Eats

The best restaurants in Manchester named at prestigious National Restaurant Awards

The North West did pretty well last night...

Daisy Jackson - 11th June 2024

The best restaurants in the UK have been named at the National Restaurant Awards – and Manchester has done pretty well for itself.

The prestigious awards took place last night, listing the top 100 places to eat in the entire UK.

Three restaurants within Manchester itself managed to make it into the top 50 of the country’s best restaurants.

And there was a glowing endorsement for a brand new spot that’s only been open for a couple of weeks.

Skof is a beautiful new spot by celebrated chef Tom Barnes, who has worked at L’Enclume, the three-Michelin star Lake District restaurant widely considered one of the best in the world.

His first restaurant, located in the NOMA neighbourhood, has been named the ‘One to Watch’ at the National Restaurant Awards.

Judges said that Skof is set to make ‘a big impact in a city that has a pumping restaurant scene but is in general unmoved by fancy restaurants’.

Food at Skof in Manchester. Credit: The Manc Group

The highest-ranking restaurant in the Top 100 list for Greater Manchester is Michelin starred Mana, which came in 14th place.

The fine dining establishment in the heart of Ancoats got its Michelin star just a year after opening and National Restaurant Award judges praised it for being ‘understated and confident’ with ‘highly technical and precise’ cooking.

Mana has been chased pretty closely by Higher Ground in 16th place, a relative newcomer that’s already jumped up from last year’s 51st spot, been named one of Rick Stein’s favourite places to eat, and scooped a prestigious Bib Gourmand.

Higher Ground is operated by a powerful trio – one of the UK’s brightest young chefs Joseph Otway, front-of-house man Richard Cossins, and wine expert Daniel Craig Martin – and made the list thanks in part to its focus on regenerative farming and local produce.

Higher Ground in Manchester won big at the National Restaurant Awards — Higher Ground in Manchester has been awarded a Michelin Bib Gourmand

Erst in Manchester has been named as one of the best restaurants in the UK at the National Restaurant Awards — Higher Ground in Manchester has been awarded a Michelin Bib Gourmand

Completing the Manchester portion of the best restaurants in the UK list is Erst, which has swooped in at number 50.

The beautiful Ancoats restaurant was named as ‘the perfect neighbourhood spot’, with its ever-changing menu of small plates and natural wines hailed as being ‘an antidote to the glitzier ‘going out out’ restaurant scene for which Manchester is traditionally known’.

All eyes have been on Erst in recent weeks after Trove – the bakery which is a sister site to the restaurant – suddenly shut down.

There was a lot of success for the North West in general too at the National Restaurant Awards.

Two Michelin-star Moor Hall, just up the road from Manchester in Lancashire, placed third overall in the UK but lost its crown as the best restaurant in England.

L’Enclume in the Lake District sits in 20th place, The Parkers Arms pub in Lancashire made 51st, and Forest Side in Ambleside came 75th.

You can see the full top 100 list from the National Restaurant Awards here.

Featured image: Supplied