SquareMeal Awards 2026: The UK and London’s must-visit restaurants revealed

The SquareMeal Top 100 Restaurants in London and the UK for 2026 have been revealed, celebrating another year of exceptional culinary achievement across the country.

Backed by more than 30 years of expertise, the SquareMeal team reviews hundreds of the UK’s best restaurants annually. The Top 100 lists combine these assessments with feedback from thousands of readers, creating rankings shaped by both professional criticism and real-world dining experiences. SquareMeal is also the only publication in the UK that creates two separate lists for London and the UK, shining a spotlight on 200 outstanding restaurants across the nation. 

Cooking of rare intelligence and integrity

SquareMeal's UK Restaurant of the Year for 2026 is Wilsons - a brilliant restaurant in Bristol for which national recognition has been long overdue. 2025 was a landmark year for the restaurant - not only did it finally win a Michelin star, but it also starred in Apple TV's 'Knife Edge: Chasing Michelin Stars' TV series, broadcasting the neighbourhood spot to a global audience.

Few restaurants in the country do so much with so little; Wilsons is a testament to what can be achieved with drive, passion and ingenuity, in a small space, with big ideals. Chef Jan Ostle serves a constantly evolving tasting menu, using produce that largely comes from Wilsons own farm - managed by partner Mary Wilson - just a few miles away. The team is obsessed by second and third uses of vegetables, constantly coming up with new ingenious ways to use offcuts, peelings and waste products, all whilst maximising the efficiency of the tiny kitchen. All that whilst keeping the price of its menu to just £78 a head. 

Jan Ostle and Mary Wilson of Wilsons, Bristol, with their SquareMeal 2026 UK Restaurant of the Year award. Photography: Laurie Fletcher

'Wilsons does more with less than almost any restaurant in Britain: a tiny kitchen, a 30-cover room and a two-acre farm, transformed into cooking of rare intelligence and integrity,' says SquareMeal Restaurants and Venues Editor Pete Dreyer. 'Few places combine creativity, humility and value so convincingly, and to do so without compromising its sustainable ideals is all the more remarkable.’

Wilsons chef and co-founder Jan Ostle says: 'We feel incredibly honoured to have been named SquareMeal’s Restaurant of the Year 2026. This recognition is testament to the dedication of our entire team, the Bristol community that supports us, and the incredible farmers and growers whose produce shapes everything we do. 2025 was a landmark year for us at Wilsons, and this feels like the perfect way to begin 2026. We’re so excited for what the year ahead will bring.'

Wildflowers: Exactly how Londoners want to eat out today

In the capital, SquareMeal's London Restaurant of the Year 2026 is Wildflowers - Aaron Potter and Laura Hart's wonderful Mediterranean spot in Pimlico, that continues to go from strength to strength after opening in 2024. Potter's cooking echoes that of mentors like Adam Byatt at Trinity, and Phil Howard at Elystan Street, but Wildflowers is more easy-going, perfectly treading the relaxed fine dining line. The chef marshalls the open kitchen at the heart of the restaurant with poise beyond his years, serving a beautifully balanced a la carte that sways with the seasons. Meanwhile, partner Laura Hart has designed a graceful, convivial space that perfectly complements the cooking. 

Combined with the pintxos-styled offerings at Bar Flor upstairs, Wildflowers sums up exactly how Londoners want to eat out today. 

Aaron, Laura, and the Wildflowers team with their SquareMeal 2026 London Restaurant of the Year award. Photography: Laurie Fletcher

'What Aaron has achieved with his debut restaurant in just over a year is remarkable, and a testament to his skill as both a chef and business owner,' says SquareMeal Managing Editor Ellie Donnell. 'Opening a restaurant in today's economic climate is not easy, but that's where Wildflowers stands out from the crowd, both as a diversified, high-functioning business - with a separate bar upstairs - and a beautiful neighbourhood restaurant that's loved and respected by everyone who eats there.

'Aaron's easy-going Mediterranean menus are generous, honest and precise, with an emphasis on genuinely warm service that makes the whole experience feel special, but never fussy. It's a restaurant we come back to time and again.'

Wildflowers chef owner Aaron Potter says: 'Being named London Restaurant of the Year by SquareMeal for 2026 means so much to Laura and I. We’re hugely thankful for the support and the hard work of the team around us every day, and proud to have what we’re building recognised in this way. Looking ahead, our focus remains on continuing to develop and refine what we’re doing at Wildflowers, and upstairs at Bar Flor.'

North Yorkshire and Scotland shine in SquareMeal Top 100 UK Restaurants list

With 33 new restaurants entering SquareMeal's Top 100 UK Restaurants list, and 32 new restaurants in the London list, SquareMeal's awards are designed to showcase the best restaurants up and down the country, but also to provide a snapshot for essential dining experiences in 2026. Every major region of the UK is represented, and the Top 100 lists celebrate a broad range of cuisines, price points and styles, making them a genuinely inclusive, practical guide for all kinds of diners.

Leading the way as the highest new entries in each list were Planque in London (ranked number two) and Vraic in Guernsey - Nathan Davies' long-awaited follow-up to SY23 in Aberystwyth. There were two other new entries into the London top 10 in Nieves Barragan-Mohacho's slick new Shoreditch restaurant Legado, and Jackson Boxer's fabulous Notting Hill reinvention, Dove.  

Planque in London and Vraic in Guernsey were this year's highest entries in the London and UK lists respectively

Edinburgh and Birmingham lead the way for UK cities, with six and five entries respectively in the UK list, but perhaps the biggest takeaway is the emergence of North Yorkshire as a world-class food destination, with a whopping ten restaurants appearing on the list, including Myse, Hansom, The Abbey Inn Byland, Forge at Middleton Lodge, and The Black Swan at Oldstead. 

Scotland, too, remains a foodie powerhouse in its own right, with eleven restaurants making the list. That includes the likes of The Kinneuchar Inn and Mark Donald's fabulous Glenturret Lalique, as well as Edinburgh's Lyla, The Little Chartroom, and new Leith restaurant Dogstar (one of the list's highest new entrants), and Glasgow restaurants Big Counter and Gloriosa. 

SquareMeal Restaurant Editor Pete Dreyer says: 'There’s no getting away from the fact that running a restaurant has become more challenging than ever, but what we've seen in 2025 is a story of resilience. Faced with spiralling costs and ongoing uncertainty, UK restaurants are showing remarkable adaptability, finding new ways to deliver incredible experiences for diners.'

'Our 2026 Top 100 Restaurants list is a celebration of that. We're always enormously proud of the restaurants featured, and incredibly grateful to the thousands of diners whose votes and recommendations help us shape the lists each year. We hope these rankings encourage people to seek out, support and enjoy the restaurants that make eating out in the UK so special.'

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.