Funviralpark Want to discover new chefs, restaurants and dining experiences around the UK this year? Elizabeth Carter from The Good Food Guide reveals her list of under-the-radar eateries for 2023.
The problem with any effort to boil down Britain’s dining-out scene to just a few examples is that there are now too many good restaurants scattered across the country. In my 30 years of restaurant guide reviewing and editing, I’ve never experienced a more varied, more accessible, certainly more exciting dining scene.
The one downside of such a large competitive field is that too many good restaurants operate under-the-radar – popular in their own area but battling to grab the attention of a wider audience. Whether formal, super-cool or delightfully casual, this list is a snap shot of places where creativity, atmosphere, warmth and deliciousness have made a strong impression on all of us at The Good Food Guide in the last six months.
Prévost – Wansford, Cambridgeshire
When Lee Clarke moved his up-and-coming restaurant from Peterborough city centre to the 16th-century Haycock Manor Hotel, in an exceedingly well-kept village just off the A1 (not far from Burghley House), his timing could not have been worse. The move took place two weeks before the first lockdown in March 2020.
Amid the uncertainty of the pandemic, the chef and the hotel kept faith with each other, the hotel embarking on a complete refurbishment, and Sam Nash, former sous chef at L’Enclume and latterly head chef at Rogan & Co, joining Lee Clarke’s team as head chef.
Prevost
Prevost
Now settled in its glorious new home, Prévost is quickly attracting plaudits. Menus are seasonally adjusted, with the three-course option offering good value given all the extras brought to table. If Longhorn short rib with potato purée, baby leeks and pickled walnut is on the menu, go for that – though there’s an elaborate eight-course taster too.
The dining area is a light-filled orangery with French windows looking out on to gardens, and the service is superb. Combined with lovely bedrooms, these are all the creature comforts you could want for a memorable getaway.
Price: ££
Liz recommends: Ordering the Longhorn short rib, if on the menu
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Argoe – Newlyn, Cornwall
Quality was to be expected when Newlyn fishmonger Richard Adams and Ben Coombs, the former head chef at London’s Rochelle Canteen, teamed up to create this casual restaurant. It is fast becoming the place for those looking for the freshest Cornish seafood, treated with simplicity and culinary intelligence.
Argoe
Argoe
The short, daily-changing menu is dictated by the day’s catch – the purpose built, wood clad building overlooking Newlyn’s picturesque harbour is just a few steps from the town’s famous fish market. In fine weather, a table on the terrace is a prime spot, but the views are just as good from inside the intimate dining room.
The menu is a masterclass in less-is-more cooking (as well as using sustainable varieties of seafood), so expect the likes of whole deep-fried megrim sole served with a punchy aioli. Add in some genuinely welcoming service and a relatively modest bill and you have an irresistible proposition at any time of the year.
Price: ££
Liz recommends: Asking for a table on the terrace, if the weather allows
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Catch, the Old Fishmarket – Weymouth, Dorset
It’s good to see such an ambitious restaurant right in the heart of a seaside town. Catch can be found in a traditional quayside building above a working fishmonger. A solid spiral staircase leads up to the impressively clean-lined, modern-yet-atmospheric space, with an open kitchen and high-raftered ceiling.
Catch
Catch
This is Mike Naidoo’s first outing as head chef and you can see echoes of his time at Jason Atherton’s Mayfair flagship Pollen Street Social, in his enticing fixed-price and tasting menus.
Supplies of fresh seafood (some coming from the two boats moored directly outside) and locally reared meat, perhaps a superb slice of Aurox beef sirloin (darkly seared, the fat meltingly packed with beefy flavour), form the backbone of the menu. The desserts – think hazelnut and chocolate mousse encased in hazelnut-studded milk chocolate under a very light milk ice cream – make you feel thoroughly indulged.
Price: £££
Liz recommends: Ordering the Aurox beef sirloin, if on the menu
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Quince – Westgate on Sea, Kent
Relatively new to this small and utterly charming Victorian seaside resort just east of Margate, Quince is a small, intimate restaurant that is everyone’s dream of a perfect bistro. Warmly embraced by locals, it deserves a wider audience, especially in the summer months when the pleasant, easy-paced coastal walk from Margate comes into its own.
Quince
Quince
The modern, no-frills dining room is as stripped-back and minimalist as the menu – four choices per course – with dishes revealing a commitment to local and regional suppliers, a practice honed by Rafael Lopez’s years of heading the kitchen at the famed Goods Shed in Canterbury.
