The Good Food Guide crowns Edinburgh as its most exciting food destination in Britain for 2025

Ahead of their annual awards on Monday 3 February at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in central London, restaurant review bible The Good Food Guide has today announced Edinburgh as the winner of its Most Exciting Food Destination for 2025, sponsored by The Landmark Trust.  

Despite 2024 proving a sluggish year for restaurant openings, Edinburgh has bucked the trend with a series of high-quality new openings building energy and momentum to outpace any other British city. Seasoned chefs like Stuart Ralston have led the charge with his flagship restaurant Lyla (opened November 2023) described in The Good Food Guide as a ’symphonic masterclass’. The beautifully renovated Georgian townhouse is a transformative setting for the chef’s no-holds-barred ten-course menu, which brings new vitality to the traditionally stuffy image of fine dining in the city. 

Also new at the top end is Avery from chef Rodney Wages who imported his San Francisco restaurant to Stockbridge in 2024, while Tomás Gormley has delivered an ambitious follow up to his bijou spot Skua with Cardinal, just round the corner. While the Scottish capital has historically been awash with tasting menu restaurants, it’s the proliferation of cool, casual restaurants at mid-level - spearheaded by The Palmerston - that prove the city is gaining ground. Stockbridge Eating House from chef Dale Mailley is a pure palate cleanser of a restaurant: full of personality but with no unnecessary frills. Alongside it, a pleasing line up of newcomers including Sotto, Little Capo, and Ardfern — an all-day affair from prolific chef Roberta Hall-McCarron.  

Montrose, one of the most important new openings of the past year, comes from the Timberyard team and successfully straddles both ends of the spectrum with an intimate tasting menu affair upstairs and a convivial, casual bar setting on the ground floor. Both are served by a brilliantly leftfield drinks program which sees Timberyard and Montrose jointly in the running for The Good Food Guide’s Drinks List of the Year. 

The Guide’s co-editor Chloë Hamilton says of the win: ‘Every year, our coverage of Edinburgh’s dining scene ranks among the most-read content by our knowledgeable readers and this is the era in which the city is answering their voracious appetite for great restaurants at every level.’ 

The shortlist for The Good Food Guide Awards 2025, in partnership with OpenTable, is as follows: 

Restaurant of the Year sponsored by OpenTable  

Osip, Somerset  

Restaurant Jericho, Leicestershire 

St John (Smithfield), London 

Opheem, Birmingham 

The Ritz Restaurant, London  

 

Best New Restaurant sponsored by Tripleseat 

Skof, Manchester 

Lyla, Edinburgh  

Briar, Somerset 

Row on 5, London 

Albatross Death Cult, Birmingham 

Native, Worcestershire 

 

Drinks List of the Year sponsored by Richard Brendon 

KOL & Fonda, London 

Timberyard & Montrose, Edinburgh 

Osip, Somerset 

Cornus, London 

 

Chef to Watch sponsored by Champagne Billecart-Salmon  
Jake Dolin - Manteca, London 

Elliot Hashtroudi - Camille, London  

Sam Lomas - Briar, Somerset  

Kyu Jeong Jeon and Duncan Robertson - Dongnae, Bristol 

Maria Close - Rockliffe Hall, County Durham  

Meedu Saad - Super8 Restaurants, London 

Philip Mcenaney and Katie Austin – Previously Boath House, Nairn 

 

Best Value Set Menu  

Josephine Bouchon, London 

The Palmerston, Edinburgh 

Dilsk, Brighton 

Pompette, Oxford 

Wilsons, Bristol 

The Devonshire, London 

 

Most Beautiful Restaurant  

Grace & Savour, West Midlands 

The Dover, London 

Hearth, Hampshire 

The Park, London  

Woven by Adam Smith, Berkshire 

Wildflowers, London 

 

The Russell Norman Award for Restaurateur of the Year  
David Carter, DCCO group 

Jason & Irha Atherton, The Social Company 

James Gummer, Olivier van Themsche & Phil Winser, Public House Group 

Guirong Wei, Master Wei, X’ian Impression, Dream X’ian 

Florence Mae Maglanoc, Maginhawa Group 

Dom Hamdy, Ham Group 

Jonathan MacDonald and Daniel Spurr, Scoop Restaurants