The SquareMeal awards 2023 have been announced, crowning the Top 100 Restaurants in the UK and London.
SquareMeal’s annual lists are unique in both their pedigree and formation of the final selection. With over thirty years’ experience, the SquareMeal team has eaten at hundreds upon hundreds of the UK’s best restaurants and we know an outstanding meal when we see one. It’s these expert, in-house critic reviews combined with reader votes that help to compile our final rankings, to ensure each place reflects hundreds of real-life experiences as well as our professional opinion.
In London, the number one spot for 2023 has gone to Da Terra in Bethnal Green, thanks to chef/owner Rafael Cagali’s clever fusion of Latin American cuisine with Italian notes and his progressive, contemporary approach to fine dining. Cagali runs the restaurant with his partner Charlie, who heads up front of house. Speaking about the win, Cagali was quick to credit the whole team, saying:
‘It is such an honour to be SquareMeal’s best London restaurant for 2023, what a way to start the year! I am very lucky to have such a passionate and hard-working team around Charlie and myself and nothing could be achieved without them.’
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Rafael Cagali and Charlie Lee run Da Terra together. Images by Lizzie Mayson.
The best restaurant in the UK went to the West Midlands’ Grace & Savour – a spellbinding restaurant with rooms serving thoughtful, seasonal dishes which use ingredients grown on-site. Having worked under the tutelage of Glynn Purnell at the start of his career before spending time at three Michelin starred Maaemo in Oslo, head chef David Taylor works alongside his wife to treat guests to a truly memorable experience in their beautiful dining room.
'This is such a proud and humbling moment for us and our Grace & Savour family,' said David and Anette Taylor. 'To receive this award within the first year of opening is a true testimony of the labour of love from our team. We’re beyond grateful for the warm support from our guests that makes that labour worth it every night.'
After a tough few years for the hospitality industry, we’re proud to champion a manifold, cross-section of the UK’s brightest culinary stars who are thriving against the odds. With restaurants from the north of Scotland through to the southernmost tip of Cornwall, the whole of the British Isles is represented in our two lists, not to mention nearly every central London borough.
All four counties of the UK are found somewhere in the list. For Northern Ireland, Belfast has had a bumper year with five entries awarded top spots, while Scotland’s selection includes Glasgow’s Celentano's; Edinburgh’s Eleanore; and Fife’s The Kinneuchar Inn. Three of the top thirty are found in rural Wales, while England’s Bristol walked away with five restaurants in the top 100.
Not only are British geographical spots covered, but so too are a swathe of cuisines, from a sweep of continents. In the London list alone there are five African restaurants – including those specialising in west African, South African, and North African food – as well as a clutch of Japanese, Indian, Mexican, Swedish, Portuguese, and Malaysian spots that amount to the perfect representation of the diverse culinary landscape of the capital.
As ever, there are tried and tested old favourites on there, that never go out of style. Think The Ledbury, A. Wong and The Ritz, but there is also a huge swathe of places for keen diners to try that opened in the past twelve months. Highlights include brand new Dorian, the Notting Hill restaurant which has added to the area’s recent landslide of new, interesting restaurant. Elsewhere, Farringdon’s St Barts offers proper, adventurous fine dining while Evernight in Battersea is flying the flag for sharp, Japanese cooking in sleek surrounds.
While many of the places featured are firmly in treat territory, there are also more affordable restaurants than ever featured in the SquareMeal awards. When looking at the biggest restaurant trends for 2023 we realised that people were in two camps when it came to dining out in recent months. Either they want an amazing experience that they’ve saved up for and feels really special, or they want delicious, hearty food at fair prices. Examples of the latter include Mambow in Market Peckham, run by chef Abby Lee whose menu is a love-letter to Malaysia. With most of the menu around the £10 mark, you can eat well here for the price of a couple of meal deals.
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Chef David Taylor and his wife Anetta run are the team behind Grace & Favour. Images by Laurie Fletcher.
SquareMeal’s Head of Content, Caroline Hendry, says, ‘this year marks the first full year we’ve all be able to go out and about to eat again without covid restrictions. With our restored freedom we’ve rediscovered the pure joy of a phenomenal meal and we couldn’t be happier to celebrate those moments through our awards.
‘We’d like to thank the incredible hospitality professionals that create such seamless experiences across the whole of the UK, as well as all our readers who voted in their thousands to help us make our final decision.
'Both Da Terra and Grace & Savour blew us away with their explosive cookery, beautiful settings and commitment to using only the very best produce. We hope you discover both old favourites and new classics on the list, and wish everyone another year of very, very good eating in 2023.’
If you love eating out, why not get rewarded for it? If you join SquareMeal you'll earn points every time you dine, which you can then use for money off your next meal. It's a no brainer.