Best restaurant, over £20 a head

1 Fat Duck, Bray2 Terre à Terre, Brighton 3 Rick Stein, Padstow
  
  


1 Fat Duck
High Street, Bray, Berkshire (01628 580333); fatduck.co.uk
It's been an amazing year for Heston Blumenthal's Berkshire restaurant and it's still only February. Just a few days after OFM readers voted it their Restaurant of the Year, Michelin awarded the Fat Duck its third star. It's an extraordinary honour for a self-taught chef who only started cooking eight years ago. But then this is an extraordinary place, a restaurant at the forefront of gastronomy with a menu that includes snail porridge, palate cleansing foams - frozen tableside in a bath of liquid nitrogen - and smoky-bacon ice cream.

And yet, for all the complex ideas in play here - about how we taste, the way flavours can be combined, childhood food memories - the Fat Duck manages to be neither po-faced nor self-absorbed. A meal here is a thoroughly fun, jolly experience. All of which proves OFM 's readers have impeccable taste.

2 Terre à Terre
71 East Street, Brighton, East Sussex (0127 372 9051)
Where else in the UK have you come across a parmesan doughnut, stuffed with shallot compôte and cranberry cippolini. Or buttermilk-soaked haloumi, dipped in chip shop batter, topped with lemony yemeni, served with skinny chips, minty pea mush cake and vodka-spike preserved plum tomatoes? The answer must be 'never', unless you live in Brighton or have been on a day trip and made a beeline for the most exciting and original vegetarian restaurant in the UK.

Most vegetarian restaurants are seen as turgidly wholesome, the dishes a chore to get through. At Terre à Terre a lot of hard work goes on in the kitchen to make vegetables, nuts, seeds and beancurd morph into interesting and genuinely surprising creations. The restaurant is large, brightly coloured and serves a lively crowd. This is not a dressy place, but is somewhere to get wonderful food at a fair price. Carnivores won't miss the meat.

3 Rick Stein
Riverside, Padstow, Cornwall (01841 532700)
Rick Stein could be forgiven for taking his eye off the ball: he has those television series, plus the cook books, and the myriad catering businesses. But he never has - the Seafood Restaurant in Padstow, upon which his entire reputation rests, is still the standard bearer for British fish cookery. The mood is one of understated luxury. A suburban conservatory out front gives way to white walls, a dining room that has expanded from its original size, a little modern art and brisk ser vice. All that matters is what's on the plate: brill with spinach and coriander, halibut in olive oil with warm cucumber and dill, or Padstow lobster served straight up with mayonnaise and salad. What could be better than a restaurant, hard by the sea, treating the catch that comes out of it sympathetically? And his smaller, cheaper bistro nearby is even harder to get a table at. Never mind. This is food that's worth persevering for.

Best of the rest restaurants

Northern Ireland

Cayenne
7 Ascot House, Shaftesbury Square, Belfast, County Antrim (028 9033 1532)
The atmosphere in Paul and Jeanne Rankin's restaurant is just as hot and modern as the menu, which includes roast rump of venison with porcini rosti, wild mushrooms and sun-dried cranberries.

Wales

Le Gallois
6-10 Romilly Crescent, Canton, Cardiff (029 2034 1264)
The modern European cuisine at this family-run Welsh restaurant has previously won awards for its emphasis on quality, flavour and origin.

The Felin Fach Griffin
Felin Fach, Powys (01874 620111)
A former farmhouse, this inn with a roaring log fire serves simple food made from local and home-grown ingredients, such as rib-eye of Welsh black beef or poached pears in red wine .

Scotland

The Three Chimneys
Colbost, Dunvegan, Isle of Skye (01470 511258)
Looks like someone's living room in a stone croft in the middle of nowhere, but offers arguably the best food in Scotland.

The Witchery
Castlehill, The Royal Mile, Edinburgh (0131 225 5613)
Evocative of a gothic banquet, this subterranean room is right up by the castle. You can watch the pipers' ankles swirl past at the military tattoo.

