Yau's latest project named as best new restaurant

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Toast of the town: Alan Yau won top spot for Sake No Hana

Rave reviews: Sake No Hana

Top Veggie: Manna in Primrose Hill, where chefs Emma Kolback and Agnieszka Walzuk have a loyal following, was named best vegetarian

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Alan Yau's Sake No Hana has been named London's best new restaurant in a version of the Good Food Guide devoted to the capital.

It is the latest plaudit for Britain's most successful Asian restaurateur, whose previous successes include the Wagamama noodle chain, Chinese restaurant Hakkasan and dim-sum venue Yauatcha.

The Japanese restaurant in Mayfair opened in December to rave reviews.

One contributor to The Good Food Guide London, published today, described it as "pure and unadulterated joy for people who understand and love Japanese food".

Evening Standard reviewer Fay Maschler said eating there was "a sensuous, revealing experience".

It is only the second time that the Good Food Guide publishers have put out a London-only edition.

The last time was in 1969, when a shortage of top-class restaurants meant that it had to be padded out with entries such as Danny La Rue's nightclub, the Playboy Club and even patisseries.

Good Food Guide editor Elizabeth Carter said the capital's eating-out scene was now so vibrant that it merited its own edition.

She said: "London's restaurant scene is up there with Paris and New York. It is so much more diverse than that outside London, which is increasingly dominated by the gastropubs.

"For example, it is very, very hard to find a decent Chinese or a really good Indian outside London and in London you have all these other cuisines, like Vietnamese, coming through as well.

"London restaurants make up between 300 and 400 of the total 1,200 entries in the Good Food Guide but we could easily put a lot more in. The scene is so strong that it is now getting harder to have a bad meal in London."

Ms Carter said that after the 1969 guide, the idea of a London-only version was abandoned because there were not enough good places to fill one.

Today's version also reflects how Mayfair and Knightsbridge - once seen as gastronomic "empty quarters" - have become the capital's hottest new eating-out areas.

Apart from Sake No Hana, two other Mayfair restaurants won awards: Wild Honey for best set menu and The Square for best wine list.

One-O-One in Knightsbridge was best fish restaurant, while Primrose Hill chefs Emma Kolback and Agnieszka Walzuk earned Manna the title of best vegetarian restaurant.

GOOD FOOD GUIDE TO THE BEST EATING OUT IN LONDON

Best value for money: Tom Ilic, Battersea

Best budget restaurant: Viet Grill, Shoreditch

Best gastropub: Carpenter's Arms, Hammersmith

Best set menu: Wild Honey, Mayfair

Best vegetarian: Manna, Primrose Hill

Best for breakfast: Roast, London Bridge

Best wine list: The Square, Mayfair

Best fish restaurant: One-O-One, Knightsbridge

Best up-and-coming chef: Tristan Mason

 

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