Top UK restaurants 2025

The Barbary

This Notting Hill restaurant, an offshoot of one in Covent Garden, takes its name from the section of North Africa's coast that was "settled by those wandering polytheists, the Berbers", said William Sitwell in The Telegraph. Although the dishes on the menu are not wholly unfamiliar, they are made distinctive by their "informal, generous flavour". Flatbreads are "deliciously charred", and are served with hummus, spinach and yoghurt, and a "tasty mush of peppers and garlic" called kaha kaha. Skewers of pata negra pluma (Spanish pig) are "tender and tasty"; octopus comes with its "tentacles charred and its flesh soft and delicious". Lamb chops are "beautifully fatty and tender", while sea bass crudo is "more elegant". Housed in a suitably stylish space – all polished dark wood and cosy banquettes – The Barbary "is, frankly, very good". Lunch for two: £175 (excluding drinks and service).

Fonda

The Mexican chef Santiago Lastra launched his ambitious restaurant Kol, near Marble Arch in London, "amid the crashing waves of Covid", said Jay Rayner in The Observer. Its "reimagined" Mexican dishes have since earned it a Michelin star. Now Lastra has opened a second venture, which presents itself as a "more relaxed affair": fonda means "humble family-run restaurant" in Spanish. In truth, with its bespoke plates and "Ziploc insulation bags" for the tortillas, "this is only a fonda in the way the River Café is a café, which is to say, not at all". But don't let that put you off: the food here is "conversation-stopping". A Baja taco of deep-fried cod fillet – served with shredded cabbage and a "bright green" sauce of blitzed pistachio – turns out to be a "veritable supermodel of the fish finger sandwich world". Long-simmered short-rib beef is smothered in "insanely delicious" mole poblano – a thick and glossy sauce with a "sultry, dark-chocolate sweetness". Encouraged by our waiter, we use the "purée-soft" refried beans to "butter" our tortillas, and also "splodge" liberally from the three pots of salsa on our table: one made from fermented gooseberries, a second from scotch bonnet and árbol chillies, and the third from cascabel chillies and sunflower seeds. With its imaginative cooking and sense of "understated theatre", Fonda is "exuberantly good". Starters and small plates £7-£14; larger plates £23-£29.

Juliet

Despite being a "magnet for the Cotswolds arts scene", Stroud has never had an especially foodie reputation, said Grace Dent in The Guardian. But the opening of Juliet suggests this could change. Its owner is sculptor Daniel Chadwick, who is also behind "the Woolpack, a much-loved hostelry in Slad just up the road". He is "my favourite type of hospitality character": his vision is "distinctly non-corporate and propelled by an urge to take old things and re-love them". In Stroud, he has turned a former music venue into a "stylish", atmospheric all-day bistro. The food is in keeping with the decor: it's grown-up and beautifully "precise". There are bowls of clams, chickpeas and girolles. Oeufs mayonnaise comes with a delightfully "thick and fresh mustardy mayo". Mousse de canard is rich and earthy, with a "translucent layer of glorious fat" that makes it perfect to spread on a fresh baguette. Homemade cavatelli are served with a "pleasantly unrefined duck stew". The tarte tatin is "breathtaking" and "one of the best I have ever demolished". Juliet is definitely "worth a schlep to Stroud", though you'd better book well in advance, because it's proving popular with the locals. About £40 a head, plus drinks and service.

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Chapel Market Kitchen

The Israeli chef Maoz Alonim is best known for Basta, his restaurant in Tel Aviv, which is in the city's Carmel Market. When he expanded to London, he decided to try to "replicate the original", said Charlotte Ivers in The Sunday Times – hence this place's location on the "slightly ratty Islington backstreet" of Chapel Market. But while the restaurant's exterior has been "artfully distressed", making it look as if it's been here for years, inside it's "modern yet cosy". The menu, based on sharing plates, promises a "sweeping tour of the Med: calamari to taramasalata, labneh to ibérico ham". Everything on it "looks worth ordering" – and the dishes, when they arrive, do not disappoint. Ingredients are high quality, the combinations "exciting": anchovies and vanilla butter make for an "unnerving" but "delicious" pairing; roasted Brussels sprouts with shaved Comté and chilli are a "crispy masterclass". For the brave, there's veal brain on toast, with caper, salt and lemon: a "salty and silky" treat. I left Chapel Market Kitchen feeling "warm and fuzzy": this is a "gorgeous restaurant". Around £64 a head, with drinks and service.

