The Top 72 Places to Eat Near Wild Shropshire
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Rank 1. Wild Shropshire
Modern British
Fourteen seats, a daily changing surprise menu, and almost everything grown on the chef's own farm nearby. This intimate Modern British restaurant in Whitchurch takes field-to-fork seriously enough to have its own fields, then tilts the produce toward Japanese technique, koji and yuzu sitting comfortably alongside Shropshire soil. The team is warm without being performative, which is harder to pull off than it sounds.
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Rank 2. Docket Restaurant
Modern British
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A country gastropub east of the River Dee that the village literally helped rebuild, lending tools and labour when Gary Usher's team took over a shuttered local. The seasonal menu runs to comforting bistro dishes, and the guest chef series has pulled in names like Tom Kerridge and Angela Hartnett, which is not nothing for a pub in a Cheshire hamlet. It landed on the Top 50 Gastropubs list, and walkers and cyclists seem to find it without much trouble.
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Fourteen seats, a marble-wrapped open kitchen, and a tasting menu where every course is named after a single ingredient, which tells you something about the confidence level in the room. Kenny Atkinson's fine dining follow-up to House of Tides is a deliberately smaller, quieter thing, built around 15-odd courses of precise modern cooking. Newcastle, it turns out, can do this.
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Rank 5. The Bear Inn
Modern British
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Rank 6. Crown Wharf
British Pub
The brewery tap for Joules, Crown Wharf sits on the original site of one of their first breweries, built almost entirely from reclaimed materials by a two-man crew that kept going through the pandemic. It's a proper pub with a theatre and heritage centre attached, which is not a sentence you write every day. The Great British Pub Awards named it Overall Great British Pub of the Year in 2025, and Stone seems to agree, judging by the crowd.
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Rank 7. Stile Napoletano
Neapolitan Pizza
A Neapolitan pizza restaurant in Chester that ranks 13th in Europe and 73rd in the world on 50 Top Pizza, which is either deeply surprising or exactly what you'd expect once you've eaten here. The dough is the point: open, balanced, made with the kind of patience that shortcuts can't fake. The room is unfussy and relaxed, the service moves quietly, and the whole operation stays focused on the pizza with a discipline that most pizza towns would envy.
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Rank 8. The Jolly Gardeners
British
Wood panelling, flagged floors, and open fires downstairs; proper British cooking upstairs. This Chester pub, a short walk from the city centre, pulls off the refurbishment trick without losing its pubby soul, which is harder than it sounds. The rotating ales keep the bar honest, while the dining rooms above turn out wholesome British plates with the occasional nod toward sunnier climates. The soda bread treacle tart is worth leaving room for.
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Rank 9. Noted
New American
Six tables in a snug Chester dining room make Noted feel more like a dinner party than a restaurant. The menu is built for sharing and roams freely, pairing British produce with international detours: prawn toast bao, crab arancino, that kind of thing. Sundays bring a sharing roast with a distinctly 1980s sensibility, which sounds like a gimmick until it arrives. The Michelin Guide has it selected.
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Rank 10. Upstairs at the Grill
Steakhouse
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Rank 11. The Walrus
Modern British
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Rank 12. Lunar
Modern New American
The plates here are genuine Wedgwood, which makes sense given the address: a sprawling modern dining room inside the World of Wedgwood visitor complex, built into what used to be the factory canteen. The kitchen leans on prime British ingredients, there's a tucked-away bar worth finding, and a chef's table with a window straight into the action. Josiah himself would probably approve, or at least recognize the crockery.
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Rank 13. Next Door
Contemporary British
Low ceilings, exposed beams, and a family that's been working this 17th-century building for three generations make Next Door feel like it earned its charm the slow way. These days it's a cosy contemporary British restaurant run by a husband-and-wife team, he in the kitchen and she managing the wine. The beef comes from the family butcher two doors down, which is either very convenient or very good planning, probably both.
