Lancashire’s Moor Hall tops UK restaurant list

Leading website and restaurant guide, SquareMeal, has announced the UK’s Top 100 restaurants, voted for by thousands of readers, bloggers and local foodies. SquareMeal’s Top 100 is truly unique as it’s the only poll to exclude London restaurants, allowing the UK’s regional dining scene to truly
shine.

From the Scottish Highlands to the beaches of Cornwall (and every plate in between), SquareMeal presents 2019’s best restaurants outside London – see the full list attached as an appendix.

Moor Hall in Lancashire comes out on top. Rural Lancashire is home to this year’s number one restaurant, Moor Hall, which has risen 25 places since 2018. The north-west county is also where you’ll find the highest riser in this year’s Top 100, Northcote, which has gone up 57 places to number 21. It has been a strong year for the North of
England overall, which has increased its tally of Top 100 restaurants to 20, up three since 2018.

Commenting on Moor Hall’s win, SquareMeal’s editor Ben McCormack said: “Moor Hall has had a meteoric rise since launching two years ago, winning its first Michelin star six months after opening, and its second in 2018. But when you know that the restaurant’s chef-patron is Mark Birchall, its success is no surprise. Birchall was head chef at L’Enclume in Cumbria but is very much his own man since returning to his Lancashire roots.

The setting in a stunningly re-imagined 16th-century manor house is a welcome corrective to stereotypes of Lancashire being nothing but terraced houses. Many of the ingredients that make it on to the menu, meanwhile, are supplied by Moor Hall’s five-acre estate and the farmland that surrounds the restaurant.
But, ultimately, it’s the end product that does the talking. Vegetables get a starring role while expertly sourced meat and fish are treated to imaginative pairings that make you re-evaluate the potential for deliciousness of every ingredient you taste. “Upon being presented with his award, Mark Birchall said: “Winning this award is a real boost for us.
It’s a nice pat on the back. It shows that our guests really enjoy what we do and it’s great to have the focus on us up north. It means an awful lot to me.”

The South West + Bristol rise up the charts. The South West of England is the other big winner in 2019, increasing its number of restaurants in the Top 100 from 15 to 21. Bristol, which is home to 2018’s number 1 restaurant Casamia, has now overtaken Edinburgh as the second most popular city for SquareMeal readers outside London, with
five restaurants in the Top 100. Edinburgh has four restaurants in the Top 100, while Birmingham, Glasgow and Manchester each have two.

South East England still has more top-rated restaurants than any other UK region. The South East of England remains the most popular region of the United Kingdom for SquareMeal readers, with 35 restaurants in the Top 100. Eight of these are in Brighton, which remains the highest-rated city for eating out by SquareMeal readers, while Kent is home to the highest new entry on this year’s list, The Fordwich Arms, which has made its first appearance at an impressive number 10.

SquareMeal’s editor, Ben McCormack comments: “London gets the lion’s share of coverage when it comes to restaurants but SquareMeal’s UK Top 100 is gratifying proof that eating well does not end when you hit the M25. While 10 years ago this list would have been dominated by gastropubs and country-house hotels, the thriving restaurant scenes in Brighton, Bristol and Edinburgh prove that London isn’t the only city with a nationally recognised food scene. But it’s not just the cities where you’ll eat well. In every corner of the country, there’s an ambitious chef serving inventive cooking based on top-quality ingredients. There’s never been more of an
appetite for dining out in the UK – and UK diners have never been so spoilt for choice.”

