The best restaurant in the UK isn’t in London

The UK has a new best restaurant, according to the Good Food Guide—and it’s more than five hours away from London.

Restaurant Nathan Outlaw, overlooking the Cornish coastline in the far west of England, toppled L’Enclume, which held the top spot for four years. The two-Michelin-star restaurant, named after its modest and soft-spoken chef, specialises in fish. Prices start at £62 (HK$625) for a four-course lunch menu that has included dishes such as cured monkfish, tomato, and sea purslane.

“It’s amazing to be No. 1,” Outlaw said in an interview. “We are just a little 30-cover restaurant in Cornwall cooking a bit of fish. We always try to make sure the customers are enjoying themselves, and it is very nice to be recognised. We have been working together as a team for over 10 years, and the guys are really proud about this.”

You don’t have to travel to Cornwall to try Outlaw’s food. His restaurants include Outlaw’s at the Capital, in London, and Nathan Outlaw at Al Mahara, in Dubai, where his signature tasting menu will set you back the equivalent of US$259. (To be fair, it features white sturgeon caviar and lobster.) The lunch menu in London costs £29 for three courses, while the five-course tasting menu is £85.

“Nathan Outlaw’s food is characterised by the absolute freshness of ingredients and a clear sense of purpose,” said Elizabeth Carter, the guide’s editor. “He has done an enormous amount to educate and encourage the public appetite for fish.”

The top-ranked London restaurant on the list is Jason’s Atherton’s Pollen Street Social, which came in third. Only three other establishments in the capital made the Top 10: Gordon Ramsay, Hedone, and Claude Bosi at Bibendum.