The restaurant scene can be pretty volatile, with chains seemingly taking over and independent neighbourhood boltholes opening and going bust on a loop, often within a couple of months. It can be hard to know where exactly you should pin your hopes when it comes to a slap up meal out.
That’s why The Good Food Guide Awards 2025, exists, to point your taste buds in the tastiest direction. In partnership with OpenTable, the honours this year are taking place on February 3 at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in central London, hosted by broadcaster and former Blue Peter presenter Richard Bacon.
While you’ll have to wait until then to find out which establishments are going to take home the gongs, you can get a head start on booking tables at the restaurants set to be on every ‘top 10 eats’ list for the rest of 2025.
We’d start by checking out this lot…
Osip, Somerset
Based in a 300-year-old country inn, on the brink of a pine forest, Osip in Bruton, Somerset is all clean lines, white washed walls and glowy lights. You’ll want to move in, even before you taste the food. Luckily, it has four guest bedrooms, opening soon, so you could roll out of bed and into the dining room for a set tasting menu that goes big on ingredients grown on the restaurant’s own farm.
The lunch menu is pretty good value (£95) and features things like Jerusalem artichoke, Orkney scallop, roasted chicken juices and treacle and ale sourdough with kefir butter, as well as an intriguing pudding of winter roots, bergamot and pine nut ice creams. Osip, its fruit and veg plots and sister wine bar and bistro, The Old Pharmacy, are the work of chef patron Merlin Labron Johnson who got a Michelin star when he was just 24, at a former joint, Portland – he knows what he’s doing.
It’s up against the gold and glitz of The Ritz Restaurant in London, as well as the warm madeleines made to order at the legendary St JOHN (Smithfield), also in London, for the Restaurant of the Year gong.
Skof, Manchester
If you hate tablecloths, you’ll love Skof. The baby of chef Tom Barnes, it has a “strict no tablecloth” policy and no dress code either, so yes, you can wear jeans to dinner.
The Manc restaurant is anti-pretentiousness of any kind, despite the fact that what’s on offer is very much seasonal British tasting menu fare. So you should feel relaxed and at home when tucking into cured mackerel with horseradish, with potato flatbread, fermented gooseberries and dill, or gingerbread mousse with poached quince.
The space is cool too – a former drapery warehouse – in Manchester’s NOMA neighbourhood. Skof is up for Best New Restaurant, alongside…
Lyla, Edinburgh
Seafood is central to everything that’s served at Lyla Edinburgh. The chefs there take the best line caught fish and sustainable shellfish they can get their oven gloves on from the Scottish Isles, and turn it into delicate plates of art.
They serve a 10-course tasting menu in the evening, or a five to seven course extravaganza at lunch time, celebrating all that seafood alongside organic fruit, veg and meat and foraged ingredients too. It’s already won a slew of best restaurant awards, so there’s quite a buzz around it – you’ll want to book a table asap once they reopen for the year on January 16.
Briar, Somerset
Another west country restaurant is making a name for itself. Briar, also in Bruton, is similarly up for best new restaurant, and comes from former River Cottage alumni and Great British Menu 2022 finalist Sam Lomas – he also happens to be up for the Chef to Watch award too.
Briar is in the old ironmonger’s shop at hotel Number One and the menu is super seasonal and they say, “unfussy”, from Westcombe cheddar gougeres, wild garlic capers to smoked pork sausage, cider mustard and Somerset apple cake, butterscotch and clotted cream. Stay at the hotel and you’ll be able to try breakfast too – think compotes and soft boiled eggs.
Jake Dolin – Manteca, London
There’s been a lot of British tasting menus on this list so far, so apologies. But now for a big old plate of pasta. At Italian restaurant Manteca, chef Jake Dolin is feeding people hand-rolled pasta, dishes made using the whole animal, nose-to-tail, and has an excellent cocktail menu on hand too.
They even have an in-house salumeria, for all your cured meat needs. Order the strozapretti, brown crab cacio e pepe (super rich and peppery), have a glass of wine and imagine you’re on your holidays.
Meedu Saad – Super8 Restaurants, London
Giving Dolan a run for his money in the Chef to Watch category is head chef Meedu Saad, best known for helming KILN in Soho, London. Kiln is a Thai grill, where you can sit at the bar while the chefs cook over hot coals and open flames, grilling skewers of insanely delicious meat and throwing together fiery salads. Always order the stir fried Cornish greens and soy, and the clay pot baked glass noodles with Tamworth belly and brown crab meat is an absolute must.
The Russell Norman Award for Restaurateur of the Year
Perhaps the most anticipated award of the night will be the The Russell Norman Award for Restaurateur of the Year. Adam Hyman, publisher of the Good Food Guide, has launched the award to remember and pay tribute to his friend, Brutto and Polpo restaurateur Russell Norman, who died by suicide in 2023. Ones to watch in this category are Florence Mae Maglanoc of modern Filipino restaurant Donia and the rest of the Maginhawa Group, and noodle master Guirong Wei (Master Wei, X’ian Impression, Dream X’ian).
The shortlist in full…
Restaurant of the Year sponsored by OpenTable:
Osip, Somerset
Restaurant Jericho, Leicestershire
St JOHN (Smithfield), London
Opheem, Birmingham
The Ritz Restaurant, London
Best New Restaurant sponsored by Tripleseat:
Skof, Manchester
Lyla, Edinburgh
Briar, Somerset
Row on 5, London
Albatross Death Cult, Birmingham
Native, Stoke Bliss
Drinks List of the Year sponsored by Richard Brendon:
KOL/Fonda, London
Timberyard/Montrose, Edinburgh
Osip, Somerset
Cornus, London
Chef to Watch sponsored by Champagne Billecart-Salmon:
Jake Dolin – Manteca, London
Elliot Hashtroudi – Camille, London
Sam Lomas – Briar, Somerset
Kyu Jeong Jeon and Duncan Robertson – Dongnae, Bristol
Maria Close – Rockliffe Hall, County Durham
Meedu Saad – Super8 Restaurants, London
Philip Mcenaney and Katie Austin – Boath House, Nairn
Best Value Set Menu:
Josephine Bouchon, London
The Palmerston, Edinburgh
Dilsk, Brighton
Pompette, Oxford
Wilson’s, Bristol
The Devonshire, London
Most Beautiful Restaurant:
Grace & Savour, West Midlands
The Dover, London
Hearth, Hampshire
The Park, London
Woven by Adam Smith, Berkshire
Widlflowers, London
The Russell Norman Award for Restaurateur of the Year:
David Carter, DCCO group
Jason & Irha Atherton, The Social Company
James Gummer, Olivier van Themsche & Phil Winser, Public House Group
Guirong Wei, Master Wei, X’ian Impression, Dream X’ian
Florence Mae Maglanoc, Maginhawa Group
Dom Hamdy, Ham Group
Jonathan MacDonald and Daniel Spurr, Scoop Restaurants
