It's the list we are all waiting for, the new stars in the Michelin Guide UK 2019...... but for now here is the list of restaurants chefs would like to see in this year's guide.
It’s always fun to try and guess the new stars in the Michelin Guide, we have our own ideas but we wanted to know what you thought! The full list is below but by far the most popular restaurants were Core ( some said three but the majority went safe with two), Bibendum, Restaurant Moor Hall, Cornerstone and Hide.
Remember this is by no means a reflection of the actual guide, they are simply predictions but take a look at the restaurants chefs think are in the running for their first stars or another star in the Michelin Guide UK and Ireland 2019.
What the guide says: A stylish restaurant in an idyllic location on Midsummer Common; enjoy an aperitif in the first floor lounge overlooking the River Cam. Set 7 or 10 course menus (with 5 courses also available at lunch). Creative, highly accomplished cooking showcases top quality produce and flavours are well-balanced, with the main ingredient of each dish allowed to shine.
What the guide says: Set beneath a flyover on the city's edge; a modern restaurant with an urban kitchen garden and smart bedrooms. 7 courses lunches are served at the chef's table and in the kitchen, while the main room comes alive at night. Cooking is highly technical, with good balance and a delicate style. Dishes incorporate the five tastes, and presentation is detailed and creative.
What the guide says: Claude Bosi has breathed new life into Bibendum, on the first floor of Michelin's former London HQ. With a clean, contemporary look and an iconic stained glass window, the handsome interior cannot fail to impress. Expect high-end traditional French cooking with creative modern touches; dishes are poised and well-balanced with bold, assured flavours.
What the guide says: A former drovers' inn in a rural hamlet and originally part of the Raby Estate, this was a favourite finishing point for the old hunt. It's now an elegantly decorated family-run restaurant, where a passionate self-taught chef uses first class ingredients to create original dishes which leave you impatient for the next. Contemporary bedrooms are set in the old stables.
What the guide says: Stylish restaurant with turquoise banquettes and smooth service. Menus include a good value set lunch, midweek set and tasting menus and a 5 course 'Surprise' on Friday and Saturday evenings. Accomplished, classically based cooking has stimulating flavour combinations and creative modern overtones.
What the guide says: Tom Sellers offers a 6 or 10 course lunch and a 12 course dinner menu; serving just 12 tables in what used to be a public toilet and now looks like a Nordic eco-lodge. Modern techniques and a light touch result in food with a back-to-nature feel and strong earthy flavours. Dishes are colourful, playful and easy to eat.
What the guide says: This country house hotel's intimate dining room has a serene feel and its neutral décor keeps the focus on the food. Modern cooking has a well-measured playfulness and brings together British, French and Asian flavours in an appealing multi-course set menu; the chefs present and explain the dishes themselves.
What the guide says: The smart, blue-tiled open kitchen takes centre stage in this sparse room at Shoreditch Town Hall. Menus showcase expertly sourced produce in dishes that are full of originality, verve and flair - but where flavours are expertly judged and complementary; seafood is a highlight.
What the guide says: This elegant restaurant sits within a luxurious country house hotel. At lunch dine in the Berry Head room; for dinner choose the intimate booths of the Powderham room. Accomplished modern cooking is superbly balanced and packed with flavour - the 8 course tasting menu best demonstrates the team's abilities.
What the guide says: A uniquely styled restaurant comprising black marble, polished concrete and bold modern art. Accomplished, highly skilled cooking showcases some very original, creative combinations and the artful presentation is equally striking. Choose 10 courses at lunch or 14 at dinner from a 'collection' of 30 dishes.
What the guide says: An elegant restaurant set within an impressive Victorian house. Refined, sophisticated cooking shows real depth of flavour and a lightness of touch. Produce is either biodynamic or organic, with as much as possible coming from the kitchen garden. Watch the chefs close-up from the glass-walled kitchen table.
What the guide says: A characterful 16C merchant's house on the quayside. Flagged floors, cast iron pillars and exposed bricks feature in the bar, while the upstairs restaurant boasts carved beams and a stone fireplace. Tasting menus list accomplished, creative dishes which are well-balanced and attractively presented.
What the guide says: The Black Swan is owned by a family who've farmed in the area for generations. Enjoy an aperitif in the characterful bar, then head upstairs to the restaurant. Modern menus are driven by meats from their farm and produce grown in the garden; cooking is highly skilled and dishes are carefully presented. Antique-furnished bedrooms have smart bathrooms and private patios.
About: Head Chef, Jonny Bone told The Staff Canteen: The food style is very much about nature. It's about the connection with the produce, it’s something that we really enjoy eating and then it highlights the connection to the history of our whole industry. We draw from those three aspects to create everything that we have at Core. It’s that food we love to eat, and hopefully everyone that comes to dine has the same experience and can relate to where we’re coming from.
What the guide says: Casamia sits in an impressive listed Victorian hospital overlooking Bathurst Basin. You enter through double glass doors, under an arch and through into a pared down, Scandic-style room. The team are charming and the passionate chefs personally deliver the skilfully prepared, highly creative, seasonal dishes.
What the guide says: Full length windows give every table an impressive coastal view at this smart hotel restaurant. Concise menus showcase local and garden produce and cooking is complex - a host of ingredients are used for each course. Creative dishes combine a good range of flavours and textures and presentation is unique.
What the guide says: Intimate, Scandic-style restaurant with an open kitchen; set within a beautiful part-Georgian building. The talented chef uses superb local and foraged ingredients to create original dishes with wonderfully balanced flavours; some are finished at the table and for the final course you're invited into the kitchen. Bedrooms have a chic, contemporary country house style.
