In celebration of excellence in restaurant hospitality, toptable, the leading consumer destination site for restaurant bookings in the UK, along with its parent company, OpenTable, have announced the 2013 Diners’ Choice award winners for the Top 50 Best Restaurants for Service in the UK.
The awards represent the combined opinions of approximately 350,000 reviews submitted in the last year by verified toptable diners for more than 4,000 restaurants across the UK.
Restaurant Gordon Ramsay tops list
Critically acclaimed London institution Restaurant Gordon Ramsay tops the list. Gordon Ramsay’s intimate restaurant, led by Chef Patron Clare Smyth MBE, serves elegant and unsurpassed modern French cuisine, and diners voted the service second to none. The Fat Duck, famous for its use of molecular gastronomy, also earned high praise.
The Top 5 Best Restaurants for Service in the UK, in rank order:
- Restaurant Gordon Ramsay – London
- The Fat Duck – Bray
- Carters – Birmingham
- HKK – London
- Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester – London
“The most memorable part of a meal may not be just what’s on your plate, but also, the exceptional staff member who goes the extra step to ensure an enjoyable dining experience,” said toptable Head of Restaurant Relations, Lucy Taylor. “From owners and executive chefs to servers and line cooks, the dedicated professionals at these restaurants are creating carefully orchestrated, personalised dining experiences that appear effortless yet make guests feel appreciated and indulged all at once.”
London represents the largest metropolitan area of winning restaurants with 20 of the 50 best restaurants including Petrus, The Ledbury and The Greenhouse. Scotland is also well represented with six Glaswegian restaurants making it onto the list and three from Edinburgh.
Restaurants serving French cuisine accounted for nearly 30% of winners with European and British fare not far behind at 22% and 18% respectively. Other cuisines were also well represented including Indian, Gastropubs and Chinese.
350,000 diner reviews
The Diners’ Choice Awards for the Top 50 Best Restaurants for Service in the UK are generated from approximately 350,000 reviews collected from verified toptable diners between September 2012 and August 2013. All restaurants with a minimum “overall” score and number of qualifying reviews were included for consideration. Qualifying restaurants were then scored and sorted according to the highest average rating in the service category.
Based on this methodology, the following restaurants, listed in alphabetical order, comprise the Top 50 Best Restaurants for Service in the UK according to toptable diners.
2013 Diners’ Choice Award Winners for the Top 50 Best Restaurants for Service in the UK
63 Degrees – Manchester
Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester – London
Annies – Manchester
Apicius – Kent
Aumbry – Manchester
Balbirs – Glasgow
Buonissimo Restaurant – Birmingham
Carters – Birmingham
Charcoals – Glasgow
Chez Bruce – London
Clos Maggiore – London
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal – London
Friends Restaurant – London
Gamba – Glasgow
Gauthier Soho – London
Gravetye Manor – Kent
HKK – London
India Quay – Glasgow
Kendell’s Bistro – Yorkshire
La Becasse – Shropshire
La Garrigue – Edinburgh
Launceston Place – London
L’Ortolan – Berkshire
Lychee Oriental Restaurant – Glasgow
Number 16 Restaurant – Glasgow
Paris House – Bedfordshire
Petrus – London
Restaurant Gordon Ramsay – London
Roots at N1 – London
Roux at The Landau – London
Stovell’s – Surrey
The Artichoke – Buckinghamshire
The Fat Duck – Bray
The Feathered Nest Country Inn – Oxfordshire
The French Table – London
The Greenhouse – London
The Grill at The Dorchester – London
The Ledbury – London
The Plough at Bolnhurst – Bedfordshire
The Plumed Horse Edinburgh – Edinburgh
The Savoy, Thames Foyer – London
The Stockbridge Restaurant – Edinburgh
The Waggoners – Hertfordshire
The West House – Kent
Tom Aikens – London
Upstairs at the Grill – Cheshire
Van Zeller – Yorkshire
Viajante – London
Wild Mushroom – East Sussex
Wiltons – London
Diners can read more about the Diners’ Choice Awards for the Top 50 Restaurants for Best Service in the UK by visiting the toptable blog, The Dish.
About toptable Reviews
The toptable reviews program helps diners find restaurants that best fit their dining occasions. Diners who recently honoured a toptable reservation are invited via email to submit restaurant feedback using an online form. Visitors to toptable can access reviews for thousands of toptable restaurant partners across the UK. The toptable reviews program has generated more than 2.5 million reviews by verified diners in the UK, establishing toptable as one of the largest and most trusted sources for restaurant reviews.
About toptable by OpenTable
With over 4,000 bookable restaurants, toptable is the leading provider of online restaurant bookings in the UK, owned and operated by OpenTable. OpenTable is the world’s leading provider of online restaurant reservations, seating more than 12 million diners per month via online bookings across approximately 28,000 restaurants.
In addition to the company’s website and mobile apps, OpenTable powers online reservations for nearly 600 partners, including many of the Internet’s most popular global and local brands.
For restaurants, the OpenTable hospitality solutions enable them to manage their reservation book, streamline their operations, and enhance their service levels. Since its inception in 1998, OpenTable has seated more than 490 million diners around the world.