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Rank 14. Little Seeds
Modern British
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Rank 15. Bryn Williams at Theatr Clwyd
Modern British
Floor-to-ceiling windows frame the Clwydian Range while you eat, which is a better view than most theatre intervals offer. This modern British brasserie on the first floor of Theatr Clwyd leans hard on Welsh produce, including the chef's own pedigree Welsh Black beef, which shows up in more than one form on the menu. The room is warm, the service runs smoothly, and the prices won't require a second look.
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Rank 16. La Popote
Classic French
Brick floors, exposed beams, and a menu that opens with coq au vin: La Popote is a classic French restaurant tucked inside a converted barn on a Cheshire farm, which makes the cassoulet feel both completely out of place and exactly right. The team spent years cooking in Paris, and the food reads like they meant it. Friendly service, countryside quiet, and a clafoutis at the end.
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Rank 17. LI~LY by Aiden Byrne
Modern British
A black-and-white timbered building in the middle of Knutsford hides a surprisingly bright, contemporary dining room inside. Aiden Byrne runs a tasting menu restaurant here, with the kind of precisely assembled plates that make you feel someone really thought about them. Byrne has a habit of delivering dishes himself, and his enthusiasm for what he's put in front of you comes across as completely unperformed.
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A stone building on a quiet Staffordshire canal, The Flintlock is a proper sit-down restaurant with two dining rooms full of period features and the kind of unhurried charm that makes you linger. The chef is self-taught, which the cooking doesn't apologize for, leaning into a modern style that lets the room do some of the heavy lifting. A canal stroll before dinner is genuinely part of the rhythm here.
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Rank 19. Pilgrim
Mediterranean Spanish
Cooking over an open flame anchors the menu at this small-plates Spanish and Mediterranean spot in Mossley Hill, which moved out of the city centre and leaned into the neighbourhood feel. Tables are close together and the room is cosy in the way that encourages overstaying. If you want to watch the fire up close, the chef's counter is the seat to book. The Michelin Guide has it listed among its selected restaurants.
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Rank 20. Belzan
Modern British
The Guinness rarebit potato has been known to settle the question of what to order before you've even sat down. This cosy modern bistro on a student-heavy stretch of Smithdown Road runs on chatty, attentive service and cooking that's generous without making a fuss about it. Sundays bring a proper roast. The vibe is relaxed enough that no one feels like they're being watched.
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Rank 22. Manifest
Modern British
A converted warehouse in Liverpool's Baltic Triangle, Manifest is a modern British restaurant where an open kitchen takes up most of the room and the counter seats fill up with people who want to watch the work. The menu runs à la carte or a tasting menu that shifts with the seasons, and the wine list is set up so every bottle pours by the glass, which is a genuinely civilised approach to the problem of ordering alone.
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Rank 23. The Art School
Modern British
Bright red chairs against crisp white linen sets the tone at this formal Modern British restaurant, where the room reads like a place that takes dinner seriously without making you feel guilty about enjoying it. The cooking is ambitious and colourful, and the wine list leans deep on reds. Paul Askew also runs guest chef evenings and live music nights, so the calendar is worth a look before you book.
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Shokupan milk bread and char siu pork belly on Hope Street, which tells you most of what you need to know about where Vetch is coming from. It's a modern restaurant that folds East Asian influences into its cooking without making a big deal of it, all housed in a room that keeps things neutral and unfussy. Dinner runs as a tasting menu; lunch and early evening offer something shorter that won't flatten your wallet.
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A small, intimate tasting menu restaurant in a quiet Oxton village, named after the chef's daughter, which tells you something about the scale of personal investment here. Tony Parkin runs the kitchen largely solo and brings dishes to the table himself, so the food and the person making it are rarely more than a few steps apart. The menu leans modern with a pull toward Asian flavors, moving between Thai-inflected broths and yuzu desserts without feeling like a passport stamp collection.
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Two eight-seater counters in the basement of a Victorian building in central Liverpool, each with its own chef cooking and narrating the meal directly in front of you. Drinks and snacks happen upstairs first, in a dimly lit lounge that gives the whole thing a ceremonial feel. The tasting menu is ambitious and globe-spanning, the kind where the explanation is part of the dish. Andrew Sheridan brought this format up from Birmingham, and it suits the city just fine.
