Britain's top 10 restaurants revealed
The British version of the Michelin guide has crowned celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal's The Fat Duck the best restaurant in the UK for the fifth year in a row.
In advance of The Good Food Guide's publication September 3, editors released the top 10 restaurants across the UK for 2013, giving Blumenthal's famous eatery in Bray, Berkshire and L'Enclume in Cumbria a rare score of 10.
L'Enclume's "hallowed" rating -- the only other restaurant to nab the highest score this year -- makes it a formidable rival for The Fat Duck, noted the guide's editor-in-chief Elizabeth Carter in a statement.
"L'Enclume is mind-blowing," she said. "It's a world-class destination in harmony with its local community, serving food that is hard-wired to the Cumbrian soil. [Chef Simon] Rogan creates miracles from nature; he cooks what the land can provide - nothing more, nothing less. Eating at L'Enclume is a unique, almost one-to-one experience."
While a 9 denotes "cooking that has reached a pinnacle of achievement, making it a hugely memorable experience for the diner," a 10 is "extremely rare" and denotes consistent perfection, according to the guide.
'Usual suspects'
The results come just as the London Olympic Games wind down, and the city prepares for a second wave of tourists for the Paralymic Games August 29.
The list is full of some of the usual suspects including Restaurant Sat Bains in Nottingham, which scored the third spot, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay at the No. 4 position, and other popular dining destinations like Pollen Street Social, Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons and Hibiscus.
The Ledbury also broke into the top 10 list for the first time.
Meanwhile, on the World's 50 Best Restaurants list, The Fat Duck ranks 13, while Blumenthal's second restaurant Dinner at the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park in London ranks 9th in the world.
Inspectors for The Good Food Guide include ex-restaurateurs, chefs, writers and food critics.
For the full list, visit http://www.thegoodfoodguide.co.uk.