North East

Barn at the Biscuit
16 Stoddart Street, Newcastle (0191 230 3338)
Based in an old biscuit factory, which also houses a two-floor art gallery, the Barn offers a great variety of South-Pacific inspired dishes as well as classic English and French food on solid wooden tables with ponyskin-covered chairs.

Yorks & Humberside

Living Room
7 Greek Street, Leeds (0113 380 0930)
A menu with a great mix of Thai, Chinese, Italian and British dishes. There's live music and a stylish, but cosy interior.

North West

Stock
4 Norfolk Street, Manchester (0161 839 6644)
Modern, southern Italian food, served in the dramatic surroundings of Manchester's former stock exchange.

Yang Sing
34 Princess Street, Manchester (0161 236 2200)
The fire that devastated the original Cantonese restaurant in 1997 could not stop Yang Sing, or Mancunians' desire to eat there. After 26 years it's still going strong. The food here is incredible and authentic - don't miss the Dim Sum.

60 Hope Street
60 Hope Street, Liverpool (0151 707 6060)
Situated between the city's two main cathedrals, this popular restaurant, owned by brothers Gary and Colin Manning, is for customers seeking a divine culinary experience. Contemporary European food with global touches is served in a bright and minimalist environment.

Juniper
21 The Downs, Altrincham, Manchester (0161 929 4008)
In an increasingly po-faced restaurant business Michelin-starred chef Paul Kitching combines serious technique with serious fun, painting plates with smiley faces made from spaghetti purée and dusting soups with Horlicks powder.

Midlands

World Service
Newdigate House, Castlegate, Nottingham (0115 847 5587)
Interesting and inventive European and English menu that includes dishes such as organic salmon with asparagus spears and horseradish, braised turbot with scallop and oyster velouté, veal rump with sage and parmesan crust.

Merchant House
62 Lower Corve Street, Ludlow (01584 875438)
Chef Shaun Hill put this tiny, seven-table restaurant on the map seven years ago. Try the roast monkfish with spiced beurre blanc and aubergine. The Ludlow Food and Drink Fair in September is quite something.

East Anglia

Lighthouse
77 High Street, Aldeburgh, Suffolk (01728 453377)
As Peter Hill and Sara Fox's restaurant is located only a stone's throw away from the North Sea, fish and seafood is a speciality.

South West

Bell's Diner
1 York Road, Bristol (0117 924 0357)
Chef-proprietor Christopher Wicks cooks contemporary British food with Mediterranean influences. Organic meats and home-made bread are staples of the daily changing menu.

South East

London Street Brasserie
Riverside Oracle, 2-4 London Street, Reading (0118 950 5036)
Located in one of Reading's old listed buildings, this award-winning restaurant serves a worldwide range of dishes plus bistro favourites.

Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons
Church Road, Great Milton, Oxford
(01844 278881)
Raymond Blanc's delicious cooking has made this country house the ultimate location for romantic foodies. Book ahead and prepare for some serious pleasure.

London

Chez Bruce
2 Bellevue Road, Wandsworth, SW17 (020 8672 0114)
The best ingredients, simply prepared by chef Bruce Poole and served with an admirable lack of pretension and stuffiness.

Gordon Ramsay
68 Royal Hospital Road, SW3 (020 7352 4441)
This restaurant showcases the reason why Ramsay is Britain's most famous chef: pure classical perfection from start to finish. And a bill to match.

Moro
34-36 Exmouth Market, EC1 (020 7833 8336)
Mouth-watering cuisine that stays faithful to its Spanish/North African inspirations.

St John Bread and Wine
94-96 Commercial Street, E1
(020 7247 8724)
Baby brother to the original St John but no less gutsy.

The Ivy
1 West Street, WC2 (020 7836 4751)
The celeb quotient obscures The Ivy's real virtues: delicious, straightforward brasserie-style food and exemplary service.

River Café
Thames Wharf, Rainville Road, W6 (020 7386 4200)
Great atmosphere with stylish, Italian food and there's usually a celebrity to gawp at.

 

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