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Rank 29. The Bryntirion Inn
Modern British
A whitewashed roadside inn in the Welsh countryside where the walls are covered in motorsport memorabilia and classic car collectibles, which is not a combination you expect from a pub with rooms. The menu runs from grill cuts to a rotating pie and mash, the sort of thing that actually suits the setting. Connected to nearby Palé Hall, it has the same easy, unfussy service without the manor house formality.
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Rank 30. The Duncombe Arms
Modern British
A terrace overlooking the Staffordshire countryside and a red-brick barn converted into bedrooms next door make this dining pub feel like someone's particularly sorted country house. That someone rescued the village local when it closed, and the kitchen has since earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand turning out Modern British cooking that's hearty without being heavy. Prices stay honest, the portions don't.
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Rank 31. Henry Robertson
Modern British
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Rank 32. Moor Hall
Modern British
A glass-fronted dining room set inside a centuries-old Lancashire country house, with a walk-in cheese room and five beehives on the grounds. Mark Birchall's tasting menu restaurant holds three Michelin stars, and a meal moves through the estate rather than staying put: snacks at the bar, a kitchen tour, then the main procession in a high, Scandic-cool room. The kind of place where the surroundings are doing serious work alongside the food.
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Rank 33. Restaurant ÖRME
Modern British
A small modern British restaurant in Urmston where three young owners run a tight, Nordic-feeling room, all clean lines and an open kitchen you can watch from your seat. The menus cover tasting options, à la carte, and a Sunday roast, with British produce doing most of the heavy lifting. A British wine flight is available for those who like their theme fully committed.
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Rank 34. The Boat
Modern British Pub
A Michelin-starred gastropub on a busy A-road outside Lichfield, which is either a strike against it or the whole point, depending on how you feel about destination dining. The kitchen runs a small on-site farm that feeds the menu, with local producers covering the rest, all handled with the kind of precision that makes a venison dish feel considered rather than merely seasonal. The chefs come out to explain what's on the plate, and somehow it doesn't feel annoying.
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Rank 35. Skof
Modern British
A former textile warehouse in the NOMA district, exposed girders and all, now houses one of Manchester's more talked-about fine dining rooms. Tom Barnes ran the kitchen at L'Enclume before opening this tasting-menu restaurant, and the move from Cumbrian countryside to city center shows up on the plate: hyper-seasonal British produce sits alongside quietly global flavors, and the meal closes with a tiramisu that's a tribute to his late father. It holds a Michelin star.
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Rank 36. Upstairs by Tom Shepherd
Modern British
A tasting menu restaurant sitting above a jewellery shop in the middle of Lichfield, which is either the most unexpected address in the Midlands or a perfectly on-brand piece of theatre. Tom Shepherd holds a Michelin star, Staffordshire's first, and runs tight, unfussy modern British menus where each dish lands on two or three elements and earns every one of them. The room is 36 covers, warm, unhurried, and genuinely hard to book.
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Rank 37. Higher Ground
Modern British
A long island counter runs the length of the room, doubling as open kitchen, pass, and bar, which tells you most of what you need to know about Higher Ground. It's a neo-bistro in Manchester's Chinatown where around ninety percent of the produce comes from the team's own partner farm in Cheshire. Sharing plates lean experimental and seasonal, and the wine list runs deep on low-intervention Europeans and grower champagnes. The Michelin Guide awarded it a Bib Gourmand.
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Rank 38. Winsome
Modern British
A stripped-back dining room inside the Whitworth Locke Hotel on Princess Street, where the kitchen counter runs long and the cooking leans into cold cuts, whole fish, and homemade pies without apology. Shaun Moffat, who made his name up the road at The Edinburgh Castle, brings the same produce-led instinct here: seasonal, regional, British, and genuinely unfussy. The National Restaurant Awards put it at number 67 in 2026.
- National Restaurant Awards 2026 · #67 · The National Restaurant Awards
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
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Rank 39. Cantaloupe
Mediterranean
A wine bar and restaurant on Great Underbank where the menu changes daily and the kitchen leans Mediterranean, so pasta and whole fish appear often but never exactly the same way twice. The wine list favors established growers, and the cooking is quiet and deliberate, the kind that trusts a good ingredient to do most of the talking. Michelin picked it up with a Bib Gourmand, which tracks for a room this unfussy and this careful.
