Time for the Good Food Guide Restaurant of the Year

Dining out is the nations’ favourite pastime. Everybody loves a good meal, good service, value for money and excellent food. What’s more everybody loves to tell others about their favourite restaurant. It is an experienced all the better for the sharing. The Which? restaurant of the year awards give everybody the chance to do this at whole new level.

Restaurant of the year in the ‘Good Food Guide’ is a significant feather in the cap for any restaurant, inn or café in a region. Be sure to take this opportunity to boost the standing of your personal favourite local eatery. Send the name into Which? via the website or with a postcard. These postcards are available for printing by restaurants on the website too.

All nominations go into ‘the hat’ and the person doing the nominating will be part of a random draw. The name will be drawn as soon as the competition closes and the winner gets a dinner out for two people at their closest winning restaurant. This draw and the whole competition is for the customers of restaurants to have their say. Anybody connected commercially with a restaurant cannot nominate them and neither can anybody connected to Which?

What makes a regional restaurant of the year? Good fresh food of course, well cooked of course but also with an individual local speciality flavour. A restaurant of the year could not be part of a national chain where portion control takes precedence over passion for food. The judges will look for restaurants that are independent. They will also look for restaurants that serve up distinctive food of the region and that involve other local independent food producers. By region Which? mean Wales, Scotland, London and seven other areas.

Most of all the restaurant of the year awards, according to Which?, are about that elusive commodity known as ‘excellent customer service’. In 2009, more than 23,000 interested restaurant customers voted in favour of their personal choice eatery. The final choices for the judges were very difficult. The champion of champions was Ronnies in Thornbury. Ronnies give great service from reservation to bill paying and they do it first time every time.

Which? hope for an even larger vote this year. Ronnies as a business saw a step improvement having won the award. More than a third more people came to find out what all the fuss was about and they came from many miles away too.