With co-owner Ben Hughes, another Goods Shed alumnus, their repertoire of robust, broadly European-accented dishes comes with a feel for proper flavour and seasonal vitality, along the lines of pig cheek with parsnip and herb dressing or squid with butter bean purée and gremolata. As for service, nothing is too much trouble.
Price: ££
Liz recommends: Walking to the restaurant from Margate
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The White Swan – Fence, Lancashire
The buttermilk-coloured frontage is modest, the front door leading directly into the muted dining areas located on both sides of the entrance, while the interior has a pleasing simplicity. But what a surprise! It’s certainly unexpected to walk into such an unassuming pub in a Lancashire hamlet, a few miles from Burnley, and experience a meal of such sophistication, complexity and precision.
The White Swan
The White Swan
The driving force is Tom Parker, whose keen-witted approach to dish and menu construction means the choreography of the meal is carefully spaced and calculated so you are never hurried, nor discouraged from lingering by the genuinely helpful, down-to-earth staff.
The no-choice five or six-course menu is set daily, ticks every seasonal and local box you could wish for and emphasises the main ingredient with ingenious but discreet accompaniments, whether red mullet with saffron potato, fennel, orange, seaweed and tarragon in a shellfish cappuccino, or Ibérico pork belly paired with a sticky faggot, crab apple jelly, smoked honey, turnips and mustard sauce. Hats off too, for the wide choice on the superb British artisan cheeseboard.
Price: £££
Liz recommends: Ordering the red mullet or Ibérico pork belly, followed by the artisan cheeseboard, if on the menu
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Brix & Bones – Norwich, Norfolk
It’s the most complete medieval city in the UK, and with a stunning Norman cathedral and castle, Norwich is good for a visit any time of the year. But when it comes to dinner, don’t be put off by this above-a-betting-shop location in the city centre.
Brix & Bones is a blinder, moody and industrial in vibe. Run by an engaging, informed team, it’s all about powerful, expert, generous open-fire cooking – the sort that requires leathery aprons, muted lighting, cracking drinks, and a pacey soundtrack. If you like this sort of vibe, it’s brilliant.
Brix & Bones
Brix & Bones
Dishes are designed for sharing and flavours roar out, from snacks through to dessert. Share some focaccia, made daily in-house and served with bone-marrow butter and a sharp, smoky raspberry compote. Steaks, ordered by weight, immense chops and whole fish are licked with flame, slicked with the melted fat of 85-day aged Limousin beef, then seared, smoked, seasoned and spiced as befits each item. And do make sure you order the bone-marrow fudge dumplings – everyone loves them.
Price: ££
Liz recommends: Ordering the homemade focaccia to start and the bone-marrow fudge dumplings for dessert
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Hjem – Wall, Northumberland
Meaning ‘home’ or ‘place of belonging’ in both Northumbrian and Swedish, this Scandi-Northumberland dreamchild of Alex Nietosvuori and Alexandra Thompson is bucket-list territory for every food lover.
A simple and cosy bar leads through to an airy, light-filled dining space with an additional garden room beyond, creating a calm canvas for the visual and taste sensations emerging from the open kitchen.
Hjem
Hjem
The tasting menu sets the scene with around six opening mouthfuls, each a mini masterpiece delivered in turn by one of the chefs. Huge steamers come out for a delicate chawanmushi (savoury Japanese custard), served with emerald baby broad beans and confit lamb belly, while a firebox provides the open flames to dramatically finish prime cuts from the gleaming meat safe.
Hjem is not a place to pop in for a quick bite, but as it is located in the fully refurbished Hadrian Hotel, with Hexham and Hadrian’s Wall on the doorstep, it’s the perfect spot for a memorable weekend break.
Price: ££££
Liz recommends: Taking your time on your visit, as part of a weekend staycation
VISIT WEBSITE
Ethicurean – Wrington, Somerset
Seen at its best from late spring to autumn, the walk up a steep brick path through this lovingly-restored Victorian walled kitchen garden only heightens anticipation as you reach what was the old potting shed (now the restaurant).
The artfully shabby, white-walled ‘glasshouse’ dining room sensibly does not try to compete for your attention with the breath-taking panorama of the Mendips or the Noma-inspired food on your plate.
