Top 10 Restaurants in the UK
Andrew Fairlie at Gleneagles
Gleneagles Hotel, Auchterarder, Perthshire, PH3 1NF, 0871 4265212
www.gleneagles.com
About This Restaurant
Two Michelin star restaurant set in luxurious and famous five-star Gleneagles hotel and golf resort. Andrew Fairlie was one of the first chefs to respond to our questionnaire and answered our queries honestly - unlike a few of his illustrious contemporaries. This is a top-notch restaurant in exquisite and exclusive surroundings serving the best food money can buy - and no, the prices don't appear on the menu so if you have to ask you can't afford it... 4.5 stars on Google.They say...
This is a two Michelin-starred restaurant, where every detail has been carefully planned to create a truly special experience, from the original art on the walls and stunning interiors to the specially selected French cheeses and Scottish-grown herbs. As Andrew received much of his chef's training in the south west of France with Michel Guérard, the cuisine is unashamedly French but with a Scottish twist.We say...
Surveyed 01/09/2009
It is to Andrew Fairlie's eternal credit that he took our initial criticism of one fish on his menu on the chin and then set about putting it right. Had it not been for the wild halibut he offered he would have recorded a stonking score for his otherwise impeccable credentials on sustainability. We are delighted to report that Andrew now uses Gigha farmed halibut which has won awards for the care the company puts into rearing the fish. Andrew Fairlie now gets a 4.5 Blue Fish score which is as good as any restaurant in the UK and gets our thanks and praise for the giant strides he has made on sustainability and in setting the standard for every other restaurant.Read more
You say...
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Andrew Fairlie at Gleneagles comments
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Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons
Church Road, Great Milton, Oxfordshire, OX44 7PD, 01844 278881
www.manoir.com
About This Restaurant
Modern French. Probably one of the most famous restaurants in the UK and a place of pilgrimage for gourmands. This hotel and restaurant was created by the celebrated chef Raymond Blanc in 1984. A combination of luxury hotel and gastronomic experience this restaurant has two Michelin stars and a big reputation built up by chef and food obsessive - and now TV star - Monsieur Blanc. Discovery menu is £116; three-course lunch: £49 and five courses: £95. 4.5 stars on Google.They say...
The modern French menu has been described as "a twist of imaginative genius." The quality of the food stems from the freshness and purity of its ingredients. The two-acre kitchen garden produces 90 types of vegetable and over 70 varieties of herb which are used in Le Manoir's kitchen. Raymond Blanc has been a champion of the organic movement for 20 years and comments 'flavour alone would be a reason to buy organic food, quite apart from its freedom from additives'.We say...
Surveyed 31/08/2009
We're big fans of Raymond Blanc because he is a champion of the organic movement. He realised long ago that the best cuisine can only come from the finest ingredients properly sourced. That is why Le Manoir has its own vegetable and herb gardens. Nevertheless, they didn't score well initially mainly because of a lack of information. Now Le Manoir has published a statement on its website outlining its strong policies on sustainability which applies " to every fish we sell". It has changed its menu so that it now makes clear whether fish are wild or farmed. They can tell you where every fish comes from down to the area, fishery, boat and skipper. The restaurant now ticks almost every box on our list and is to be commended for the dignified and professional way it has responded to our appeal for more information. Bravo monsieur!.Read more
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Walnut
280, West End Lane, London, NW6 1LJ, 020 7794 7772
http://www.walnutwalnut.com/
About This Restaurant
Walnut classes itself as a sustainable restaurant and the reviewers seem to agree: Great attention to seasonal food helps win local acclaim for this eco-conscious West Hampstead favourite, and for its innovative British menu (Hardens London Restaurant 2009). The restaurant claims to use seasonal British produce and works closely with Sustain, the 'alliance for better food and farming.' In Time Out’s review the restaurant is praised for a having a stylish dining room, with distinctive and locally sourced ingredients on their sophisticated menu. Walnut’s website is very simple but does give clear information on their sustainable ethos and traceability policy. Walnut is sometimes criticised for being expensive. Main courses come in around £13 to £16 but vegetables are charged as extra. Three and a half stars on Google.Read more
They say...
Local. Seasonal. Sustainable. We are committed to all produce being sustainable. We have always been conscious on our food and indeed everything. I welcome this initiative as it should help clear any confusion we all have regarding fish.We say...
