• Fraiche in Oxton tops Harden’s 100
• 1 in 10 of Harden’s 100 restaurants are Indian
• Kent is top county for high quality dining
• North West strongest dining region after South East
• Edinburgh is second restaurant city

A chef who closed his restaurant last year only to re-open it months later has been crowned the UK’s #1 Restaurant in our diners poll.

Harden’s Best UK Restaurants 2020 (ISBN: 978-1916076112, price £16.99) – out now! – is based on 50,000 reports from a survey of 7,500 diners and places Marc Wilkinson’s 14-seater Fraiche, near Birkenhead, at the top of its ‘Harden’s 100’ list of the UK’s top dining destinations.

At the start of 2019, Wilkinson had planned to move to Liverpool and double in size, but soon decided against becoming less hands-on, commenting in March 2019 to the Liverpool Echoon his decision to maintain his site of 15 years standing:

“For good or bad, you get 100% of me – the decor is me, the visuals are me, the music is me. I care, I guess – it’s a passion.”

Fraiche was amongst the North West’s tally of 10 entries in the Harden’s 100: the highest of any region outside the South East and London, and with five of them in the Top 20 including Manchester Mana (3) and Adam Reid at The French (19); Aughton’s Moor Hall (5); and Cartmel’s L’Enclume (12).

Non-native, as well as British cuisine, is well-represented in the Harden’s 100, with 10 of the entries featuring Indian cuisine, 6 Japanese; and with Chinese and Scandinavian restaurants accounting for 3 apiece. This is in stark contrast to the lists produced by many other UK guides: for example, The Good Food Guide’s Top 50 Restaurants which includes zero Indian or Japanese establishments and a single Chinese one; or Square Meal’s UK Top 100, which includes two Indian establishments, and zero Japanese or Chinese representatives.

London restaurants accounted for 41 of the Harden’s 100 with 59 entries outside the capital. Amongst counties, Kent put in an unusually strong performance with five of the Harden’s 100 restaurants from the area.

Looking at the wider picture beyond the elite of the Harden’s 100, Edinburgh regained its position as Britain’s No 2. restaurant city outside London, judged both in terms of the total number of entries in the guide (60) and in terms of the total number of top-scoring entries (20) for any single city (a top scorer is defined as any restaurant scoring the top 5/5 mark for food, plus those charging over £60 per head scoring 4/5).

For general quality, the other top-scoring cities were Brighton (10), Birmingham and Glasgow (8 apiece), Manchester (7) and York (5) – the latter continuing to punch well above its weight as one of the country’s top dining cities. (Bath, Bristol and Cambridge score 4 apiece).

Oxford and Leeds are cities which have large restaurant scenes (with a total of 25 and 24 entries respectively), but which are under-weight for top-scorers with just 2 and 1 respectively.

Co-founder Peter Harden commented:

“This is an exciting time for the quality UK restaurant scene, with a feeling that expectations amongst diners continues to rise ever higher and a sense that the trade is rising to the challenge of meeting those expectations.

For many years now it has felt hard to keep up with the pace of change and innovation amidst the capital’s ever-changing restaurant scene, and this dynamism seems now to be ever-more widespread beyond the borders of the capital.”

Harden’s 100 – Top UK Restaurants

The top 100 restaurants derived from the 50,000 reports with ratings submitted by 7,500 diners who contributed to the Harden’s annual survey.

