Endo Kazutoshi’s 10-seater flagship, Endo at the Rotunda above the old Television Centre in London’s White City has been voted the UK’s best restaurant in the carefully curated annual Harden’s Top 100 Best UK Restaurants diners’ poll.
The lauded London dining destination run by Yokohama-born Endo Kazutoshi has found itself the nation’s top rated eatery after being closed for five months earlier this year for a refurbishment and ‘period of culinary reflection’ in order to create a more personal and immersive omakase experience.
Feedback from diners hailed it as an “extraordinary gastronomic experience” where “the theatre of chef Endo’s entertaining presentation and explanations is a delight”. Since the Top 100 started 15 years ago, this is only the second time the number 1 has been neither modern British nor French.
Third generation sushi master Endo Kazutoshi says: “I am truly humbled and deeply grateful for this incredible news. To have the hard work and dedication of my team recognised in this way is an honour beyond words.
“As Japanese cuisine continues to capture the hearts and palates of people in London and around the world, I feel a profound sense of responsibility and pride to stand at the forefront as a pioneer. It is my mission to not only celebrate this rich culinary tradition but also to push its boundaries and lead its evolution on a global stage.”
Beyond London, Edinburgh was named as the city boasting the most Top 100 restaurants outside of London for the second consecutive year and the city with the most listings in the guide overall with an impressive 58 entries.
The Scottish capital’s three restaurants to make it into the elite selection this year are The Kitchin which has slipped from last year’s 13 to 81 and two new listings. Roberta Hall-McCarron’s renowned foodie hotspot The Little Chartroom enters into the Top 50 at number 49 for “flavours just sing and they are so good with textures and deft seasoning” and numerous best meals of the year being reported there. The Radford family’s converted Victorian warehouse Timberyard sits at 62 having built a strong culinary reputation since it opened 11 years ago.
Another previous top performer, and 2023 winner of the Top 100 UK Restaurants, Andrew Fairlie at Gleneagles Hotel is still highly rated at number 15. And in the Highlands, Loch Bay Restaurant in Stein is a new addition to the list at number 31 thanks to no report rating Michael & Laurence Smith’s “seafood haven” less than “outstanding”.
In Glasgow, Cail Bruich (40) is entering its fifth year of operation as one of the more renowned destinations in Scotland, with chef Lorna McNee overseeing the “wonderful” Scottish tasting menus. And “the revival of Glasgow’s hip West End continues apace” with Graeme Cheevers’s highly accomplished and accoladed three-year-old establishment Unalome (43) standing out “for the excellence of its cooking and the refinement of its service”, with a fair proportion of reports saying it provided the “gastronomic highlight of the year”.
The 34th edition of the Harden’s guide, published this week (ISBN: 978-1916076198, price £20: also available as apps for Apple or Android), is one of only two surviving established UK restaurant guides made available in print, and the only one based on feedback from normal diners rather than a group of professional inspectors. A total of 30,000 reports are submitted from a survey of 2,500 diners. Restaurants at all price levels are included: from street food vendors to the country’s most ambitious dining rooms, with 2,800 restaurants listed in total.
This year’s guide’s editors also noted that a clear difference in price increases between London restaurants and those elsewhere in the UK seems to suggest regional restaurants are continuing to move forward in their post-covid recovery whilst the capital continues to experience the pandemic’s more restrictive after effects.
Peter Harden, co-founder of Harden’s, comments: “There has been a noticeable difference in the increase of restaurants entering into the higher price bands outside of London compared to last year. We can see significantly higher price increases of between 16%-21% for the number of restaurants in the £100, £150 and £200+ price brackets outside of London, compared to between 10% -15% in the capital.
“This data adds to a general feeling that London is still feeling the after effects of the pandemic and – in particular – quieter Mondays and Fridays caused by working from home, while beyond the capital things are ticking along a little more strongly.”
Commenting on Scotland’s performance in this year’s guide and Top 100, Peter says: “As one of our most consistently performing restaurants in the guide, it is fantastic to see Andrew Fairlie at Gleneagles still placing highly alongside even more of Scotland’s culinary stars who are finding their way into the Top 100 and the guide as a whole.
“Being the city with most Top 100 listings and the most guide entries outside of London places Edinburgh in particular at the forefront of the UK’s dining scene.”
Harden’s Best UK Restaurants 2025, £20, is available in all good bookshops, including Waterstone’s and Amazon.com, and from www.hardens.com.