The Elder Restaurant

This restaurant, on Bath's South Parade, has the intimate "feeling of a club", said William Sitwell in The Telegraph. Taking up several rooms of a "handsome" Georgian building, it is one of a number of venues owned by Mike Robinson, a talented chef and a "flag-waver for venison". Our set menu begins with a cup of "game tea", which is warming, rich and remarkably tasty, like "Bovril on acid". Next comes a "perfect portion" of mallard, its flesh "ruby-blood red" and its skin crisp, onto which is poured "cubes of trompette mushroom and some rich jus". Then – of course – comes the venison, in "neat little slices", and a crisp little pastilla made of braised shoulder and turnip. It's a dish to make you "wonder why you ever bother with beef". On a chilly winter's day, The Elder is the place to come if you want to "rest weary legs" and feel "properly cosseted".

Dongnae

Kyu Jeong Jeon and Duncan Robertson's second Korean restaurant in Bristol – their first is the much-loved Bokman – is housed in an old butcher's shop in Cotham, said Tim Hayward in the Financial Times. From first to last, the food is "different" and "flat-out delicious". I begin with a "precision hand roll" of Devon crab topped with Icelandic urchin; it comes wrapped not in nori seaweed, but a special kind with an "almost tea-like taste" that the chefs have imported. Further surprises lie in store, chief among them a revelatory "five-year doenjang stew". Its "complex, sophisticated" broth is flavoured with a doenjang paste that the "proprietors have been proudly rearing for five years". In it float "trace quantities of meat", courgette, mushrooms, and a tofu unlike any I've tasted before: custardy in texture, with "subtle fungoid flavours". It's a stew with which I feel "instantly at ease" – much as I do with bouillabaisse, or a good Welsh cawl. Dongnae is a "gently inspiring" place that will teach you new things about this fascinating cuisine.

Canteen

"It came from nowhere," said Tom Parker Bowles in The Mail on Sunday. This Italian restaurant arrived on the site of the old Pizza East on London's Portobello Road "without a whisper of hype or PR", and though it's only been open a few weeks, it is already "magnificent" in every respect. It's a cavernous space, "a mixture of industrial and homey", and tables "turn at a decent pace", which is useful as they don't take bookings. Jess Filbey, who trained at The River Café, leads a mainly female kitchen – "and by god can it cook". Deep-fried olives stuffed with Italian sausage are "hot, salty and savoury". Puntarelle, that "exquisitely bitter chicory", is roasted in the oven before being doused in an oily, anchovy-heavy sauce: the dish is "an instant winter classic". Pizzetta topped with leeks, pancetta and "molten" taleggio is "gone in a few joyous bites" – necessitating a second order. The pasta is "some of the best I've tasted in London": silken fettuccine coated in a "cream-laden duck ragù"; gnocchi, "light as a sigh", with a "fistful of garlicky girolles". This part of west London is "blighted with a mass of mediocre Italians". The food at Canteen is "River Café level" – but "half the price". About £40 a head.

Lahpet Larder

"Filthy" and "monotonous" was how George Orwell characterised Burmese food in his 1934 novel Burmese Days. But he got it wrong, said Charlotte Ivers in The Sunday Times. This "gorgeous little place" in Bermondsey proves that "Burmese food is bloody brilliant". (I'm calling it Burma, not Myanmar because that's what they call it here.) "Lahpet" means pickled tea leaves in Burmese, and these are used to make the "bitter, tingly pesto" that acts as a dressing in the restaurant's signature "tea leaf" salad, which is made with cherry tomatoes, dried shrimp (another staple) and "little crunches of fried beans". It's a "remarkable" creation. I follow this with king prawn sipyan curry – lightly sweet in a sauce made with chilli curry oil – and an equally tasty masala aubergine curry. For pud, I have a "churro-like doughnut" dipped in Burmese milk tea espuma, which tastes like butterscotch Angel Delight. In truth, what you order here doesn't matter much, because – as my second visit confirmed – every dish on the menu is "great". Around £50 a head, including drinks and service.