Ethicurean
Ethicurean
Lunch and the evening ‘Ethicurean Experience’ are fixed-price set menus, based on what is good in the garden and has been foraged from the surrounding hills. It’s definitely not cheap but then a commitment to ethical employment, food production and animal husbandry – plus the upkeep of the garden and orchards – are not without cost.
The skill, inventiveness and precision of the cooking is impressive. Even the simplest ingredients can shine (think fillet of confit trout in smoky fish oil with a salad of seared broccoli, samphire and seaweed, bound together by a velvety kohlrabi and smoked fish velouté). Puddings are showstoppers, and the cocktails made from Ethicurean-distilled gin are a must.
Price: ££££
Liz recommends: Finishing off your meal with a dessert and a cocktail
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Paradise Café, Daleside Nurseries – Killinghall, North Yorkshire
Frances Atkins was (and remains) one of the country’s most celebrated chefs, who, over 23 years at the Yorke Arms, collected a heap of awards and accolades. Along with her long-time general manager John Tullett and head chef Roger Oliver, she has moved from her sophisticated restaurant with rooms to run a purpose-built, 60-seater café in the grounds of a garden centre near Harrogate, part of a growing trend to provide excellent food venues in kitchen gardens and garden nurseries.
Paradise Café
Instagram|@paradise_foods_
It’s all quite low key. But while it might call itself a café – open for breakfast and lunch and occasional Friday dinners – the principles upheld at the garlanded Yorke Arms are just as relevant here even if dishes are less complex, less labour intensive.
It has the same restrained elegance, with dishes that uphold the Atkins mantra of simple, nutritious food that has not been messed about with, with top choices including plaice with salsa verde, cheese potato, broccoli and oyster mushroom, and rare breed belly pork, coconut and lime rice, kale and crisp vegetables.
Price: ££
Liz recommends: Ordering the plaice or rare breed belly pork, if on the menu
VISIT WEBSITE
Home at Penarth – Penarth, Wales
Press the doorbell to enter James Sommerin’s latest venture in this elegant seaside town close to Cardiff. It’s darkly dramatic, shielded from the street by floor-to-ceiling curtains. The centrepiece is the broad, open kitchen, lit like an Edward Hopper painting, and creating a hypnotic and beautiful piece of live theatre backed by a luscious dreampop soundtrack.
Aga Tomaszek Photography
Aga Tomaszek Photography
James and his daughter Georgia are essentially the whole kitchen team, occasionally bringing out dishes from their no-choice, eight-course surprise menu (the printed version is presented at the end of the meal), though there’s an excellent, warmly assured front-of-house presence, too.
The acclaimed chef has always impressed, but it’s clear that he has raised the bar considerably here. There’s magic in every detail, from the dazzling amuse-bouches and dense, crusty wholemeal and laverbread loaf made with local beer and served with cultured seaweed butter, to a breast of roast corn-fed chicken perfectly paired with Carmarthen ham and served with olive oil and potato purée, Madeira sauce, broad beans and globe artichoke. Food, design and style are natural partners here – one of the top fine dining experiences in Wales.
Price: £££
Liz recommends: Ordering the roast corn-fed chicken, if on the menu
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Glenturret Lalique Restaurant – Glenturret Distillery, Crief, Scotland
A marriage of gastronomy, hospitality, whisky and crystal – this restaurant is not simply located at the Glenturret distillery but woven into its very DNA. Head chef is Glaswegian Mark Donald who sports an impressive international, high-end pedigree and, in his well-paced and perfectly balanced tasting menu, there is reverence, insight, artistry and even humour.
The Glenturret|Marc Millar
After the tweedy comfort of the lounge and crystalline glitz of the bar, the relatively unadorned seven-table dining room initially feels somewhat muted – despite magnificent Champs-Elysées Lalique chandeliers overhead that each cost more than many a luxury car.
Fortunately, the genteel choreography of staff and the steady emergence of vibrant food animates the space. From the opening ‘snack’ of a raspberry-mirrored pearl of liver parfait, nestled in a frangible cocoa basket with miniature floral composition, to an intricately crafted ‘sweetie box’ of Sauternes jellies and whisky truffles, reflecting the interests of the owners. This is ‘bucket list’ dining. In culinary terms, it’s a technical masterclass.
Price: ££££
Liz recommends: Looking out for the ‘sweetie box’
VISIT WEBSITE
Planque – Haggerston, East London
Move over Shoreditch! Is Haggerston the latest spirited east London hot spot? It certainly feels like a very exciting area when it comes to eating and drinking, yet it’s still a real surprise to encounter a space as ambitious as Planque.
