Harden’s Top 100 UK Restaurants 2023: Double success for Tommy Banks with Roots and The Black Swan while Shaun Rankin at Grantley Hall also makes list

North Yorkshire’s Tommy Banks has two of the three Yorkshire restaurants named in the top 100 with his Roots restaurant, in York, coming in at 28 and The Black Swan at Oldstead just behind with 34.

Simon Rogan’s L’Enclume in Cartmel, Cumbria has been voted the UK’s best restaurant in the annual diner’s poll by the restaurant guide. The third Yorkshire restaurant in the list is Shaun Rankin at Grantley Hall, at Grantley Hall, coming in at number 75.

Of Roots, the guide says the city centre pub is ‘combining skill and originality in equal measure – with a menu that’s is unexpected and exciting. Knowledgeable service coupled with the beautiful presentation and amazingly flavoured food makes for a truly unforgettable meal’.

However, it does warn the great food comes at a price – ‘bills are simply excessive’ – but it seems many diners are willing to pay it.

For his original restaurant, set in the Yorkshire village where he was brought up, the guide says it is very difficult to find fault, although again there is a warning about the price.

Head chef Callum Leslie’s ten-course tasting menu is £175 per person, and even if ‘you may be heading for bankruptcy at this level of pricing, the cooking is astonishing’ although another diner says ‘we even thought it good value! with some of the most interesting and tasty desserts encountered in any starred restaurant’.

Fellow Yorkshire-born chef Shaun Rankin is also in this year’s list for his restaurant at Grantley Hall. Quoting its diners’ reviews, Harden’s 2024 guide says: “Valeria Sykes spent £70 million converting the country pile into a hotel, and given its almost ‘intimidating’ level of luxury naturally ‘you may need a second mortgage before booking’.”

Peter Harden, co-founder of Harden’s, comments: “It has been a stellar year for the North of the country with L’Enclume in Cumbria coming out top for the first time and the likes of Solstice in Newcastle making a huge impression so early on in its journey.

"It’s fantastic to see the Top 100 listings in Yorkshire come from the region’s extraordinarily talented homegrown chefs, Tommy Banks and Shaun Rankin whose restaurants’ popularity prove that higher prices aren’t always a barrier if diners genuinely believe they’re getting value for money.”

The Top 100 restaurants is derived from the 30,000 reports with ratings submitted by 2,500 diners who contributed to the Harden's annual survey.

However, the restaurant guide features thousands of restaurants, and Yorkshire performs very well overall. York itself has seven restaurants in the top 500, while Leeds has 20 restaurants listed overall.

North Yorkshire comes out on top for the county with the most listings – 63 – and also has 14 restaurants in the top 500. It is third in the rankings for the top 100 with three, behind Kent (six) and Cornwall (four).

Harden’s is the UK’s original ‘user-generated content’ restaurant guide. The Harden’s survey of regular restaurant-goers is now in its 33rd year and is the only UK restaurant guide sold in bookshops based on feedback from diners rather than a group of professional inspectors.