Sachi

Discreetly hidden on the second floor of the Pantechnicon building, Sachi is one of Belgravia's swankiest sushi spots, writes Irenie Forshaw. The kappo-style (cut and cook) Japanese restaurant reopened in November after an extensive revamp, adding a moodily lit rooftop bar. Expect minimalist interiors with flowing cream-coloured drapes, plenty of teak and lush potted plants springing from every corner. For a buzzy atmosphere, book a table upstairs in the bar or escape the after-work crowd by requesting a quieter spot downstairs.

The pared-back menu features an assortment of dishes from tempura and sashimi to decadent sushi platters and oscietra caviar. Everything is simply yet elegantly plated allowing the quality ingredients to shine. The wagyu, eringi mushroom and yuzu maki rolls are perhaps the most inventive dish; topped with a sliver of marbled Japanese beef, each morsel tastes like a bite-size burger. But the real highlight is the bluefin tuna: both the truffle-dusted carpaccio and the maki rolls are delicious. There's also a drinks list filled with Japanese whiskies and enticing cocktails, as well as a collection of sakes. Be sure to enlist the help of the knowledgeable sake sommelier for perfect pairings with every dish.

The Shed

Jonathan Woolway, chef and co-owner of The Shed, spent many years in London, rising to become chef director of Fergus Henderson's St. John, said William Sitwell in The Telegraph. Now, like a "prodigal son", he has returned to his hometown, Swansea, and opened this restaurant in the city's docks. Much of the menu is "redolent of St. John" – there's Welsh rarebit, crispy pig's skin – but that is no bad thing. I start with "fabulous" cider-pickled sardines, and a plate of "fluffy" game liver parfait. Then comes "warm and gooey" potted Câr-y-Môr crab, followed by roast pork collar with sour cabbage, which is "magnificent". Strikingly, the menu offers ten puddings and cheeses (compared with six starters and six mains) – a sign these people value what is often "an afterthought". At my waitress's urging, I opt for the "very good" olive oil parfait. The Shed, in short, is a delight: I urge you at once to "make haste to Swansea". About £45 per person, excluding drinks and service.

Patri

You might miss Patri on the street outside, but once you step inside, it is like being transported to a train in New Delhi, writes Rebekah Evans. With its shutters, dark wood interiors and multi-coloured hanging light bulbs, you'll be cocooned in this intimate setting. But once the food starts to arrive the last thing diners will be thinking about is their surroundings. Patri offers The Grand Thali, a unique experience allowing a group to sample two starters alongside 26 authentic Indian street-food dishes, with rice and garlic naan. Patience is a virtue, and you should be prepared for a wait, but it's certainly worthwhile. With so much to choose from, it's difficult to pick a stand-out dish. Surprisingly, the vegan chatpati aloo tikki chaat starter is perhaps one of the best – comprising fragrant spicy potato patties and chickpeas, tossed in a chutney bursting with flavour. In the Grand Thali, the dishes that really sing are those you can tell are truly cooked with soul. The butter chicken has a rich, creamy, and so moreish, sauce, while the paneer curry is soft and delicious. Be sure to wear trousers with an expandable waistline. You'll certainly need them.

The Martlet

Rochdale's "magnificent" town hall – an imposing "slab of Victorian gothic revival" – has recently "undergone an equally magnificent restoration", says Jay Rayner in The Observer. And inside one of its "vaulting" rooms is this all-day restaurant, with a menu that draws on the "heritage of Greater Manchester in a smart, witty and generous way". Come for breakfast, and you might have a full English, or a "Bombay breakfast" of fried eggs, mango chutney and onion bhajis.

At lunch, the selection of "classics" includes – "joy of joys" – a rag pudding. This "parcel-shaped pie" – so-named because its folds of suet pastry make it resemble a bundle of cotton rags – is filled with braised and minced beef, and is served with hasselback potatoes, garden peas and a "reservoir of gravy so glossy, you could check your hair and make-up in the reflection". A triumph of professionalism, good sense and taste, The Martlet is the sort of restaurant that "every town should have".

