal UK Restaurant of the Year, Sat Bains, said; 'We are honoured to place top in this brilliant list of restaurants. We strive for both consistency and relevance, continuously innovating what we do and how we do it to be the best we can, spotlighting some of the country’s best produce in all its glory. After 25 years of dedication to our concept and little pocket of Nottingham we are of course humbled to place number one in the UK.'
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Restaurant Sat Bains celebrates 25 years at the top of the UK restaurant game this year. Images by Laurie Fletcher.
Down in the capital, SquareMeal’s Best Restaurant in London award for 2025 went to AGORA - a brash, buzzing newcomer, courtesy of restaurateur David Carter. Part of a Greek island-hopping double act alongside the more sophisticated OMA, AGORA's accessibility and energy made it an instant hit this year, and marked Carter out as one of London's most important and influential restaurant minds.
‘AGORA is a whirring, fizzing, dynamo of a restaurant that seems to buck so many current restaurant trends,’ says SquareMeal Restaurants Editor Pete Dreyer. 'This is a restaurant that welcomes everyone - there are no bookings, just the democracy of a queue. The menu is approachable, hugely affordable, and executed to the highest level.
‘To launch it alongside OMA - another superb restaurant - is a magnificent achievement in itself, but it’s AGORA’s raw energy and accessibility that makes it a worthy number one in our Top 100 London Restaurants list for 2025.'
On winning this year's London Restaurant of the Year Award, David Carter said: 'Wow! We're thrilled to be awarded London Restaurant of the Year by SquareMeal for 2025. Without our people we're nothing, so a huge shout out to our team for making this possible – in particular co-head chefs Luis and Filipe for stoking the fires, and our dear Giulia for bossing and charming the floor.'
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AGORA's fizzing energy and outstanding, Greek island-inspired menu made it our top London restaurant for 2025. Images by Laurie Fletcher.
SquareMeal’s Top 100 lists are designed to be a snapshot of the best restaurants in London and the UK, but also a picture of must-visit restaurants for 2025. With 29 new entries into the London list and 32 new entries for the UK, the lists stay fresh each year, representing the entirety of the British Isles from Cornwall to the tip of Scotland. Many of the restaurants in our lists are luxurious, celebratory restaurants, we also include a wide spectrum of price points, cuisines and more, making this a list for everyone.
Every year we're thrilled to see thriving restaurant scenes in UK cities that rival anywhere else in the country. Birmingham leads the way with five restaurants in the list, including two in the top 10 in 2022 champion Grace & Savour, and two Michelin-starred Opheem. This year's highest new entry in the UK Top 100 is Tom Barnes' magnificent Manchester restaurant Skof, which heads up a big year for Manchester, with Higher Ground, Another Hand, and The Sparrows all representing the city in the list.
As ever, Scotland has also established itself as a world-class food destination, and we saw three new Edinburgh entries all break into the upper echelons of the UK Top 100 list this year - Stuart Ralston's superb new restaurant Lyla at number 11, and Montrose and Fhior at 33 and 34 respectively - joining another seven Scottish restaurants in the list. Other powerhouse culinary counties like North Yorkshire, Cumbria and Berkshire are also well represented, but fifteen counties are represented across the whole list, showing that there are great restaurants spread all over the UK.
A special mention must also go to this year's highest riser, Kevin Tickle's Heft in Cumbria, which blew us away this year and jumped 54 spots from 72 last year to 18 in 2025.
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Coming in at number eight, Skof in Manchester was the highest entry in this year's Top 100 UK list.
Meanwhile in London, we saw KOL, Aulis and Kolae all jump into the top five, joining last year's winner Lyle's. What stands out first and foremost is the emergence of Borough as a top-class dining destination. Borough Market is now surrounded by outstanding places to eat, six of which made it into this year's Top 100 London Restaurants list (AGORA, Kolae, Camille, OMA, BAO Borough, and Rambutan). Newcomers Cornus, Ibai and Josephine were also mighty impressive, jumping straight into the top 20.
SquareMeal Restaurant Editor Pete Dreyer says: 'It's no secret that the financial pressures of keeping a restaurant afloat are getting more and more acute. To see so many restaurants up and down the country overcoming all these hurdles and still innovating and developing world class experiences is staggering. It's a testament to the passion, dedication and talent of those that are pushing the industry forward everyday.
'We're always beyond proud of the Top 100, and hugely grateful to the thousands upon thousands of everyday diners that vote for their favourite restaurants and help us bring them together. We hope everyone finds something special amongst these lists, and as always, we wish you a happy and memorable year of eating in 2025.'
If you love eating out, why not get rewarded for it? If you join SquareMeal you'll earn points every time you dine, which you can then use for money off your next meal. Check out the SquareMeal Rewards app on iPhone and Android, where you can earn points just for dining at your favourite restaurants.