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Rank 40. Erst
Natural Mediterranean
Polished concrete and an all-natural wine list inside a converted Ancoats warehouse: Erst is a restaurant and wine bar that leans firmly into sharing plates of bright, punchy Mediterranean food. The menu is short and shifts often, the kind of place where you order everything and argue about nothing. A Michelin Bib Gourmand, and squarely anti-glitz in a city that loves a big night out.
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Rank 41. mana
Modern British
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Rank 42. The Barn
Modern British
Exposed beams, an open kitchen, and a hedge-enclosed terrace by the lake set the tone at this Michelin-starred dining room, the more relaxed sibling to Moor Hall next door. Modern British cooking draws heavily on the walled garden outside, and the combinations tend toward punchy without announcing themselves. Things often start with a house-cured salami, which is a quietly confident opening move.
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Rank 43. sō–lō
Modern British
A converted pub in a Lancashire village, sō, lō is the first solo restaurant from Tim Allen, who cooked at well-regarded kitchens across the country before opening here. The room is bright and warmly run, the cooking Modern British and carefully seasonal, with textures as considered as the sourcing. Landes guinea fowl makes the journey from France. The place holds a Michelin star, which does some explaining for why the village is worth finding.
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A 14th-century Grade I-listed manor house is the unlikely anchor of this sprawling south Staffordshire pub, where walkers and diners turn up in roughly equal numbers. Inside, art deco lighting and a Blue Room wrapped in a 360-degree mural sit comfortably beside the open kitchen and pizza oven. Outside, there are booths and a bookable teepee. It took Marston's Pub of the Year at the 2025 Great British Pub Awards.
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Rank 45. Charlton Arms
British Pub
A gastropub sitting right on the River Teme, with terraces that make it nearly impossible to eat inside on a fine day. The menu moves comfortably between French and British without making a fuss about it, running from fish soup with rouille to battered haddock to sticky toffee pudding. Muddy walkers, well-behaved dogs, and people on date nights all seem equally at home here. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand.
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Rank 46. The Pack Horse
Modern British
A stone gastropub on Market Street in Hayfield that walkers stumble into after the hills and rarely leave in a hurry. The kitchen runs on hyper-local sourcing, with lamb from a supplier four miles away and fish off the north-west coast, all shifting with the seasons. Open fires, warm service, real ales, and a quiz night keep it firmly a village local rather than a destination that's forgotten what a local is.
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Rank 47. Where The Light Gets In
Modern British
A Victorian coffee warehouse turned loft restaurant, with an open kitchen that puts the cooks firmly in the room with you. The team runs a set sharing menu built on seasonal British produce, foraged finds, and a low-waste philosophy that keeps pickles and ferments busy. The same crew runs a bakery and pottery studio around the corner, which explains both the sourdough and the plates it arrives on. Walk-ins can grab a counter seat for bar snacks and low-intervention wines.
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Rank 48. The Edinburgh Castle
British Pub
A Victorian pub in Ancoats that Jay Rayner once called "a great place to eat," with chips cooked in dripping and sourdough dragged through the pan drippings. The kitchen has since changed hands, so what lands on the table now is a question mark, but the room itself, a handsomely restored city boozer with an upstairs restaurant, remains. Craft beer, cask ale, and whisky hold the fort while you find out.
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Rank 49. El Gato Negro
Spanish
Counter seats facing an open kitchen on the first floor give you the best view of the Josper grill doing its work at this tapas bar spread across three floors on a pedestrianised stretch of King Street. The ground floor has a proper bar, the roof terrace is up top, and a crema catalana on the menu keeps the classical end honest. The Michelin Guide awards it a Bib Gourmand, and the room is loud in the way that means people are having a good time.
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Dark walls, a thumping soundtrack, and a kitchen that ages ingredients in-house set the tone at this Michelin-starred modern tasting menu restaurant in the Jewellery Quarter. Chef Alex Claridge has a reputation for cooking that surprises without showing off, pairing unexpected flavors and textures in ways that hold together. Wine flights and inventive non-alcoholic pairings both get serious treatment, so nobody at the table feels like an afterthought.