Lita

You won't escape from this southern European restaurant without spending at least £200 a head, says Tom Parker Bowles in The Mail on Sunday. But go if you possibly can, because chef Luke Ahearne (formerly of The Clove Club) is a "towering talent" whose cooking "takes the breath away". His "elegantly immaculate" gazpacho comes with a trio of "barely cooked" Sicilian red prawns wallowing within the melon- and cucumber-studded soup. Monkfish, expertly roasted on a "parrilla" grill, is bathed in "deliriously good" chicken butter. Veal sweetbreads are "burnished and sticky below a mass of sweetcorn, girolles and charred onion": I don't think I've eaten a better dish all year. With "sleek and discreet" service that is a perfect match for the stylish dining room, "Lita is a restaurant to revere".

Lyle's

I first went to Lyle's shortly after it opened, says Neil Davey. One bite in, three of us looked at each other, nodded and ordered every item on the menu. What followed was a celebration of quality ingredients, sometimes tweaked and combined to show them off, sometimes left well alone to shine. Somehow, I didn't make it back until recently, in what is Lyle's 10th anniversary year. Given that chef James Lowe and his talented team have held a Michelin Star since 2015, it seemed a safe bet that standards were still high, but, even so, from opening snacks to post-pudding raspberry choux bun, this was one of the year's best meals.

A well-paced tasting menu brought treat after treat. Highlights included seasonal vegetables, cod's roe, absolute peak-of-the-season greenery in varied forms; a Carlingford oyster dressed with apple which was a salt / crisp / sweet / savoury joy; and Bluefin tuna with girolles, which sounds odd on paper but triumphs on the plate. Even better, arguably, is their non-alcoholic pairing. There are wines (some very good wines, in fact) but their zero-alcohol options are made in house, frequently with leftovers and waste elements turned into kombuchas. They're clever, delicious, refreshing and sustainable. Like everything else at Lyle's, what's not to like?

Little Dumpling King

There's not much to thank Covid for, says Jay Rayner in The Observer. But it did at least give us Little Dumpling King. This self-styled "Asian-influenced small plates" restaurant in Stoke-on-Trent, which "emerged out of various lockdown projects", is a place that beats you into "happy submission with plate after plate of huge, banging flavours". Everything about it is loud, from the incessant music (a mix of heavy metal and "2000s indie") to the posters proclaiming things such as "We hate the f**king government". But "behind the bravado and the noise", there's an impressive attention to detail. Plump steamed pork dumplings are "full of depth and meatiness", and are served with lashings of homemade crispy chilli oil. Slices of salmon crudo come with a soy and green-herb oil dressing as well as "bursting wild garlic buds, picked and pickled months ago". I'd formed a positive view of the team behind Little Dumpling King before I visited, owing to their ferocious denunciations on social media of the "racist thugs" who caused trouble in Stoke during the riots that swept England in August. On sampling their food, "I fell in love with them all over again".

Chalk

Many "great vineyards across the world" have dining rooms "bolted on" to their businesses, says William Sitwell in The Daily Telegraph. Chalk sits in that tradition: it is housed in a "converted set of barns" on the Goring family's Wiston Estate, near Pulborough. Their wines are excellent – who would have thought a pinot noir from Sussex could have such "elegance and body" – and the restaurant is delightful too: a "model of great service and flavourful food". The "well-conceived menu" offers four or five choices per course. Dishes are built around local ingredients, but are "delivered with a Mediterranean culinary dash". I start with octopus cooked in the wood-fired oven out back, which comes with a "rich, smoky" romesco sauce. Then, my "wonderful" main: beautifully grilled quail with a "ballsy and sweet" XO and plum sauce. Pudding – pear and almond tart with lemon verbena ice cream– is "as good as that at the hand of a master pâtissier". Chalk is a "pat on the back for UK plc" – and makes me optimistic for our food and drink culture.