Surveyed 27/10/2009
This has been a bit of a hard nut to crack; the restaurant is small and can not be compared with specialist seafood restaurants. However of the six seafood dishes on the menu all are sustainably caught from well managed stocks, this includes seared hand picked Scottish scallops, Cornish crab, fillet of line caught sea bass, fillet of mackerel from Hastings, and fillet of plaice from a Denmark North Sea plaice fishery which has entered full MSC assessment. Their menu gives information as to the species of fish served and on most occasions says where the fish is from, where it does not say the restaurant were happy to provide us with the information. This restaurant scored particularly well because it serves by-catch, it doesn’t serve dredged shellfish and it avoids using farmed fish but serves sustainably caught wild fish instead. Although farmed fish, especially if organic, is a great alternative to certain wild stocks that are in decline, farmed fish do present problems, mainly that the fish are largely carnivorous and therefore are fed on wild species such as anchovy and this cannot be sustained. They have not yet adopted a boat to plate scheme; let’s hope that they do soon so that they can continue being an example to others. Walnut is an excellent example of how it is possible to serve good food and be sustainable. Congratulations Walnut!Read more
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Sankey's Seafood Brasserie & Oyster Bar
39, Mount Ephraim, Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent, TN4 8AA, 01892 511 422
www.sankeys.co.uk
About This Restaurant
Outstanding commitment to sustainability which is well presented on this restaurant's website. It has a unique partnership with the National Lobster Hatchery in which one lobster is released every time one is eaten. All their fish are sourced extremely carefully wherever possible from fishermen around the British coast. Sankey's is a pub containing an Oyster Bar and a fishmonger's down the road. Six native oysters will set you back £12.60; Fish and chips: £10.50; two fish courses about £20. Four stars on Google.Read more
They say...
Sankey's has always had strong concerns for the welfare of the worlds fisheries. We believe that some fisheries are being heavily over fished and will not purchase fish caught in these fisheries. Sankey's has made a commitment to ensure that neither the Fishmongers nor the Seafood Brasserie will knowingly buy or sell fish from an un sustainable source.We say...
Surveyed 30/10/2009
This restaurant, pub and fishmonger has an upfront and robust policy on sustainability which it places at the heart of its philosophy. Its sustainability message is the first thing to be seen on the menu and does Sankey's great credit. It uses organic farmed Gigha halibut, Dover sole from a recognised and certified fishery and Loch Duart salmon, which does its best to avoid fishmeal from unsustainable stocks. We did spot ray on the menu but the restaurant has now removed this so we are able to give it a higher rating. At the top end of the sustainable restaurant category we have to be picky so we have deducted a few marks here and there for trawled fish and the odd lack of clarity about species on the menu but this does not detract from the overall picture of a restaurant doing brilliantly well. If only other restaurants worked this hard to source their seafood sustainably. We recommend it highly.Read more
You say...
Best local fish restaurant in the area - has never failed to produce delicious fresh fish - am very pleased to see it comes from sustainable sources and cannot recommend this restaurant enough!
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Sankey's Seafood Brasserie & Oyster Bar comments
25/01/2010Nick Hester
Best local fish restaurant in the area - has never failed to produce delicious fresh fish - am very pleased to see it comes from sustainable sources and cannot recommend this restaurant enough!
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Loch Fyne
Leadenhall Market, 77-78, Gracechurch Street, London, EC3V 0AS, 020 7929 8380
www.lochfyne.com
Branches:Alderley Edge Ascot (Woodside) Bath Beaconsfield Bluewater Bristol Cairndow Cambridge Chelmsford Cobham Covent Garden Cowbridge Didsbury Edinburgh Egham Elton Farnham Gosforth Guildford Harrogate Henley on Thames Hertford Ipswich Kenilworth
About This Restaurant
Scottish fish restaurant chain, with terrestrial menu choices. Started as an oyster-growing business by Andy Lane and John Noble, it is now a 49-restaurant brand with outlets all over the UK and Ireland. Since 2001 it has been owned by former employees. This is not a gourmet restaurant, the menus are all about quality ingredients rather than fancy sauces. It's a chain, so outlets vary in quality and service. Leadenhall Market restaurant does a fixed price menu at £12 for two courses plus a glass of wine. It is new, so no reviews yet.Read more
They say...
"We...were one of the first businesses to place the emphasis on sourcing sustainable seafood (responsibly farmed or from healthy wild stocks) for our shops and restaurants... No one works harder than we do to make sure that every oyster we harvest, every salmon we prepare and every fish that leaves our shops and kitchens is cultivated, farmed or fished in accordance with our strict environmental and quality guidelines."We say...
