How to sum up a decade's shameless eating in just 20 restaurants? After all I've written about well over 500 and gorged in a whole bunch more out of plain greed. That's a lot of lunch.
The only way, I concluded, was with extreme prejudice. So no big names make it in just for being so. They still have to be serving up great, interesting food. In the end, I came up with a simple test: did writing about the restaurant make me hungry? In each case, yes.
This list, compiled because it's the 10th Observer Food Monthly Awards this year, is not ranked. These 20 are all equal. I wanted a geographical spread, although I can't apologise that there are more in London than anywhere else. The capital has a greater concentration of good places in which to eat. That's not my fault. But this list does get out and about, much as I always have.
Of course, a best restaurant list is a fight waiting to happen. If you're reading this you will already have your opinions. Some of my choices will make you cheer. Some of them will make you roll your eyes. A lot of them, I hope, will make you just as hungry as they made me.
20: Sushi Tetsu, London
The buzz which hummed around the opening last year of Sushi Tetsu, a tiny seven-seater off the Clerkenwell Road, had about it the whiff of hyperbole. It was described as The Real Thing; a sushi restaurant of a kind not seen before in London.
For once the buzz was correct. Chef Toru Takahashi – nicknamed Tetsu – and his wife Harumi run a pared-down operation. This is not a broad Japanese restaurant. It serves nigiri sushi, maki rolls and sashimi. And that's pretty much it. You sit at the bar, he asks you what you like and the fun begins. Perfect rice, gloriously fresh fish, searing knife work. It really is all there. You, however, probably won't be because it's almost impossible to get in. Oh well.
Sushi Tetsu, 12 Jerusalem Passage, London EC1. 020 3217 0090; sushitetsu.co.uk. Meal for two £80
19: The Walnut Tree, Abergavenny
The Walnut Tree near Abergavenny made its name under chef Franco Taruschio, who in the 60s and 70s turned it into a beacon of hope in a Britain that was a good food dessert.
An old pub, it has never been much to look at, and Franco moved on long ago. It's included here because it's now in the hands of Shaun Hill, a true great of the British restaurant world. At Gidleigh Park in Devon, then the Merchant House in Ludlow and now here, Hill has dedicated himself to the one thing that makes any sense to him: cooking. Dishes such as monkfish with cucumber and mustard, veal kidneys with saffron risotto, and passion fruit and nougat parfait make Hill a class act.
The Walnut Tree, Llanddewi Skirrid, near Abergavenny. 01873 852 797; thewalnuttreeinn.com. Meal for two £140
18: L'Anima, London
The fancy end of the Italian restaurant scene in London has become rather crowded of late, with many laying claim to being number one, but Francesco Mazzei's L'Anima in a shiny City office development has the edge. The restaurant is all clean lines and sharp edges. His food, however, has serious depth to it.
His fritto misto really is one of the best in London. The pastas – linguine with crab, chilli and Amalfi lemon, spaghetti with lobster – are as thin and silky as you would expect at this level. Best of the lot is his fish stew with fregola.
Come here expecting to eat well, and to pay for it. Prices are calibrated to City wallets. A cheaper cafe will open in the autumn.
L'Anima, 1 Snowden Street, London EC2. 020 7422 7000; lanima.co.uk. Meal for two £150
17: Anchor & Hope, London
Fergus Henderson's Clerkenwell temple to nose-to-tail eating, St John, has had a vast influence across the restaurant world, and inspired some cracking spin-offs.
Best of the lot is still the Anchor & Hope, a less than lovely urban pub in Waterloo, made lovely by the food served up by St John graduate Jonathan Jones. It is big-fisted stuff. The menu changes most days, but a recent Sunday lunch included salt cod and wild garlic soup, wild mushrooms on toast, and roast Swaledale beef rump with dripping potatoes and horseradish.
It gets crowded, not least because, infuriatingly, they refuse to take bookings. Given the queues they don't need to; if you do want to eat there, turn up early.
Anchor & Hope, 36 The Cut, London SE1. 020 7928 9898. Meal for two £100
16: BBQ Shack at the World's End, Brighton
For a long while, fans in this country of proper US barbecue had to make do with pale imitations. In the past couple of years things have started to change with the arrival of some serious players, committed to the virtuous interplay of spice rub, smoke and meat. But one of the best remains the ribs, chicken and brisket – and so much else besides – served up by John Critchley at The World's End, an old boozer in Brighton.
Lancashire-born Critchley learned his skills during a long stint in Texas and admits he knows nothing of styles from other parts of the US. That's fine by me. This is a proper elbows-on-the-table place, for those who like their pig and beef cooked long and slow.
The World's End, 60-61 London Road, Brighton. 01273 692 311. Meal for two £45