What the guide says: Set in charming grounds; a 16C house with stylish, spacious bedrooms. Cosy wood-panelled lounges contrast with an ultra-modern glass-fronted restaurant and an impressive open kitchen. The experienced chef brings his knowledge together in a style of his own: vibrant dishes stay true to the classic flavours of the region whilst skilfully combining modern techniques.
About: The Square was formally a two Michelin-starred restaurant under Phil Howard who was there for 25 years. His successor was Le Meurice head chef, Yu Sugimoto who left due to personal reasons and ahead of the reopening in 2017 Clement took on the role. His debut menu at The Square showcases some of the chef’s favourite autumnal ingredients, including signature dishes: Hand-picked devon crab with beetroot, iced coral, cardamom; Seared Orkney scallop marsala, hazelnut, green coffee bean; John dory with celery, sea urchin, and lychee.
About: Opened in November 2017, the restaurant is co-owned and run by Ben and partner, Lucy Hanlon. The cooking style is simple, with clean flavours using the highest quality of ingredients from sustainable and ethical suppliers. Plates are simple in appearance but full of flavour and respect for the best produce from Britain
About: Forest Avenue is a neighbourhood dining room situated in Dublin. The restaurant is run by passionate husband and wife team John and Sandy Wyer. It is named after the street where Sandy grew up in her native Queens, New York. They serve modern food using excellent seasonal ingredients in relaxed, informal surroundings. The menu changes frequently and features a 6 course tasting menu.
About: Despite failing to reach the crowdfund total of £60,000 the restaurant went ahead and opened last year. Expect big flavours, big smiles, and great service at Röski Restaurant. Here you can find a super relaxed atmosphere in an intimate restaurant, with MasterChef: The Professionals’ Winner Anton Piotrowski and his team behind the stove.
About: Previously at Mallory Court, Paul raised over £100,000 in 33 days using a Kickstarter campaign to fund his restaurant Salt which is based in Stratford-upon-Avon. A National Chef of the Year 2017 finalist, Paul’s menu changes regularly ‘to make the most of the season’s freshest ingredients’.
About: Ellis and his brother Liam took over the cafe at an Anglesey campsite when they were just nineteen and twenty-one, and have built it from a breakfast shed into a fully-fledged, nationally-acclaimed restaurant. Ellis’ ‘menus sing of local produce and the seasonality’ and he is currently taking part in Great British Menu for the second time.
About: One of London’s most anticipated openings this year, Hide is an amazing space spanning over three floors. Ollie Dabbous is the executive chef for the whole building. Above is the fine dining offering - where Luke Selby is in charge of the kitchen. The other restaurant is called Ground, where the head chef Josh Angus serves more of an all-day offering.
About: The Michelin-recommended fine dining restaurant is in the heart of Lincolnshire. It offers a menu ‘that playfully tweaks, cleverly replicates—but always deeply respects—nature and the seasons’.
About: Tim was previously at the Wild Rabbit where he added another Michelin star to his collection. He took over the Flitch of Bacon from Daniel Clifford earlier this year and he supports farmers and artisan producers combining local produce with the very best European larder. Tim and his kitchen team use the finest seasonal ingredients to create dishes that celebrate traditional British cooking with a contemporary twist.
About: Joining The French in 2013 as Head Chef Adam took over as Chef-Patron in 2016. Showcasing Adam’s creative culinary talents, the menu offers modern British food that delivers consistently excellent flavours, using the best seasonal produce available.
About: Located in the heart of Fitzrovia, Mere is an elegant and contemporary restaurant, offering a relaxed yet refined dining experience. The dishes celebrate the passion and heritage of husband and wife team, Monica and David Galetti, blending classical French with South Pacific influences.
About: The Terrace lost its Michelin star in the 2016 guide. The restaurant is all about representing the finest produce in Scotland and presents modern British cuisine influenced by learned French cooking techniques and an appreciation of the best ingredients available from Scotland’s outstanding natural larder.
About: Skosh received a Bib Gourmand in the Michelin Guide 2018. The guide says: ‘Both the décor and the cooking are bright and colourful; sit at the counter to really be a part of what's going on. Constantly evolving small plates keep Yorkshire produce at their heart and display some Asian influences.’
About: Expect clean, produce led, simple cooking at this restaurant in Hackney Wick. Formerly head chef at Outlaw’s at The Capital, Tom opened another of this year’s highly anticipated London restaurants in March. So far, the restaurant has won accolades in the Good Food Guide and at the Restaurant Awards.
About: The website describes this Nottingham restaurant as unique, imaginative, plant based, fine dining – it opened last year and Alex previously worked under two Michelin-starred chef, Sat Bains. The menu changes depending on what is growing and available and what the team have foraged.
About: Based in the heart of Glasgow’s West End, the recently reopened restaurant, serves dishes described as inventive French-inflected food from Scotland's natural larder in a relaxed, family-run atmosphere.
About: Roganic first opened in 2011 in Marylebone as a two-year pop-up. Now, five years later Roganic has returned to London, bringing elements of L’Enclume, Simon Rogan’s two Michelin star restaurant in the Lake District.
About: The style of food reflects the personalities of the chefs, whilst the ethos is to be true to sustainability and the seasons, it has rural provenance with a modern approach.
About: Building relationships with local farmers, growers, fishermen, food producers and suppliers means that the menus at Palé Hall allow you to discover some of the finest food from the region, always fresh, seasonal, naturally delicious and, of course, responsibly, humanely and organically produced.
About: Le Cochon Aveugle is a small stripped back restaurant in the heart of York, serving a frequently changing tasting menu. The contemporary European menu is rooted in classical French techniques, and showcases the very best produce available to the kitchen on each individual day.
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