First three restaurants make longlist for 2026 Menu of the Year Catey

The first three restaurants to make the longlist for the Menu of the Year Catey award 2026 have been revealed.

Those longlisted have been selected by a panel of industry judges from Menuwatch articles which ran from May to July 2025.

They will form part of the longlist presented to the Cateys judges in April 2026, who will then select their shortlist for the awards ceremony taking place in July 2026 at Grosvenor House in London. 

The restaurants that go through to the judging include Cycene in London’s Shoreditch, which impressed the judges with its homemade curd wrapped in mustard leaf and celery chutney as well as Jersey Royal potatoes served with a parcel of seaweed, beef fat velouté and onion capers infused with elderflower vinegar, and charcoal-infused beef fat. 

It is joined by Jude Karema’s Kota in Porthleven, Cornwall, which has changed its offering considerably to mark its 20th anniversary, and Mount Street in London’s Mayfair (pictured), where chef Jamie Shears is impressing diners with his menu inspired by historical London.

They were featured between May 2025 and July 2025.

The restaurant will be considered alongside a further nine selected by the judges from those featured in The Caterer’s Menuwatch column between August 2025 and April 2026. 

The menus are judged on innovation within the price bracket of that particular establishment or contract; good use of seasonal produce on the menu; creativity of the dishes being served; careful marrying of textures and flavours of the component ingredients; value for money; and whether the judges would be tempted to eat there.

This year Flora in Cornwall took home the Menu of the Year Catey, having impressed the judges with its “passionate, hearty and creative menu” created by Tim Spedding who is “a cook who wears an elegant ease”. It beat competition from A Wong, AngloThai and Trivet in London, as well as Lir in Northern Ireland.