Product Description

This title includes reviews of the best restaurants in the UK, from country pubs through to cheap eats and high-end city dining. Since 1951, "The Good Food Guide" has pushed the boundaries of British cuisine. Always ahead of the game when it comes to spotting up-and-coming chefs, trends and hidden gems, "The Good Food Guide" retains its unrivalled position as Britain's best-selling restaurant guide. We have travelled the length and breadth of the UK so that inside you will find over 1,200 reviews of the very best dining experiences. There is a huge range of restaurants, pubs and cafes and you are bound to find the perfect venue whether you are searching for a mind-blowing, once-in-a-lifetime meal, a pub for Sunday lunch with friends or a great value option for a weekday supper. The guide is also packed with foodie features including our recommendations for high-end dining on a budget, the best places for brunch and new foodie areas that we have discovered. You will also find interviews with top chefs including Jason Atherton, Marcus Wareing, Michel Roux Junior and Vineet Bhatia. Inside this year's guide you will find information on: over 1,200 restaurants; great value eateries and budget tips; high-end dining and places to treat yourself; foodie features including credit-crunching menus and trends to watch in these tough times; the latest recommendations from our readers; and, GBP 50 of money-off vouchers.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #474 in Books
• Published on: 2009-09-08
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 624 pages

Review
"You can corrupt one man. You can't bribe an army." Raymond Postgate, founder of The Good Food Guide, 1951 "...it's meticulous" The Daily Telegraph"

Customer Reviews

Readable and useful
I always look forward to the publication of the Good Food Guide each year even though I eat out less than I used to, I'm still interested to find out if old favourites are still included. As always, the Guide is enjoyable to read and the descriptions of each restaurant give you a good idea of what to expect in terms of price, kind of food and the general ambiance of the place. One may disagree over the precise rating of a restaurant, but if you're looking to eat well in an unfamiliar area you won't go far wrong if you've consulted the GFG. Though many of the same restaurants remain in the Guide over the years you can't always rely on an old GFG as they may have changed hands and the standards plummet.

The layout of the Guide hasn't changed since the recent re-vamp that led to more colour printing and improved layout of entries. A small change is a map of the London Underground at the front of the London section, but you need very good eye-sight to make out the stations. The Guide still categorizes entries in terms of counties which makes it difficult to find a particular town if you're not sure which county it's in. Though an improvement on last year's Guide is that they now have an index at the back of the book which lists towns alphabetically and the eating places in each with a page number. I missed seeing this helpful index at first.

One thing I've noticed over the years is that the publication date has crept earlier and earlier in the year. I can recall in the past it being well into October, but now it's the first week of September. A disadvantage of this earlier publication date is that the dead-line for reports contributing to the Guide is something like May instead of June. So reports submitted during the summer holiday season cannot contribute to the Guide for the following year. This will have a particular impact on restaurants in holiday areas such as the South West of England, Wales and Scotland. A problem if the place has changed hands and the old-of-date entry doesn't reflect the present standards.

Inevitably the big cities and centres of population have far more good places to eat than remoter areas, which is not surprising, and it's noticeable that entries for the Highlands and Islands and West of Scotland are very thin on the ground and change little from year to year. I suspect that there are good places that are not in the Guide because it's too difficult and expensive to inspect them, for example, if they are located in the Scottish Islands.

Despite the quibbles the Guide remains one of the best with entries that are based on spontaneous reports from diners and independent inspectors and, importantly, entries are not paid for by the restaurants, as is the case with some other guides.

Good Food Guider 2010
We always enjoy this book and find it most useful, but the layout has got better every year, and now it is really very comprehensive.
The readers recommendations are a useful addition too.
I like the idea that it is now first 'by county' and then 'by town' within that county, instead of just totally 'by town'. It helps then to locate others in the vicinity.

i love these guides
the good food guide from which is the best indication of how a restaurant is really doing, which makes eating out more enjoyable. you know what to expect, and generally they deliver.
particularly loved The Church Green when I visited 2 October, based on the guide review. The write up didn't do it justice, but I at least vaguely knew what to expect.
will definately buy it next year