1	Fraiche, Oxton (7)
2	The Five Fields, London (13)
3	Mana, Manchester
4	Restaurant Sat Bains, Nottingham (23)
5	Moor Hall, Aughton (30)
6	Hambleton Hall, Hambleton (10)
7	The Ledbury, London (5)
8	Bubbledogs, Kitchen Table, London (14)
9	Core by Clare Smyth, London (11)
10	Casamia, Bristol (1)
11	Restaurant Nathan Outlaw, Port Isaac (4)
12	L’Enclume, Cartmel (31)
13	Umu, London
14	Waterside Inn, Bray (9)
15	Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons, Great Milton (16)
16	Etch, Brighton
17	Mãos, London (43)
18	Endo at Rotunda, London
19	Adam Reid at The French, Manchester
20	Lumière, Cheltenham (61)
21	The Araki, London (3)
22	Texture, London (2)
23	Hakkasan, London (48)
24	Winteringham Fields, Winteringham (8)
25	Orwells, Shiplake
26	Sushi Tetsu, London (15)
27	Amaya, London (68)
28	Andrew Fairlie, Gleneagles Hotel, Auchterarder (55)
29	Adam’s, Birmingham (22)
30	Little Fish Market, Brighton (99)
31	Restaurant Martin Wishart, Edinburgh (18)
32	Roganic, London (76)
33	Le Cochon Aveugle, York (91)
34	Gymkhana, London
35	Hipping Hall, Kirkby Lonsdale
36	Dastaan, Ewell
37	House of Tides, Newcastle upon Tyne
38	Sorrel, Dorking (21)
39	Indian Accent, London (24)
40	Morston Hall, Morston (26)
41	The Peat Inn, Cupar (58)
42	The Neptune, Old Hunstanton (50)
43	Opheem, Birmingham
44	Artichoke, Amersham (28)
45	Sosban And The Old Butcher’s, Menai Bridge
46	Le Gavroche, London (25)
47	La Dame de Pic London, London (6)
48	Zuma, London (66)
49	The Fordwich Arms, Fordwich
50	Lympstone Manor, Exmouth (20)
51	Lake Road Kitchen, Ambleside
52	Purnells, Birmingham (59)
53	Roski, Liverpool
54	Paul Ainsworth at No. 6, Padstow
55	Raby Hunt, Summerhouse (51)
56	The Whitebrook, Restaurant with Rooms, Whitebrook
57	Bohemia, Jersey
58	Stark, Broadstairs
59	La Petite Maison, London
60	21212, Edinburgh
61	Alyn Williams, Westbury Hotel, London
62	Ikoyi, London
63	Ynyshir Restaurant and Rooms, Eglwys Fach (44)
64	Hunan, London (41)
65	A Wong, London
66	Roka, London
67	Chez Bruce, London (77)
68	1921 Angel Hill, Bury St Edmunds
69	Elystan Street, London (84)
70	StreetXO, London
71	OOTY, London
72	Black Swan, Oldstead (29)
73	Restaurant MCR, Manchester
74	Gravetye Manor, East Grinstead
75	Number One, Balmoral Hotel, Edinburgh (71)
76	Babur, London
77	The Blackbird, Bagnor
78	The Sportsman, Seasalter (49)
79	Club Gascon, London
80	The Moorcock Inn, Sowerby Bridge
81	Northcote, Langho
82	Frog by Adam Handling, London (98)
83	Midsummer House, Cambridge (38)
84	Trinity, London (88)
85	The Ninth London, London
86	Caractère, London
87	Skosh, York
88	Seven Park Place, London
89	Indian Essence, Petts Wood
90	La Trompette, London (74)
91	Crab House Cafe, Weymouth
92	Joro, Sheffield
93	Kahani, London
94	Ormer Mayfair, Flemings Mayfair Hotel, London
95	The Box Tree, Ilkley (19)
96	The Barbary, London
97	John’s House, Mountsorrel
98	Pollen Street Social, London (83)
99	The Small Holding, Goudhurst
100	Trishna, London (92)

Harden’s 100 by cuisine

British Modern	52
French	16
Indian	10
Japanese	6
Fish & Seafood	4
Chinese	3
Scandinavian	3
Mediterranean	2
Spanish	1
Portuguese	1
North African	1
West African	1