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A traditional pub in the heart of the Peak District where food waste gets fed into a machine called Greedy George and comes out the other side as compost for the kitchen garden. The team behind The George has turned sustainable pub-keeping into something closer to a vocation, running an allotment, growing produce for the menu, and finding uses for beer-line chemicals that would surprise most landlords.
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Rank 52. The Two Pigs
Modern British
The name changed from the Red Lion to The Two Pigs in 2023, and so did pretty much everything else. It's a gastropub in a Staffordshire village, doing modern pub classics with produce from local farmers and a micro-farm next door. Weekend brunches, Sunday roasts, seasonal cocktails, and bar snacks running all day give the place an all-hours, good-time quality that most gastropubs only manage for dinner service.
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Rank 53. The Spärrows
Eastern European
You ring a bell to get in, which sets the tone nicely. This cozy Eastern European restaurant under Manchester's railway arches earns a Michelin Bib Gourmand for house-made dumplings and pasta, from pierogi to pelmeni to gnocchi, balanced by bright salads for anyone who feels they should eat a vegetable. The wine list leans toward smaller producers, and there's a sake section that nobody saw coming. A bottle shop means you can keep the evening going at home.
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Rank 54. Dishes
Contemporary British
Counter seats and high-topped tables fill a converted cloth shop on the High Street, where the menu reads like a tour of north Wales without the car journey. This relaxed sharing-plates restaurant leans hard into Welsh produce, from Menai oysters to mutton belly sourced just up the road. Order à la carte or hand the decision to the kitchen entirely, which is an option more places should offer.
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Tucked into Deansgate Mews on an elevated walkway inside the old Great Northern building, this vegetable-forward sharing-plates bistro sources from local, ethical growers and lets each dish arrive one at a time so nothing gets lost in the crowd. The bread comes from Holy Grain next door, the wine list leans low-intervention, and the room runs warm and loud in the way that makes you order another round without noticing.
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Rank 56. Lighthouse Restaurant
Modern British
A self-taught chef running an intimate Modern British restaurant in the Derbyshire countryside sounds like either a love story or a cautionary tale; here it's the former. The menu swings between a full tasting format and a shorter sharing menu on weekdays, with the kitchen leaning hard into seasonal cooking and the occasional Thai-inspired detour, like a coconut and chilli broth that earns its place on the table.
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Rank 57. Adam Reid at The French
Modern British New American
The menu descriptions here say things like "Fungi" and "Fish," which tells you nothing until a chef appears at your table to explain and finish the dish in front of you. This is a fine dining room inside the grand old Midland Hotel, done up in Belle Époque splendor, but Adam Reid's multi-course cooking leans into his northern roots rather than the Gallic name above the door.
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Rank 58. Stow
Modern British
Fire is the kitchen's main event at this intimate counter-dining spot on Bridge Street, where a small open kitchen puts the chefs close enough to hear the sizzle. The front bar does cocktails before and after, and the dining room feels like crashing a very good friend's private supper club. Ex-dairy beef gets a lot of attention, but the vegetable dishes hold their own alongside it. Listed in the Michelin Guide.
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A tall, narrow townhouse tucked off the main drag, with a cosy bar on the ground floor where you're encouraged to linger over a natural wine before heading up to one of the dining rooms above. The look is rustic with a faint industrial edge, and the modern European menu leans into Spanish and French ideas without making a fuss about it. Oysters and cheese beignets are a fine way to start deciding what comes next.
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Rank 60. posie
Mediterranean
Thirty-plus cocktails and a natural-wine list that skews global set the tone at this small-plates and drinks spot tucked into Spring Gardens. The team behind 10 Tib Lane runs the room, and the food punches above its snack-sized ambitions: Jersey oysters come dressed several ways, and the Guinness rarebit on toast with pickled cauliflower has its own loyal following. When the menu feels overwhelming, the staff are the kind who actually help.