SquareMeal UK Top 100 Restaurants 2019 – full list

1. Moor Hall; Aughton, Lancashire

2. The Waterside Inn; Bray, Berkshire
3. L’Enclume; Cartmel, Cumbria
4. Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons; Great Milton, Oxfordshire
5. Casamia; Bristol
6. The Sportsman; Seasalter, Kent
7. The Fat Duck; Bray, Berkshire
8. Restaurant Nathan Outlaw; Port Isaac, Cornwall
9. The Hand and Flowers; Marlow, Buckinghamshire
10. The Fordwich Arms; Canterbury, Kent
11. Restaurant Sat Bains; Nottingham, Nottinghamshire
12. The Dining Room at Whatley Manor; Malmesbury, Wiltshire
13. The Artichoke; Amersham, Buckinghamshire
14. Ynyshir; Machynlleth, Powys
15. The Coach; Marlow, Buckinghamshire
16. Midsummer House; Cambridge, Cambridgeshire
17. The Woodspeen; Newbury, Berkshire
18. 64 Degrees; Brighton, East Sussex
19. The Black Swan at Oldstead; Oldstead, North Yorkshire
20. Hrishi; Bowness, Cumbria
21. Northcote; Blackburn, Lancashire
22. Rogan and Co; Cartmel, Cumbria
23. Paul Ainsworth at No. 6; Padstow, Cornwall
24. The Cross Kenilworth; Kenilworth, Warwickshire
25. Roots; York, North Yorkshire
26. Adam Reid at The French; Manchester, Greater Manchester
27. The Crown at Burchetts Green; Maidenhead, Berkshire
28. Outlaw’s Fish Kitchen; Port Isaac, Cornwall
29. The Man Behind the Curtain; Leeds, West Yorkshire
30. Morston Hall; Holt, Norfolk
31. Pony & Trap; Chew Magna, Bristol
32. Benedicts; Norwich, Norfolk
33. Prawn on the Lawn; Padstow, Cornwall
34. Etch by Steven Edwards; Hove, East Sussex
35. Coombeshead Farm; Lewannick, Cornwall
36. Freemasons at Wiswell; Wiswell, Lancashire
37. The Elephant; Torquay, Devon
38. Matt Worswick at The Latymer; Bagshot, Surrey
39. Ondine; Edinburgh
40. House of Tides; Newcastle, Tyne and Wear
41. Sticky Walnut; Chester, Cheshire
42. Terre à Terre; Brighton, East Sussex
43. Orwells; Henley, Oxfordshire
44. Isaac At; Brighton, East Sussex
45. Gravetye Manor; East Grinstead, West Sussex
46. The Harrow at Little Bedwyn; Little Bedwyn, Wiltshire
47. The Kitchin; Edinburgh
48. Lake Road Kitchen; Ambleside, Cumbria
49. Grazing by Mark Greenaway; Edinburgh
50. The Little Fish Market; Brighton, East Sussex
51. Parkers Arms; Newton, Lancashire
52. Forest Side; Grasmere, Cumbria
53. Timberyard; Edinburgh
54. Stovell’s; Chobham, Surrey
55. L’Ortolan; Reading, Berkshire
56. The Raby Hunt; Darlington, County Durham
57. The Seafood Restaurant; Padstow, Cornwall
58. Restaurant Andrew Fairlie; Auchterader, Perthshire
59. The Walnut Tree; Abergavenny, Monmouthshire
60. Sorrel; Dorking, Surrey
61. The Whitehouse; Lochaline, Highland
62. The Seahorse; Dartmouth, Devon
63. Restaurant Hywel Jones; Colerne, Wiltshire
64. Y Polyn; Capel Dewi, Carmarthen
65. Roth Bar & Grill; Bruton, Somerset
66. The Angel at Hetton; Skipton, North Yorkshire
67. Carter’s of Moseley; Birmingham, West Midlands
68. The Ox Barn at Thyme; Southrop, Gloucestershire
69. Burlington at the Devonshire Arms; Skipton, North Yorkshire
70. Hambleton Hall; Rutland, Leicestershire
71. Adam’s; Birmingham, West Midlands
72. The Art School; Liverpool, Merseyside
73. Dastaan; Epsom, Surrey
74. Hispi; Manchester, Greater Manchester
75. The Jetty; Christchurch, Dorset
76. The Star Inn; Harome, North Yorkshire
77. Menu Gordon Jones; Bath, Somerset
78. Ethicurean; Bristol
79. Crabshakk; Finnieston, Glasgow
80. Salt Room; Brighton, East Sussex
81. Frog and Scot; Deal, Kent
82. Bulrush; Bristol
83. Coal Shed; Brighton, East Sussex
84. The Clock House; Ripley, Surrey
85. The Boat Inn; Lichfield, Staffordshire
86. Apicius; Cranbrook, Kent
87. Royal Oak; Paley Street, Berkshire
88. Read’s; Faversham, Kent
89. Milsoms; Dedham, Essex
90. Thackeray’s; Tunbridge Wells, Kent
91. The Lighthouse; Aldeburgh, Suffolk
92. Wilks; Bristol
93. Cin Cin; Brighton, East Sussex
94. The French Horn; Sonning, Berkshire
95. Hinds Head; Bray, Berkshire
96. Caldesi in Campagna; Bray, Berkshire
97. Gidleigh Park; Chagford, Devon
98. Two Fat Ladies at The Buttery; Glasgow
99. The Whitebrook; Monmouth, Monmouthsire
100. The Peat Inn; St Andrews, Fife