Mauby

My meal at Mauby began with the "sausage of my dreams", says Jay Rayner in The Observer. On a plate sat a "single, fat smoked sausage with exactly the right crisp-skinned snap and the correct smooth, juicy interior". Served with pickles and a yellow Bajan pepper sauce, it banished the "bad memories" of the dire hot dog I'd recently eaten at Harrods. This wine bar and bistro in Brockley celebrates the food of Jamaica and Barbados. But before coming here, you should "park your assumptions about what must be available at such a place". The menu consists of "impressively cheap" small plates, plus a "few well-chosen wines and cocktails". Jerk chicken isn't always on the menu: it features one week, but not the next. There are salads – one of heritage tomatoes topped with "meaty sardines"; another of cucumber, Scotch bonnet and herbs – and several delicious vegetable dishes, including "homestyle" beans in a "thumping gravy" There are few frills at Mauby – the decor is defiantly plain – but it serves interesting, well-judged food, and "feels like a new business that has worked out what it needs to be from the very start".

Stretford Canteen

The view from this Manchester brasserie is of a "busy dual carriageway", says Tom Parker Bowles in The Mail on Sunday. And the place sits next to a shopping centre. But while its surroundings may be a bit "grim", Stretford Canteen is "anything but". Having started life as a pop-up in a nearby greasy spoon, it is now a popular restaurant that offers the "sweetest of service", a well-chosen wine list and superb food. We begin with "gloriously light" sticks of panisse (chickpea-flour chips), which we drag through a tarragon- spiked mayonnaise. There's "cool, crunchy" celeriac remoulade, and "excellent" serrano ham. French onion soup is "mouth-blisteringly hot", and comes with a "raft of gruyère-encrusted bread". There's confit duck leg atop a "mess of coco haricots", a "glorious wodge" of dauphinoise potatoes, and steak au poivre with the "sort of creamy, peppercorn-rich sauce that packs a true punch". In the most unlikely setting, this is "classic French bourgeois cooking" of an exceedingly high order.

The Punch Bowl Inn

There's a reassuring robustness to this Lake District pub, says Tom Parker Bowles in The Mail on Sunday, which can be seen not just in its "solid and comfortable" interior, but also in its pleasingly traditional menu. The food is "mainly British with a Gallic burr", and makes full use of the "magnificent" local larder. For starters, there's a "sublime" twice-baked cheese soufflé (made with "one of the world's great cheeses", Mrs Kirkham's) and an "equally splendid" mushroom soup, which is "both light and gutsy". My main course of lamb rump consists of "four vast, just-pink slices, drenched in the stickiest, most gloriously intense of gravies". And by its side, there's a tiny shepherd's pie, offering "one bite of pure ovine brilliance". Puddings are no less splendid: a "beautifully sharp" lemon tart comes with damson sorbet (this part of the Lake District being famed for its damsons); and banana soufflé is served with a sticky-toffee sauce, to "pour deep into its molten centre". Serving "good old-fashioned food, immaculately done", The Punch Bowl Inn is the "sort of pub designed for lingering".

Leydi

"Long experience tells me" that when well- known chefs open restaurants in hotels, the results are usually disappointing, says Grace Dent in The Guardian. Not so, however, with this all-day Turkish restaurant from Selin Kiazim, formerly of the "much-loved Oklava", in the Hyde hotel in London. Far from being "just another tepid hotel dining room", Leydi is a beguiling "whirlwind of a restaurant". The room itself is "gorgeous": elegant, with "boho flourishes". And the cooking more than matches it. We order "The Leydi Deluxe" – described as a showcase of the restaurant's "greatest hits" – and at £50 a head, it offers "exceptional value", given the sheer amount of food involved. There are homemade potato crisps, tossed in spices; flatbreads with a "mountain of sesame salted butter"; aubergine pounded with garlic and mustard; garlic yoghurt doused with red urfa chilli oil; various kebabs; and a "heaving" bowl of fruits, lemon sorbet and biscuits for dessert. By the end, I regret not being a guest at the hotel: a bed "within 100 metres of our tables" would be very welcome.

