‘The definitive guide to the UK’s best restaurants’ is back. When the National Restaurant Awards’ Top 100 UK restaurants dropped earlier this week (Tuesday, June 10), it was unsurprising to discover a list dominated by London spots. So it’s nice to see three restaurants from the West Midlands also feature.
The highest ranked among them is the Hampton Manor estate’s Grace & Savour (44th). Set on a 45-acre family-run estate in Solihull, this immersive dining experience is described as “unlike any other” on the list—with guests taken on a tour of the gardens that dictate what’s served over the following 15 courses.
“A commitment to soil health, bio-diversity, ethics and sustainability underpins Taylor’s dishes, with techniques such as foraging, preserving and pickling all on display. Everything in its walled garden is grown with organic methods with Taylor also working with organic, biodynamic and regenerative farmers.”
Meanwhile, Birmingham’s first-ever Two Michelin Star restaurant (and joint first-ever Two Star Indian restaurant in the UK), Opheem, also featured. “About as far from a bog-standard curry house as you can imagine,” Opheem (48th), uses modern European techniques that are rarely used in other Indian kitchens.
Finally, Upstairs by Tom Shepherd (82nd) is the third West Midlands restaurant to feature among the UK’s best. Expect modern British cooking, with “flavour-led, produce-driven dishes” in Staffordshire’s first and only One Star dining spot—offering a seven-course tasting menu in the evenings, with a shorter four-course option at lunch.
Unfortunately for us, they’re not the only Midlands-based restaurants on the list. The ‘working-class two-star’ restaurant, Restaurant Sat Bains (31) in Nottingham, ranked higher than all three in the West, proving itself to be one of the most influential in the UK. “A breeding ground for chefing talent, it’s also one of the most ambitious and there’s been [no] taking a foot off the throttle.”
“At his restaurant, Bains is in search of perfection. He’s constantly tweaking and playing with ideas, meaning that a dish one week may have morphed into something different the week after. This approach extends to the restaurant itself, with the recent creation of a cigar hut, where diners can round off a meal with a cigar and a digestif.”
To read more about the best restaurants in the UK, head here.