In a world where what people tweet and blog about what they've eaten just minutes after a restaurant opens its doors, a printed guide has to do what it can to reclaim the headlines and the Good Food Guide has certainly done that with the publication of its 2012 publication. They've given pride of place to Jason Atherton's Pollen Street Social - a restaurant that has pretty much divided critics since it opened - over the more obvious high-end opening of the year, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal.
The guide has put Pollen Street Social as both the Best and Highest New Entry at No. 8 - beating Dinner which is in at No 19. It's some comfort to Blumenthal that The Fat Duck is still the Good Food Guide's No 1 restaurant.
'Jason’s cooking has just got stronger and stronger,' consultant editor Elizabeth Carter told Richard Vines at Bloomberg which broke the story last night. 'He’s opened one of the most exciting restaurants in London. Now that he’s not traveling round the world opening Mazes for Gordon Ramsay, he’s re-energized and he’s in the kitchen all the time. He’s also got a strong team.'
Gordon Ramsay at Hospital Road drops from second to fourth place and The Ledbury (which as we reported, repelled rioters earlier this week) has roared up the charts from 29 to 17.
Other big London winners in this year's guide are Angela Hartnett of Murano who is picked as Chef of the Year in the Editors Awards.
London restaurants in The Good Food Guide 2012 Top 50
- 4 (2) Restaurant Gordon Ramsay
- 7 (7) Marcus Wareing at the Berkeley
- 8 (-) Pollen Street Social
- 9 (11) Hibiscus;
- 10 (10) The Square
- 14 (15) Le Gavroche
- 15 (12) Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester
- 17 (29) The Ledbury
- 19 (-) Dinner by Heston Blumenthal
- 22 (22) Murano,
- 42 (40) The Greenhouse
- 48 (45) Club Gascon
- 50 (-) Galvin La Chapelle
As far as new entries go, there are a number of key London restaurants included in the Good Food Guide for the first time including The Gilbert Scott, The Savoy Grill, St John Hotel, Opera Tavern, Spuntino, Nopi, Dishoom, Les Deux Salons, Cigalon, Vinoteca, Amaranto, Hakkasan Mayfair, Fernandez & Wells, Koya, 28-50, Morito, Brawn, Made in Camden, Homa, Cantinetta, Koffmann’s, Tinello and Cassis.
If you're intrigued by all this and want to buy The Good Food Guide 2012, it'll be in the shops from 8 Sept.
