Best restaurant in England?

[NSEA]

Can I ask what has been your best restaurant? I'm not talking favourite Saturday night evening out. I mean those ultra special restaurants where you pay ££££s and get 16 courses or something and its all about the experience etc.

Really want to do this. A friend has been to Leeds Man behind the Curtain and it looks fantastic, though Im not a fan of sea food so I am looking for similar but different!

Thanks!!

La Gavroche is pretty good but notoriously hard to get a booking - we managed to get in because my best friends husband knew the chef there, otherwise, its a very long wait.

Dinner is pretty nice too - Heston is always a winner. What about the Fat Duck?

What sort of cuisine?

A few of my friends have been to sat bains and said how awful it was.

Awful service... Crazy owner/chef ruined the night. So it put me off going

Restaurant Nathan Outlaw or Fish Kitchen, but both are in Port Isaac in Cornwall.

The former has actually just been judged as the best restaurant by the Good Food Guide. I promised my view has not been influenced by that - I'm just glad they finally caught up!

L'Enclume was stunning. Not just the food, but the service was another level gob smacking!

If you can make a weekend of it some of the lunch menus in London are fantastic. A couple of years ago we had lunch at Sketch (the building, food and toilets are amazing) and dinner the following evening at Benares (Atul was there with his family.)
We loved Sat Bains, enjoyed Black Swan at Olsted, disappointed with service at th Kitchen. If you can get a lunch booking at le Gavroche it is definitely worth it, Micheal Roux junior spoke to every table when we were there.

Main thing is to check that you'd enjoy the sample menu, pointless going somewhere if you're not going to enjoy what they're cooking!

Manchester recommendations here.

Manchester House is meant to be top notch but i didnt like it. Now avoiding going to Where the light gets in in Stockport, decided that amazing reviews= poncy shite 😁

I do enjoy Australasia in manchester and their £100 per head tasting menu is best ive ever had in the UK.

Looking to go to Volta Refuge. Sounds good.

Man Behind Curtain is amazing!

Also amazing and off beaten track... Winteringham Fields.

Another one here for L'Enclume, absolutely amazing food and the service was fantastic. Also loved Lake Road Kitchen and The Samling.

L'Enclume. Book a package with overnight and breakfast. Perfect.

A newish one is Joro in Sheffield. Amazing food and good value too. Sited in an old shipping container, it is not glamorous but worth a trip.

Never been myself, but my fine dining friends in Cumbria like the cartmel place mentioned upthread, and also (don't know the name) the restaurant in the old dower house on the lowther estate, in askham. Further north i like The Holly Tree near oban. Not fine dining, but decent seafood and the most incredible views.

Another vote for the Raby Hunt near Darlington. Fab.

Great to hear about Jesmond dene house though, that's very near us so will have to give it a go...

In my opinion- and doesn't this thread show how opinions vary- The Samling is far superior to L'Enclume (Rogan and Co is better than the pretentiousness of L'Enclume) but beat Michelin and choose The Stamp House.
I adored Sat Bains for an intimate meal/stay. Love it's unpretentious surroundings.
(Gordon Jones similarly... but you don't want southern suggestions).
Queans in Leamington Spa does not pretend to be in this league but a tip may be Salt in Stratford-upon-Avon, it is on the up.
Had my 40th at Le Manoir ... happy days.
I am also always singing the praises of Birmingham on MN so do try Adams and Simpsons when Purnells has already been ticked off, and so many more!

Fraiche is lovely, by crazy hard to get a table. L'enclume is great too. Manchester house is great too, but not a Michelin star.

Le Manoir. Have been there several times, and always an impeccable service, and wonderful food. Try to stay there if going though so you can do a wine flight with your tasting menu. The rooms are beautiful too.

Le Gavroche is also fab, but our meal there was slightly ruined by the very smelly cheese cart that kept wafting past to different tables.

The Fat Duck was a bit different, but a lot of fun.

The Waterside Inn is a restaurant with rooms (albeit not very big ones!). Food was fantastic, and the location is beautiful.

The Sportsman at Seasalter has a Michelin star, but I hated it. DH liked the food, and critics rave about it, but it's a dingy horrible pub and the owner is weird. The trip advisor reviews should be checked first if you're considering going there.

We took our foodie 10 yr old to Le Manoir for his birthday. They were fantastic. We were greeted by Raymond Blanc who gave him a signed copy of one of his books and chatted at length about food, the service was fantastic and after lunch he gave us a full tour of his amazing kitchen, coffee on the terrace and then another member of staff took us on a personal tour of the kitchen gardens.

For a special occasion it was absolutely outstanding

Le Manoir. Have been there several times, and always an impeccable service, and wonderful food. Try to stay there if going though so you can do a wine flight with your tasting menu. The rooms are beautiful too.

You would need very deep pockets! Lunch for 4 of us (5 yrs ago) was just short of £600 and, if we had stayed over, the cheapest rooms are around £500-600 per night with a two night minimum booking at weekends 😮

If you like pizza, Santa Maria in Ealing, West London. You can also buy their pizza in the pub next door if it's fully booked. It's run by a family from Naples and you won't get better pizza.

I've never been but I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Hakkasan. I'm on a London foodie Facebook group and people rave about it.

Really was not that impressed with the Raby Hunt (when it was a 1*), food ok, staff not good enough and really pretentious owner overpriced.

My recommendations would be too far away.

Following this with interest! Let us know which you decide on!

In London I would say:

Restaurant Gordon Ramsey
Le Gavroche (you must have the cheese soufflé)

Outside London :
Restaurant Sat Baines

Place marking!

I went to Restaurant Sat Baines last night for a special birthday treat and it was incredible! We were at the Chefs table. Sat came to explainseveral of our courses himself and to chat about what we were eating and the rest of the staff couldn't do enough for us. Definitely worth the money!

I would defiantly second Restaurant Gordon Ramsey, his flagship, been quite a few time and its never failed me.

The Square (London) was ok for me but my other half really liked it.

Witchery Edinburgh was fine.

Le Man, just go..