Jane Baxter
Chef-owner of Wild Artichokes, Kingsbridge, Devon – Best Local Restaurant in the South West 2023
Favourite place to eat? Outside Devon is a community focused multi use space on the road to Bantham. There’s a skate bowl, table tennis and pottery studio plus a cafe where the food is seasonal and exciting. Using veg from their poly tunnels, Joseph Robinson cooks a selection of eclectic dishes for breakfast and lunch. There are also pop ups and socials on some evenings.
Where I want to eat... Ana’s Kusina in Wadebridge is definitely on my list. Filipino food is generally overlooked but the menu here looks like it would be worth the 90-minute drive. Plus ONDA in the same town has an interesting Italian menu and is another of my top destinations.
Carina Contini
Chef-owner of Contini, Edinburgh
For a treat we love Ondine but for a family regular we live in Lasswade and often head to The PaperMill. An independent local with a delicious burger and Rocco our puppy gets to enjoy the bar. Family, friendly and lovely beside the river on a sunny day.
There are so many new and exciting restaurants opening up in Edinburgh. We don’t get much time unfortunately to get to dine out in town. There are too many to list. I’d love to try The Little Chartroom. I know they’ve been open for a few years now but on the list.
Lee Skeet
Chef-owner of Cora, Cardiff
My favourite local restaurant is Curado. It’s a Spanish restaurant just across from the millennium stadium in Cardiff and serves the best tapas in Wales by a mile. The food is simple but flavourful and the staff are excellent. It’s my go to place to sit at the bar, share some tapas and have a glass of vermut.
A local place I want to get back to soon is Osaka in Canton, Cardiff. It serves awesome Japanese food including amazing clams and a seaweed and jellyfish salad which actually inspired a dish on our tasting menu.
Alice Power
Head chef at The Black Swan, Oldstead, Yorkshire
Favourite local? It would have to be The Golden Lion in Osmotherley - nestled in a beautiful village and near my favourite walking spots for days off. They serve the best pint of Timothy Taylor Landlord I’ve ever found and the regularly changing menu always has home comforts such as suet pie, alongside nods to dishes from further afield such as Birria braised short ribs. The Golden Lion always provides warm, relaxed service from the established team.
Forge at Middleton Lodge is top of my list to get to. Jake Jones and the team get to utilise ingredients grown on the estate. I’m always keen to try food that shares our same ethos here at the Black Swan.
Tomás Gormley
Chef-owner of Skua and Cardinal, Edinburgh
My favourite local restaurant currently is Spitaki in Edinburgh. They do really great Greek small plates, all packed with flavour and it feels authentic.
Somewhere I’d like to visit is Gloriosa, Rosie Healey's restaurant in Glasgow - it's not quite my local, but it'll be somebody’s!
Poppy Cartwright
Chef-owner of Kitchen 91, Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire
Favourite local restaurant? Higher Ground, Manchester. The produce is really well sourced, using their farm Cinderwood Market Garden and great meat suppliers, they cook over coal and everything is cooked to absolute perfection. The atmosphere with an open kitchen is superb, you can sit at the bar watching the kitchen which is great entertainment. Plates are outstanding and everything is cooked with care and passion. This is a standout Manchester restaurant.
Janet Wei
Chef-owner of Janet's Pontypridd, Rhondda, Wales
My favourite place to eat is called Jianghu restaurant located in Cardiff. A small family run northern and Sichuan Chinese restaurant. The dishes are packed with flavour very authentic. Most of their dishes are spicy. I like spicy food. Great hospitality as well. The wife of the owner always very helpful and kind. The restaurant opened last year and have gained popularity in the Chinese community so you know they are good.
Gareth Saywell
Head chef at Bocca di Lupo, Soho, London
A good local restaurant should make you feel at home when you walk through the door. Somewhere to feel comfortable in, but still have that excitement for what is to come. What am I going to eat? What am I going to drink? A great Sunday offering is always welcome (as nobody wants to work Sunday, and I try to consistently have it off).
Favourite local? The Cow in Westbourne Park Road. By now it’s an institution in its own right, and I’m lucky enough to live nearby. Whether going for a pint of Guinness and half a dozen oysters, or to sit down, and have a great fish stew, pie, or their fantastic chicken kiev. The welcome is always warm, the Guinness is always great, the oyster bar full, and the smell of roasting meat wafting through the air. It has a sense of community to it which is very special.
What’s on your radar? The Hero of Maida is reopening, which I’m looking forward to going to. I’m expecting many more Sundays spent there.
Elly Wentworth
Chef-owner of The Angel, Dartmouth, Devon
My favourite local restaurant would have to be Andria. It’s very close to me in Dartmouth and does exceptional tasty dishes. Great vibes in there, and very affordable. Another one is the Barbican Kitchen in Plymouth, another amazing restaurant for the food scene.
There are lots of new restaurants I would like to try in the South West. I’m lucky enough to be down in Porthleven soon so will be eating in Kota with lots of chefs celebrating the food festival.
Kasia Piatkowska
Chef-owner of Tropea, Birmingham – Best Local Restaurant in Central & East of England 2023
So our favourite restaurant is called Riverine Rabbit. It's run by a couple, Erin and Ash. Ash is a South African chef and the menu of small plates has influences from there, which give it a unique edge. Her food is exciting and above all, delicious. Erin is a rocket scientist by day and front of house by night, looking after the 12 covers that sit by the kitchen. They’ve only been open a few months and already their crab muffin has become legendary in Birmingham.
It’s really hard to pick just one restaurant as there are so many places we’d love to get to. We really want to get up to Edinburgh to The Kinneuchar Inn! It’s somewhere we’ve wanted to go for ages and it was so nice to see them win their region for Best Local Restaurant 2023.
Tom Heywood
Chef-owner of Pignut, Helmsley
My favourite local in Helmsley is La Trattoria. It’s really good value for money - £15 for three courses - and does really good pastas and really good risottos. The tiramisu is amazing. We’ve been quite a few times and have never had a bad meal.
A place I really want to try go and eat at is Ruth Hansom’s in Bedale. I remember her from Million Pound Menu where she did a British, local-inspired menu and the current menu looks the same so it’s nice to see that she’s carried it through to her own restaurant.
Masaki Sugisaki
Chef-owner of Dinings SW3, Knightsbridge, London
A good local restaurant is all about comfort food. Obviously, a good quality of food and a reasonable price point. My favourite local restaurant? I’m Japanese so I love ramen noodles and there’s a restaurant Kanada Ya in Covent Garden which is amazing. I’ve actually been to the original restaurant in Japan and they’re recreating the quality of the original which is why I like it.
Nominations for The Good Food Guide’s 100 Best Local Restaurants 2024 are now open. Support your favourite local and nominate here.