It describes itself as a ‘wine drinkers’ club house,’ though it’s as unlike the claret-soaked clubs of St James’s as it’s possible to be. Double height, tucked under railway arches and achingly cool – think polished concrete not polished mahogany, mid-century minimalism not turn-of-the-century archaism.
Planque
Instgram|@_planque_|@@antonrodriguez
While there are members paying £880 a year, Planque’s French-accented restaurant is open to all, the kitchen led by Australian-born Sebastian Myers. He’s the kind of chef other London chefs talk about in reverential tones. His cooking is restrained yet every dish is quite surprising, beautifully balanced, and modern, whether a courgette tart with goat’s curd and anchovy, or guinea fowl with endive and orange.
The wine list speaks to the new gen drinker, those more interested in grower Champagne and cult names from Jura and Beaujolais than in claret (in fact, they have no Bordeaux and only a few Burgundy wines). Bottles start at £40 but this is one place you might want to splurge.
Price: £££
Liz recommends: Ordering the courgette tart or the guinea fowl, if on the menu
VISIT WEBSITE
The Water House Project – Bethnal Green, London
What began as a supper club in Gabriel Waterhouse’s east London flat has settled in the light-filled, modern-industrial ground-floor space at the Empress Works by Regent’s Canal. Pleasingly, the chef (ex-Galvin La Chapelle) hasn’t abandoned those supper club roots, so come for dinner at 7pm, for a set multi-course menu with carefully paired drinks (there’s a 12.30 lunch sitting on Saturdays). You might share a table (it’s not compulsory, but that’s the sociable vibe here), and Gabriel and his team host the whole show with easy informality.
The Water House Project
The Water House Project
Beautiful ingredients are handled deftly, resulting in dishes that are inventive, refined without being fussy, and shot through with vigorous Nordic-inflected flavours, perhaps fallow deer cured in juniper, seared and served with parsnip purée, pickled blackberry and two sauces (chocolate and a luxurious venison jus). The whole experience feels very of the moment, informal, relaxed and fun, and a masterclass in how the set menu, all-inclusive model can work.
Price: ££££
Liz recommends: Ordering the fallow deer, if on the menu
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Kebab Queen – Covent Garden, London
Diners arriving for the restaurant’s 7pm sittings are led into the basement of Covent Garden’s Le Bab and through the mocked-up frontage of what looks like a suburban high-street kebab shop.
A detour through Le Bab’s high-spec kitchen is the first clue that this venue will not be a direct homage to the post-pub ’bab queue; the next is a stylish dining room-cum-open kitchen and chef’s table for 10, where Manuel Canales (ex-Le Gavroche) serves six-course menus of the most refined finger food imaginable directly onto a heated counter: there is no cutlery or crockery here.
Kebab Queen
Once reassured that the non-porous surface is hygienically treated between each course with an organic, edible spritz – and reminded to keep one’s phone on a heat-proof block – it doesn’t take long to conclude that Kebab Queen is more wonderful than weird, each course made up of separate multi-ingredient components – as in a stunning doughnut of almost-liquid duck liver which vies, with walnut praline, as the most delicious thing in an assembly of Creedy Carver duck – and gone in a single mouthful. Best of all, it feels like you are in on a secret.
Price: £££
Liz recommends: Ordering the duck doughnut, if on the menu
VISIT WEBSITE
Elizabeth’s predictions for what the UK’s food scene will look like in 2023
1. High-end meal deals
Restaurants are once again having to pivot to draw in cautious customers and I’m beginning to see a lot of very good meal deals being offered, especially at lunchtime – usually three courses for under £30, sometimes with a glass of wine. The thinking is that a generous lunchtime deal will encourage customers to return for the more expensive dinner – for a celebration, perhaps. Winter and spring 2023 will see more of these deals being offered by very good restaurants as they compete to attract customers at an unattractive time of year.
2. Some eateries closing their doors
I expect to see some well-known restaurants close. I predict the new year will see more and more closures as pandemic debt, a shortage of staff and higher prices take their toll. But the dining scene will pick up with warmer weather and it will still be vibrant and exciting – and restaurant openings are still being planned.
3. Elevated cafés
But expect to see more bakery cafés and more simple, inexpensive daytime café-restaurants, both opening for smarter Friday/Saturday dinners. It’s a slow trend currently, but one that is right for these challenging times.
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