Surveyed 26/08/2009
Loch Fyne set the online standard for information about the seafood it sells. Its website is excellent and there is little reason to disbelieve what the company says about its attempts to source its seafood sustainably and in the least-damaging manner. The Loch Fyne chain scores highly because of exemplary fish choices: Icelandic cod, haddock from the North Sea (though this could be caught more selectively, as Marks and Spencer has shown), creel-caught langoustines, farmed queen scallops and dived king scallops. Loch Fyne claims to source from day boats, rather than deep sea or beam trawlers. It sources its farmed salmon from Loch Duart and organic suppliers, among others, which have the highest standards. There must be a question mark about the fish feed used by one or two of its suppliers of farmed fish. Staff training can let it down: in one branch we asked staff whether the bass was farmed or line-caught, only to be told it was "off the bone." Overall, though, a top scorer because of its excellent sourcing policies and online information.Read more
You say...
Not at this branch, but at the one in Covent Garden. I asked whether the bass was line caught or not and the waitress said:"Its off the bone." I repeated the question and she said she would ask the chef, and came back with the news: "It is off the bone." More work needed on educating the staff at Loch Fyne.
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Loch Fyne comments
19/10/2009Christo Hird
Not at this branch, but at the one in Covent Garden. I asked whether the bass was line caught or not and the waitress said:"Its off the bone." I repeated the question and she said she would ask the chef, and came back with the news: "It is off the bone." More work needed on educating the staff at Loch Fyne.
20/10/2009Lee Carr
Always excellent quality/good value and great to learn their sustainability policy meets your standards so we can continue to eat there with confidence!
23/10/2009Richard M
My wife and I went to our local branch in Beaconsfield on the day you launched the site. It was full and buzzing with activity. Their kippers were delicious as a starter and their braden Rost - salmon smoked over chippings made from old whisky barrels - was outstanding. Now we know how much work they put into their sourcing we will go much more regularly and enjoy it all the more.
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Hibiscus
29, Maddox Street, London, W1S 2PA, 020 7629 2999
www.hibiscusrestaurant.co.uk
About This Restaurant
Modern European. Claude Bosi trained under some of the greatest chefs in France, Alain Passard, Alain Ducasse, Jean-Paul Lacombe. He arrived in UK in 1997 and established his own restaurant in Ludlow. He transferred Hibiscus from Shropshire to London in 2001. He won his first Michelin star in 2001 and his second three years later. Three-course lunch: £33.50; six-course tasting lunch: £75. Google review 4 stars.They say...
Hibiscus doesn't say an awful lot about itself, presumably letting reviews and its Michelin stars do the talking but the restaurant offers a good choice of sustainable fish: line caught mackerel, Norwegian king crab, organic salmon, Cornish pollock and John Dory, Cornish lobster.We say...
Surveyed 01/09/2009
A top London restaurant, in more ways than one. Although not a seafood specialist and without an explicit sourcing policy on its website, all the fish dishes on the menu appear carefully chosen and soundly sourced. It offers alternative, less popular fish such as pollack. Refreshing to find a Michelin two-star restaurant taking this much trouble to identify its fish and ensuring they are from sustainable sources when many others still don't see the point. Joint top in our guide. Our top recommendation in London to people who like fish but don't want to destroy the planet. If Hibiscus provided more information on its sourcing policies it would almost certainly score even higher.Read more
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Lussmanns
42, Fore Street, Hertford, Hertfordshire, SG14 1BY, 01992 505329
www.lussmanns.com
Branches:Bishops Stortford St Albans
About This Restaurant
A small group of three restaurants operating in Hertfordshire - Hertford, St Albans and Bishops Stortford. The group has a strong commitment to using local suppliers and boasts of championing artisan producers. With 3,000 customers per week it says its sustainably-sourced fish fish has become an integral part of the menu. £27 for 3 courses, wine & coffee. No Google rating as yet.They say...
" Sustainable fish caught using ecologically friendly methods and where possible caught in British waters. Our salmon is certified organic."We say...
