Smashed review of the restaurant reviews #51: navel-gazing

The UK restaurant scene digested

Photo by Toru Wa on Unsplash

The Reviews

Tim Hayward, The Financial Times
After 13 years, this is my final restaurant column, so what was that all about?

In which Tim Hayward ponders his career as a restaurant critic as it comes to an end. There’s been a fair bit of navel-gazing about how restaurants are written about and reported on recently. I enjoyed Lesley Chesterman’s overview ‘The State of Restaurant Reviewing’. Although her viewpoint is mainly North American, she did consider the impact of lists like Steve Plotnicki’s Opinionated About Dining and the World’s 50 Best and how they rely on ‘a diverse group including chefs, food media, and "foodies"' rather than professional critics.

Whether or not that’s a good thing is up for debate, especially in light of Time Out’s recent list of ‘The 11 best cities in the UK for food in 2025’. Extracted from a wider survey of The World’s Best Cities for Food (number one - New Orleans), the listing is based on the opinions of ‘thousands of Brits’ who rated the cities for quality, affordability, diversity and style among other things. Topping Time Out’s list is Liverpool. I spent four days in Liverpool last year, eating my way around the city for Delicious magazine. I had lots of great food, experienced wonderful hospitality and had a high old time. But it is not the best city for food in the UK. I doubt even most Liverpudlians believe it’s the best city in the UK for food.

Brighton was second on the list. I live in Brighton, I run a restaurant awards and restaurant festival there. For nearly a decade, I have tirelessly promoted the independent Brighton restaurant scene. I eat out as much as I possibly can in the city because I think it’s great but also to help support local operators. With the best will in the world, I don’t believe Brighton is the second-best city in the UK for food above London, which came in at number three on Time Out’s list.

Something has gone terribly wrong with Time Out’s metrics. Or they’ve asked the wrong people. What do ‘thousands of Brits’ know about restaurants anyway? Fuck all if Tripadvisor is anything to go by. By the way, the current top-placed British restaurant on Tripadvisor is Northcote. I mean, I really like Northcote, but the best in the entire country? Time Out’s list is sadly risible; Edinburgh is laughably placed sixth beneath Cardiff (!!) and Bristol which is a great dining city and should be placed higher. It does no one any favours. If you booked a trip to Liverpool in the misplaced belief that you would dine better there than in London you are going to come away sorely disappointed. Being overhyped is ultimately as unhelpful as being overlooked.

Condé Nast Traveller’s The UK's Top New Restaurant Awards made for far more interesting reading. I was initially sceptical; the fairly random judging panel made up of Raymond Blanc OBE; Jackson Boxer; Julie Lin; Gizzi Erskine; Tom Parker Bowles; Poppy O'Toole; founder of Black Eats LDN Jackson Mclarty; content creator Notorious Foodie; actress and wine bar owner Anna Shaffer (who?) and Traveller UK digital director Sarah Allard did not inspire a great deal of confidence. The resulting list however proved me wrong.

Yes, it’s a bit London-heavy with 10 of the 21 restaurants located in the capital, but there’s a very decent geographical spread otherwise. Scotland is represented by Fallachan Kitchen and Outlier in Glasgow and Nàdair in Edinburgh; the North by Skof in Manchester; the Midlands by Albatross Death Cult and Riverine Rabbit in Birmingham; East Anglia by The Grain Store and Nest Farmhouse in Norfolk; Wales by The Shed in Swansea; the South West by Briar at Number One Bruton in Somerset, and the South East by Pomus in Margate. All are interesting places that may well be new to many Condé Nast readers. You can read the full list here and the special awards are here. Limiting the field to restaurants opened in 2024 gave the judges a relatively manageable and realistic task and resulted in a very useful list. I wouldn’t say the same of Time Out’s overly ambitious globetrotting venture.

But we were meant to be talking about dear old Tim Hayward as he clears his notional desk to make way for Jay Rayner.