Tharavadu

"It's easy to roll your eyes" at the lengthy descriptions accompanying the items on the menu at this Keralan restaurant, says Jay Rayner in The Guardian. "Experience the bold and flavourful taste of Kerala's iconic street food with our signature beef dish," one begins, before carrying on for another four lines. But perhaps this is "my problem", not the restaurant's, because what the verbosity in fact signals is a warm determination to "show us a good time". And that, Tharavadu certainly does, with cooking that's a "cheery marriage of layered flavours, bold aromatics" and fiery heat tempered by the generous use of coconut. Our meal begins with the sort of platter of snacks and pickles that one might normally pick at absent-mindedly. This one, however, "invites focus". Then comes a dish of "padipura mix" seafood that is a "stonking display of both fish cookery and loose portion control"; an egg curry side dish that's "hugely comforting"; and a "curling cylinder" of potato masala dosa. The staff tell us they will soon be taking over a top-floor space that can seat 350. Given what Tharavadu has to offer, that "can only be a good thing".

Native

This recently opened restaurant on the Herefordshire-Worcestershire border is "properly fabulous", says William Sitwell in The Telegraph. It reminds me of the kind of restaurants with rooms you'd only find in France, and which the Michelin Guide used to celebrate: "impeccably staffed" establishments serving food "linked to the land". Native is housed in a "handsome barn", with the kitchen at one end and a bar at the entrance. After "bites on the terrace" – local hams, tacos and a "miraculous bread" that looks ordinary but tastes like a croissant – we get stuck into the menu proper. "Regeneration risotto" is a masterclass in texture: made of local grains, it is "deeply green" and comes with a whole crisp nettle on the top, as if "daring you to eat it". A dish of Ryeland mutton is "literally the finest mutton I have ever tasted": it's cooked two ways, with one portion a "sliced disc of the stuff circled in fat", the other a "more blackened rectangle" with an incredible "chocolatey" flavour. A "marrowmel" dessert is strikingly audacious: essentially, it's a bone-marrow crème brûlée. "God, so sweet, naughty and moreish." Don't be put off by Native's out-of-the-way location: it's definitely "worth the journey".

The Clifton

"When it comes to modern British cooking bingo, The Clifton has a full house," said Tom Parker Bowles in The Mail on Sunday. This "gently refurbished Bristol pub", with a dining room in the back, boasts "a daily changing, seasonal menu", ingredients sourced from "artisan local suppliers", a "nose-to-tail ethos", and even a head chef (Cory Scott) who has worked at St. John in London. Happily, Scott "sure can cook". Things get off to a "robust start" with ox-heart skewers that are "warmly spiced and seductively chewy". Then devilled lamb kidneys, "the lobes plump, pink and slyly sweet"; "immaculately fried" soft-shell crab with a "pink blob of luscious, langoustine-spiked mayonnaise"; and a rabbit and bacon pie topped with "magnificent burnished, buttery shortcrust pastry". If you have room after such a feast, you should definitely try the puddings, perhaps a "glorious wodge of rhubarb and custard tart", or a "deliriously airy plum soufflé". This pub may have all the familiar "stripped wooden floorboards, local ales and discreet shades of green", but it's doing something really rather special in the kitchen. Melding the "big and bold with the light and lithe", it delivers serious food that Bristol can be proud of.

The Tamil Crown

"The Tamil Crown in Islington, north London, was once a pub called The Prince Albert, founded 185 years ago," said William Sitwell in The Telegraph. Then in 2007, it was renamed The Charles Lamb after the essayist, who lived nearby; now, it is The Tamil Crown and has been turned into a "respectable curry house". It has kept its pub feel – there's still a bar, and beers on tap – but punters can choose from a "tight menu of south Indian food". Unlike those "ubiquitous Indian restaurants whose laminated menus offer a thousand dishes" of confused origin, this one suggests just six small plates, six large ones, roti and rice. On my visit, there were a couple of misses – lacklustre samosas and an "over-saffroned" pudding – but many other dishes to make up for them: lamb chops that had been "flawlessly blackened" over a grill; "a bowl of gloriously wet, dal-like mango sambar"; some "really excellent, thin and so-buttery-it's-almost-wrong rotis".