Coverage by Region & County

	County	Harden’s 100	Top Scorer	Total Entries
	Derbyshire	0	2	11
	Leicestershire	1	1	6
	Nottinghamshire	1	3	22
	Rutland	1	1	8
East Midlands		3	7	47
	Bedfordshire	0	0	2
	Cambridgeshire	1	4	24
	Essex	0	4	19
	Hertfordshire	0	1	21
	Norfolk	2	4	23
	Suffolk	1	5	36
East of England		4	18	125
	County Durham	1	2	5
	Northumberland	0	0	8
	Tyne and Wear	1	4	32
North East		2	6	45
	Cheshire	1	3	17
	Cumbria	3	11	31
	Greater Manchester	3	9	73
	Lancashire	2	8	25
	Merseyside	1	3	26
North West		10	34	172
	Berkshire	2	10	28
	Buckinghamshire	1	6	21
	East Sussex	2	10	49
	Greater London	0	1	4
	Hampshire	0	4	36
	Isle of Wight	0	1	2
	Kent	5	12	60
	Oxfordshire	2	6	49
	Surrey	1	8	35
	West Sussex	1	4	29
South East		14	62	313
	City of Bristol	1	4	32
	Cornwall	2	9	48
	Devon	1	9	31
	Dorset	1	2	24
	Gloucestershire	1	4	33
	Somerset	0	6	33
	Wiltshire	0	5	15
South West		6	39	216
	Herefordshire	0	0	6
	Shropshire	0	2	10
	Staffordshire	0	1	3
	Warwickshire	0	2	18
	West Midlands	3	8	27
	Worcestershire	0	3	10
West Midlands		3	16	74
	East Yorkshire	0	2	7
	Lincolnshire	1	3	7
	North Yorkshire	3	13	61
	South Yorkshire	1	4	9
	West Yorkshire	2	4	38
Yorkshire & The Humber		7	26	122
	Cardiff	0	0	10
	Carmarthenshire	0	0	2
	Ceredigion	0	0	2
	Conwy	0	0	2
	Denbighshire	0	1	3
	Gwynedd	1	2	4
	Isle of Anglesey	0	0	2
	Monmouthshire	1	2	4
	Pembrokeshire	0	1	4
	Powys	1	2	7
	Swansea	0	1	2
	Vale of Glamorgan	0	1	3
	Wrexham	0	1	2
Wales		3	11	47
	Aberdeenshire	0	1	3
	Argyll and Bute	0	4	10
	City of Edinburgh	3	20	64
	City of Glasgow	0	8	23
	Dumfries and Galloway	0	1	1
	East Lothian	0	0	3
	Fife	1	3	8
	Highland	0	4	8
	North Ayrshire	0	1	1
	Perth and Kinross	1	3	8
	Scottish Borders	0	0	2
	West Lothian	0	0	2
	Wester Ross	0	1	1
Scotland		5	46	134
	County Antrim	0	2	6
	County Armagh	0	0	1
	County Down	0	1	1
	County Londonderry	0	0	2
Northern Ireland		0	3	10
		58	271	1314

Coverage by UK City (by total number of entries)

• London is ranked first.

Location	2020 (number)	2020 Rank		2019 (number)	2019 Rank
Edinburgh	64	2		51	3
Manchester	60	3		62	2
Brighton	36	4		37	4
Bristol	32	5		31	5
Birmingham	25	6=		17	14
Oxford	25	6=		23	9=
Leeds	24	8=		25	6=
York	24	8=		23	9=
Glasgow	23	10=		25	6=
Newcastle upon Tyne	23	10=		24	8
Bath	21	12		19	13
Liverpool	20	13		22	11
Nottingham	19	14		21	12
Cambridge	15	15		14	15
Cardiff	10	16=		9	20=
Cheltenham	10	16=		12	16
Winchester	10	16=		10	18=
Chester	9	19=		11	17
Harrogate	9	19=		10	18
Whitstable	8	21		9	20

High Quality Restaurants By UK City (by number of top scorers)

• London is ranked first
• A “Top scorer” is any restaurant scoring 5/5 (excellent) for food, or any restaurant above £60/head scoring 4/5 (very good) for food.

Location	2020 (number)	2020 Rank	2020 Top 100	2019 (number)	2019 Rank	2019 Top 100
Edinburgh	20	2	3	14	2	4
Brighton	10	3	1	9	3	1
Birmingham	8	4=	3	7	4	3
Glasgow	8	4=		6	5=
Manchester	7	6=	3	6	5=
York	5	6=	2	4	8=	1
Bath	4	8=		4	8=
Bristol	4	8=	1	6	5=	2
Cambridge	4	8=	1	2	19=	2
Bury St Edmunds	3	11=	1	3	12=
Cheltenham	3	11=	1	4	8=	2
Newcastle upon Tyne	3	11=	1	3	12=
Cartmel	3	11=	1	3	12=	1
Sheffield	3	11=	1	3	12=
Windermere	3	11=		4	8=

Detailed Coverage by Region

Click on the thumbnail to download a detailed report of coverage per region.