The National Restaurant Awards 2024 was announced last night (June 10), but there isn’t a lot to shout about for Bristol, unfortunately. The city’s only Michelin Star restaurant didn’t even make the top 100, but one ‘low-key yet innovative 24-cover restaurant’ did.
Opened by Jan Ostle and Mary Wilson in 2016, Wilsons has become legendary locally for using produce from its own two-acre garden. Each week, Wilsons writes a new menu based on what’s been harvested that week or preserved earlier in the year. Anything not homegrown is sourced from local and sustainable producers.
It’s for this reason that Wilson’s finished 72nd at the National Restaurant Awards 2024. As well as being “extremely affordable especially given the effort that goes into its growing and sourcing. A six-course tasting menu is offered alongside an even more good value ‘menu du jour’ (the latter even includes a glass of wine).”
Where else locally featured National Restaurant Awards 2024?
Nowhere in Bristol, but the “shining light of Cheltenham’s dining scene” Lumiere (60th) and Somerset’s idyllic farm-to-table Osip (64th) both featured. Further afield, you’ll find the quayside seafood restaurant in Dartmouth, The Seahorse (98th) and St Ives’ Ugly Butterfly (55th) – which boasts a coastal setting and “emphasis on tackling food waste”.
The highest performer in the South West can be found in the Cornish fishing village of Padstow, however, and it has nothing to do with Rick Stein. Paul Ainsworth at No.6 – offering “fine dining at his beautiful townhouse dining room” – finished 22nd. The Michelin-starred restaurant serves modern British food with a focus on Cornish produce and a fun approach.
Meanwhile, despite not making the Top 100, The Bull Inn in Totnes won The Estrella Damm Sustainability Award. Whether Devon’s ethical gastropub is serving” veg-first, seasonal, local food and mindful meat”, choosing green energy suppliers, or paying significantly above the Real Living Wage, there’s an ethos here we think many Bristolians can get behind.
The National Restaurant Awards’ Top 10 In The UK
- The Ledbury, Notting Hill, London
- Mountain, Soho, London
- Restaurant Moor Hall, Aughton, Lancashire
- Bouchon Racine, Clerkenwell, London
- Ynyshir, Machynlleth, Powys
- Kiln, Soho, London
- Da Terra, Bethnal Green, London
- Opheem, Birmingham
- The Devonshire, Soho, London
- Ikoyi, Covent Garden, London
To see the full list of National Restaurant Awards head here.