Arabic Flavour

A word of warning, said Jay Rayner in The Observer: do not go to Arabic Flavour in Wales hoping to be served quickly. "Do not go ravenously hungry. Prepare a few conversational gambits. Perhaps do not go in a large group. But really, do go." The slowness of the service is due to the fact that the cooking – all of it – is done by Ghofran Hamza, a young Syrian who arrived in Wales in 2018 on a UN refugee resettlement programme, and is now telling her very "21st century story at the stove". The restaurant, which she runs with her Greek partner, is a "quietly elegant space of guttering tea lights and sandstone-coloured walls hung with bursts of Arabic art"; and while the dishes it serves will sound familiar – baba ganoush, tabbouleh, falafel – everything is cooked with real skill, and is "delightful".

Laghi's

This long-lived Italian restaurant in Edgbaston has recently hired as its chef former "MasterChef: The Professionals" winner Stu Deeley, says Tom Parker Bowles in The Mail on Sunday. And he "can really cook". His menu is "traditional Italian, by way of modern Britain": fat pig's-head fritters; queenie scallops in a buttery espelette sauce. The pastas are "seriously" good – the equal of anything at The River Café or Locanda Locatelli, and at a "fraction of the price". Properly al dente campanelli is coated with "just the right amount of fierily porky 'nduja sauce"; rigatoni cacio e pepe is "robustly sharp and salty". No single pasta dish costs more than £11.50, which is "astonishing value for cooking of this quality". Birmingham is full of good restaurants – and I've discovered "yet another true Brummie beauty".

Catch at the Old Fish Market

"It was not with the lightest of hearts" that I set off for my lunch in Weymouth, says Giles Coren in The Times. My previous two trips out of town had been ruined by train cancellations – and I worried that I'd again be forced to endure a nightmarish journey home. But the trains turned out to be "perfectly punctual" and, better still, I came back wondering if I'd been "to the best restaurant in the world". Situated on the first floor of Weymouth's Old Fish Market, Catch offers a "constantly changing" set menu – which at lunch comprises four courses, and costs only £40. Every dish came close to perfection. A "beautiful piece" of grilled local trout was served with a warm potato salad, puréed watercress and a "warm, golden brioche" that may have been the best bread I've ever tasted. Flakes of barbecued gurnard were piled, along with sliced morels and slivers of raw apple, into a staggeringly light and crispy pastry case. I asked Mike Naidoo, the "exec chef and co-owner", how he managed it all for £40 – and he explained that since they have their own boats, this "knocks out the soaring price of fish". My trip to Weymouth – which I initially so dreaded – proved to be "one of the happiest working afternoons of my life".

Liu Xiaomian

I've been to this restaurant three times since it opened last month, says Charlotte Ivers in The Sunday Times – which "pretty much tells you all you need to know". It began life as a market stall run by two flatmates – both expats from the Chinese city of Chongqing – before moving to the basement of The Jackalope, a pub in Marylebone. While it continues to operate there, it now has its first purpose-designed site: "a bright, no-frills little canteen" just off Regent Street. As its name suggests, it specialises in xiaomian – a type of spicy noodle dish popular in Chongqing. The thin wheat noodles come in a broth; you select toppings – pork, beef, vegan, pig trotter – and spice level. Noodles are a "competitive field", but these are perhaps the best I've ever had. I choose the minced pork and chickpea topping, requesting "mild": the dish is "pretty much perfect, and still blissfully, joyfully hot". You can also have wontons (also served in broth), which are equally outstanding. My walk home takes me past a ramen restaurant – and I "feel sad for everyone inside".

Kopitiam Unit 19

You could walk past this "unassuming Malaysian café" in Oxford "without giving it a second glance", says Tom Parker Bowles in the Daily Mail. But that would be a big mistake. For the food it serves is "magnificent" – and eating here costs barely more than it does at Pret. There are two menus – one Chinese-leaning, the other made up of "Malaysian classics" – and my advice is to stick to the latter. An establishment's roti canai "always set the tone of the lunch ahead": here, they're "charred, just chewy and delicate as silk handkerchiefs". Everything else is "as it should be", including "mellifluous chicken curry, cooked on the bone", and Nanyang prawn noodle soup, made with a "rich and brooding" stock that has a "deep crustacean grunt". That you can dine at Kopitiam and lunch on "serious Malaysian food, for just over £15 a head, makes me very happy indeed".

