Village with population of just 3,000 home to UK’s best restaurant

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SquareMeal has published a list of the top 100 restaurants in the UK, declaring the winner of its annual awards. The top 100 results are a “unique combination of our own in-house critic-led options and thousands of diner votes”, SquareMeal explained.

SquareMeal’s winner is a restaurant located in a tiny village in Somerset, which is home to just 3,000 people.

Osip is a one Michelin star restaurant located in Bruton, in the heart of Somerset.

According to SquareMeal, it deserved to be crowned the winner because it is a “genuine farm-to-table treasure, where produce goes from the kitchen garden to your plate in a “matter of hours”.

The restaurant reviewer added: “The pared-back dining room is a perfect setting for Merlin Labron-Johnson’s deft cooking.”

The restaurant’s dining room, with its tiled walls and exposed brickwork, is small and dressed in muted pastels and café-style curtains, while the dark wooden tables are covered in white cloth.

The restaurant’s dishes range from £50 to £79 and the menu is predominantly vegetarian.

The second top restaurant in the list is Ynyshir, a five-star restaurant in Eglwys Fach, a village a short drive away from Snowdonia National Park.

SquareMeal said: “Manicured grounds, luxury rooms, courteous service and the peaceful surrounds of an RSPB nature reserve have long been a lure for VIPs and those after some Welsh R&R – although the star attraction at this glorious restaurant-with-rooms is the ‘awesome’ cooking of chef/patron Gareth Ward.

“Leisurely meals unfurl over four hours of 20 doll-sized courses; lunch takes less time, but with nothing but the glorious Welsh countryside for miles around, where else would you be rushing off to? – except, perhaps, one of the 10 individually designed bedrooms, three of which are out in the garden.”

Ynyshir’s dishes include mackerel with rhubarb and back fat, pollack with black beans, and barbecued salmon.

There is also Welsh lamb and Welsh Wagyu beef on the menu.

Number three on the list is Pensons, a restaurant with an ever-changing tasting menu in Tenbury Wells, Herefordshire.

The fourth best British restaurant, according to SquareMeal, is Restaurant Andrew Fairlie in the Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire, Scotland.

This restaurant is a two-Michelin-starred fine dining establishment which serves “precise, highly-assured and sophisticated cooking”.

Located in Cartmel, Cumbria, L’Enclume is fifth on the list and offers “hyper-seasonal, farm-to-table tasting menus often consisting of more than twenty courses”.

SquareMeal said of its list: “It’s this dual approach that makes our list incomparable, representing not only our professional opinion but thousands of real-life experiences that help to reinforce and bolster our final decisions.

“It’s no secret that Britain plays host to some incredible culinary talent.

“As a result, the top restaurants in the UK created quite the conundrum.

“From the very north of Scotland to Cornwall’s southern tip, we’re spoilt for choice when it comes to dining destinations worth travelling for.

“In order to make a place on the list each restaurant had to offer more than just a good meal, it had to provide guests with an exceptional all-round experience.

“From gorgeous interiors, top-class wine lists and stunning views through to exemplary service and sustainability commitments, we weighed up the whole package.”

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