Simon Rogan’s L’Enclume returns to top spot in Good Food Guide 2020

Simon Rogan’s two-Michelin-starred L’Enclume has returned to the top spot in the 2020 Waitrose’s The Good Food Guide.

 

The Cumbria restaurant had held the number one position from 2014 to 2017 before being pipped by Restaurant Nathan Outlaw in the 2018 and 2019 guides.

 

Rogan said: “I couldn’t be happier with the news that L’Enclume has returned to the number one spot in The Good Food Guide. It is a huge achievement which we have worked exceedingly hard towards, and I am very proud of my team who have made it possible.”

 

Elizabeth Carter, editor of The Good Food Guide by Waitrose & Partners, added: “There was very strong competition among the top-scoring restaurants this year, but there was no ignoring the fact that L’Enclume is a really extraordinary restaurant, once again topping the bill after a two-year sojourn in second place. It dazzles; not with glitter-ball ritz and razzmatazz, but with the understated glow that comes from being indisputably world-class.”

 

Two-Michelin-starred Core by Clare Smyth in London’s Notting Hill took the second spot, while two-Michelin-starred Restaurant Nathan Outlaw in Port Isaac is in third place, with one-Michelin-starred Ynyshir in Powys and two-Michelin-starred Moor Hall in Lancashire completing the top five (see full list below).

 

This year’s guide sees 11 new restaurants take their place in the top 50, compared to seven in 2019, six in 2018 and seven in 2017. These include Inver in Argyll & Bute, the Black Swan at Oldstead, Wilks in Bristol, Stockport’s Where the Light Gets In and London’s Trinity.

 

Alongside its top 50 restaurants the guide, which will be published on Thursday, announces its editors’ award winners and a ranking of the regions serving the best food in the UK.

 

Topping the regional rankings is the Channel Islands with the editors of the guide highlighting Bohemia in Jersey, headed by Steve Smith the 2014 Hotel Chef of the Year (fewer than 250 covers) winner, as well as the more causal No 10 Restaurant & Bar on St Helier and Octopus on Guernsey.

 

The editors’ awards saw Douglas McMaster of Silo, Brighton, named Sustainability Champion; Chef of the Year was presented to Pam Brunton of Inver; while the Chef to Watch was named as Will Devlin from The Small Holding in Kent.

 

Restaurant of the Year went to the Mash Inn in Buckinghamshire; the Woodsman in Stratford-upon-Avon was Best New Entry, UK; Best New Entry, London, was Peg in Hackney; while Best Local Restaurant was the Little Gloster on the Isle of Wight.

 

The Top 50

 

1 L’Enclume, Cumbria (10)

 

2 Core by Clare Smyth, London (10)

 

3 Restaurant Nathan Outlaw, Cornwall (10)

 

4 Ynyshir, Powys (9)

 

5 Moor Hall, Lancashire (9)

 

6 Claude Bosi at Bibendum, London (9)

 

7 Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, London (9)

 

8 Restaurant Sat Bains, Nottingham (9)

 

9 Casamia, Bristol (9)

 

10 Pollen Street Social, London (9)

 

11 Adam Reid at The French, Manchester (8)

 

12 Restaurant Story, London (8)

 

13 The Raby Hunt, County Durham (8)

 

14 Restaurant Andrew Fairlie, Tayside (8)

 

15 The Greenhouse, London (8)

 

16 The Ledbury, London (8)

 

17 Marcus, London (8)

 

18 The Fat Duck, Berkshire (8)

 

19 Roganic, London (8)

 

20 Fraiche, Merseyside (8)

 

21 Bohemia, Jersey (8)

 

22 Midsummer House, Cambridgeshire (8)

 

23 The Peat Inn, Fife (8)

 

24 Le Champignon Sauvage, Gloucestershire (8)

 

25 The Kitchin, Edinburgh (7)

 

26 Lake Road Kitchen, Cumbria (7)

 

27 Forest Side, Cumbria (7)

 

28 Orwells, Oxfordshire (7)

 

29 A. Wong, London (7)

 

30 Whatley Manor, The Dining Room, Wiltshire (7)

 

31 Trinity, London (7) New

 

32 Matt Worswick at the Latymer, Surrey (7)

 

33 Inver, Argyll & Bute (7) New

 

34 The Black Swan, Yorkshire (7) New

 

35 Restaurant James Sommerin, Glamorgan (7)

 

36 Winteringham Fields, Lincolnshire (7) New

 

37 The Sportsman, Kent (7)

 

38 The Whitebrook, Monmouthshire (7)

 

39 The Man Behind The Curtain, Leeds (7) New

 

40 Paul Ainsworth, Cornwall (7) New

 

41 Alchemilla, Nottingham (7) New

 

42 Wilks, Bristol (7) New

 

43 Cail Bruich, Glasgow (7) New

 

44 Where The Light Gets In, Greater Manchester (7) New

 

45 Sosban & The Old Butcher’s, Anglesey (7) New

 

46 Restaurant Martin Wishart, Edinburgh (7)

 

47 Le Gavroche, London (7)

 

48 Artichoke, Buckinghamshire (7)

 

49 Adam’s, Birmingham (7)

 

50 Castle Terrace, Edinburgh (7)