The Star Inn

Lodged in the mind of every Englishman is the ideal of a perfect country pub, says Charlotte Ivers in The Sunday Times. What a pity, then, that so many forays into the English countryside in search of this ideal end in disappointment. "Well, joyous day": the perfect pub does exist, in the tiny North Yorkshire village of Harome. The acclaimed Star Inn has "twinkling lights and thatched roof"; inside, it's all dark and cosy, with "wood panels and antique furniture". Andrew Pern – a chef from a family of local farmers – bought the inn in 1996 and has since turned it into a place that serves Michelin-starred food, while never taking itself too seriously. A starter named simply "Ploughman's" proves to be a "chunky raviolo of pulled ham hock with a truffled cheesy sauce" – sitting on a heap of cubed sweet apple. Yorkshire pudding royale is "like a vision of all the most decadent meals you've eaten": the pudding comes piled with onions, veal juices, black truffle and pan-fried foie gras. Charming and a "bit absurd", the Star Inn is like something dreamed up by Richard Curtis: how wonderful that it actually exists.

Woven by Adam Smith

I'll admit that the mantra of this fine-dining restaurant in Berkshire – "Storytelling on a plate" – initially made me rather sceptical, says William Sitwell in The Daily Telegraph. "Storytelling" is a concept long abused in the corporate world; and here, it seemed to promise an afternoon "groaning with explanations". But my advice is to ignore the "guff" – and simply concentrate on Adam Smith's "wonderful" cooking. In his hands, jellied eels and coronation chicken are transformed from retro classics into sublime canapés. A "perfect mini pie of grouse" is served with a gravy of "outrageously fun largesse", while a "fabulous rectangle of turbot", topped with lobster and caviar, has its richness "tempered by oysterish salsify and salty sea purslane". I even find space for a "vast plate of English cheeses", washed down by a "game-changing" English pinot noir, recommended by the "excellent sommelier". In a room of Japanese minimalism, Smith has – through his cooking – "woven a fine fairy tale".

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Café François

This new restaurant in London's Borough Market is the "petite fille" of Maison François, a fabulous French restaurant in Mayfair renowned for its ornate dessert trolley, says Grace Dent in The Guardian. While Maison François is definitely an "occasion destination", Café François has more of an "all-day-canteen feel": you could as easily pop in for a coffee and a pastry as you could dine from its à la carte menu. The food, as at the "mothership", is delicious: from battered and deep-fried frogs' legs to a deeply flavoured monkfish vadouvan, everything we eat is prepared with care. For those prepared to "brave the bedlam" of the market, Café François will prove an essential "rendezvous point": I'll meet you there "on the first floor, with my onion soup gratinée and hiding behind a copy of Paris Match".

Pomus

The quality of a restaurant's food, I've often found, is "in inverse proportion to the beauty of the view", says Tom Parker Bowles in The Mail on Sunday. This rule certainly applies to Pomus, a restaurant in a shopping centre in Margate. As the weather is fine, my companions and I sit outside, "chewing oily, crisp-crusted focaccia" as we watch the Saturday crowds shuffle by, visiting the likes of Peacocks and Subway. Soon, dishes start to arrive: there's a skewer of plump and well-spiced chicken hearts, as well as "softly robust" rounds of tongue lurking under a parsley and watercress salad. "But it's not all elegant offal." A dish of glorious pommes dauphinoise is served with saffron-stained aioli on the side. Coal-roasted sweet potatoes arrive in "great charred chunks", scattered with fried sage leaves and fermented chilli. "Hispi cabbage, also cooked in the embers, comes draped in lardo and sprinkled with bacon-spiked pangrattato." Our main is fish of the day: an "exquisitely cooked" lemon sole on the bone, topped with mussels in the shell and surrounded by "elegant beurre blanc". The kitchen here makes no mistakes as it "roams the globe with easy aplomb". With service that's "as warm as the early afternoon sun", Pomus is a delight.