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Rank 61. Pip
Modern British
Mary-Ellen McTague, a vocal champion of the northwest, runs the kitchen at this Modern British restaurant inside the Treehouse Hotel. Repurposed wood, vintage odds and ends, and splashes of colour give it a cozy, slightly eccentric feel. The menu leans on local Lancashire produce, and the hot pot alone makes a fairly compelling case for the region. Staff are the genuinely enthusiastic kind, not the trained-smile kind.
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Rank 62. Kallos Cafe & Wine Bar
Mediterranean Greek
A Greek all-day cafe and wine bar in Salford's Greengate development that shapeshifts depending on the hour, starting with brunch, then settling into meze and natural wine come evening. The lamb shoulder flatbread and chickpea stew do the heavy lifting on the menu, and tinned fish appears without irony. Service reads as genuinely warm rather than performative, which in a neighbourhood spot like this is the whole point.
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Rank 63. Deacon's Bank
Modern British
The chef's counter sits right next to the old banking vault, which is either a design quirk or a very pointed comment on where the real value lies. This Modern British restaurant in Chapel-en-le-Frith runs an ambitious tasting menu alongside a looser lunch of fish pie and grilled pork chop, and the range suits the room. A pair of apartments upstairs means you can eat yourself horizontal and sleep it off.
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Rank 64. Sampa
Brazilian
A 12-seat chef's counter so clandestine that the address only arrives 24 hours before you eat and a sign goes up outside just 20 minutes before service. Caroline Martins runs a Brazilian tasting menu here, greeting guests with real warmth and a parade of dishes built around the flavors she grew up with. Wear something you feel good in; the room is intimate enough that you'll be part of the performance whether you planned on it or not.
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Rank 66. Almanac
Traditional British
Mince on dripping toast is on the menu, and that tells you most of what you need to know about Almanac. This High Street bar and small-plates restaurant in Glossop keeps things unapologetically old-school British, from the classics-with-a-twist cocktails to the slow-braised onions cooked in chicken broth. A Michelin Bib Gourmand, it draws locals who treat the wine list like a short conversation rather than a thesis.
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Rank 67. Mortimers
Modern British
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Rank 68. Noi Quattro
Pizza
A pizza restaurant on High Street where the dough is the whole argument, balanced and consistent in a way that takes some discipline to pull off. The room is urban and informal, the kind of place you eat well without ceremony. The menu moves between classic and more contemporary combinations without making a fuss about either. Listed among 50 Top Pizza Europe's Excellent Pizzerias, which is the sort of thing Mancunians will politely ignore until they've tried it themselves.
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Rank 69. Tropea
Italian
Homemade pasta is the reason to come to this bright, neighbourhood Italian in Harborne, where the sharing plates and a well-priced Italian wine list fill the room with the kind of buzz that suggests regulars aren't going anywhere. The staff steer you through the menu with warmth that stops short of hovering. The Michelin Guide awarded it a Bib Gourmand, which tracks: this is straightforward, unshowy cooking that makes the whole thing look easy.
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Rank 70. The Two Pigs
British
A snug bar, a slightly more formal dining room, and a terrace for when England briefly cooperates: this is a country pub doing what the form asks, and doing it with evident pleasure. The menu runs classic British, from Welsh rarebit through smoked haddock fishcake to pork schnitzel, and the trifle has a reputation. The same owner runs The Boat in Lichfield, so the hospitality instincts are well exercised.
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A beautifully restored old inn sitting high in the Peak District, with an open kitchen on the upper floor and a rustic, cosy feel throughout. The menu is concise and seasonal, with enough international influence to keep things lively without losing the sense of place. Bedrooms in The Old Piggery sleep the walkers who take the nearby routes seriously, and the ground-floor rooms welcome dogs, which in Derbyshire is practically a civic requirement.
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Rank 72. Lovage
Modern British
Beamed ceilings and exposed brick in a converted stable block, right in the middle of a market town that Michelin knows mainly for its pudding. Lovage is a cosy modern British restaurant where the team talks you through locally sourced dishes with the kind of enthusiasm that stops just short of theatrical. Classic pairings like roasted beetroot and goat's cheese keep things grounded. They run a more casual coffee shop next door, if you'd rather not commit.