Surveyed 27/10/2009
Lussmanns are our kind of people. The menu is filled with information about where the food comes from - meat as well as fish. They boast of a high ethical and moral standpoint overseeing their sourcing methods. Line caught Cornish pollock is offered rather than cod, the tuna is line caught yellow fin and the salmon is farmed and organic. The restaurant has a policy of not serving any fish which is endangered and anything farmed must be organic. It also provides an exact description for each fish species often saying where and how it was caught. A small group with a big commitment. Outstanding.Read more
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Inver Cottage Restaurant
Strathlachlan, Strachur, Argyll, PA27 8BU, +44 (0)1369 860537
www.invercottage.com
About This Restaurant
The Inver Cottage Restaurant is “a warm and welcoming restored croft situated on the beautiful shores of Lachlan Bay, Loch Fyne”. The restaurant has been in and around the same family for over 40 years and makes much of its locally sourced fare. The menu is very reasonably priced with starters from £3.95 to £9 and main courses ranging from £8.90 up to £18 for the locally caught langoustines. As one would expect in this part of the world, a sensibly selected and priced wine list is accompanied by some good Scottish malt whiskies.Read more
They say...
We endeavour to bring you the best in local produce from loch, river and glen, sourcing as much of our food as possible from local suppliers: langoustines creeled in the bay, Shona & Marys locally hand-dived scallops, Gigha halibut, locally stalked venison from Winston Churchill. Our head chef, Gavin Quinn says about life at Inver Cottage... "It's a chef’s dream to find a little gem like this where I can look out the window and see where my seafood comes from. To have the most amazing produce on our doorstep is what cooking is all about for me”.Read more
We say...
Surveyed 29/10/2009
Our reviewer, a regular customer of Inver Cottage, tells us “it’s a well run establishment using sustainable local ingredients to great effect. It offers quality and value and maintains its reputation year in year out which is a challenge with such a seasonal business. Hand dived Kyles of Bute scallops; creel caught langoustine; Isle of Gigha farmed halibut; Loch Fyne smoked salmon together with local Argyll venison, lamb and beef etc... sourcing sustainably and locally is not difficult and Inver Cottage demonstrate that”. He seems impressed and fish2fork’s further findings, such as them serving haddock from sustainable North Sea fisheries, reinforce the restaurant’s fish and seafood sustainability credentials. A Scottish midge away from the top of our ratings, we’re happy to award them 3.5 Blue Fish.Read more
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Bordeaux Quay
V Shed, Canons Way, Bristol, Gloucestershire, BS1 5UH, 0117 906 5550
www.bordeaux-quay.co.uk
About This Restaurant
Bristol waterside complex that houses a restaurant, brasserie, bar, bakery and cookery school. The restaurant offers sophisticated food firmly rooted in the traditions of European Provincial cooking. An interesting and much-praised venture rooted firmly on ecological principles which takes in both food, drink and the building itself which is designed to be energy efficient. Early evening menu: £16.50 pp for 2 courses; two a la carte fish courses about £30 pp. Four stars on Gogle.They say...
The UK’s first eco restaurant to achieve a gold rating under the Soil Association's sustainable catering scheme. The Food For Life Catering Mark, developed by the Soil Association and backed by the Prince of Wales, is the first to guarantee customers get a sustainable meal, with standards governing things such as food additives, animal welfare and the seasonality of the produce chefs use.We say...
Surveyed 18/11/2009
Very little to criticise in this all-encompassing riverside complex which - quite justifiably - trades heavily on its sustainability policies. Seasonal, organic, local and sustainable feature heavily on the menu. As regards the seafood, the salmon is certified organic from Orkney, the sea bass and sea trout are line caught and the scallops hand-dived. Bordeaux Quay relies heavily on Cornish day boats and does take selective by catch. Our kind of restaurant.....Read more
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Geales Restaurant
2, Farmer St, London, W8 7SN, 020 7727 7528
www.geales.com
About This Restaurant
Upmarket fish and chips. Started as a chippie in 1939 and especially since its 2006 takeover by the team behind the Embassy, including executive chef Gary Hollihead – has become a posh restaurant for casually dressed Notting Hill types. White table cloths, ketchup in porcelain jugs. Reviewers praise fresh fish and good batter. 3 Google stars. Two fish courses: about £22.00p; Seafood Platter for two: £42.50p. 3 stars on Google.They say...
"Mark Fuller and Andy Taylor, the team behind concept venues Embassy London and The Inn on the Green, acquired Geales in 2006 and have restored the restaurant to its former glory. It was relaunched with a new look and a new menu but retaining the British chip shop mentality." Restaurant has a public commitment to sourcing only from sustainable fisheries.We say...
Surveyed 26/08/2009
This works for most of its fish, including the cod, sole and haddock from named fisheries in Cornwall. There's one doubt over unnamed tuna steaks and whitebait. Its salmon is organically farmed. High marks overall, but we would like to know more about the Cornish cod, sole and haddock, where exactly it came from and how it was caught.Submit A Review
