A restaurant in Ripon has beaten eateries across the area to be named Regional Winner of the Waitrose Good Food Guide Reader’s Restaurant of the Year Awards. Lockwoods, has been nominated by its customers to be their top local restaurant in the North East.
The establishment beat off stiff competition from some of the region’s best-known restaurants and Lockwoods sealed its win for its ‘hearty and wholesome’ cooking and ‘buzzing’ atmosphere.
The Good Food Guide, published by Waitrose, called for diners, back in March, to nominate their favourite local eatery. The coveted awards honour the very best independent restaurants, pubs and cafés from around the country. The annual awards recognise the top dining establishments across ten different UK regions and are based on public nominations with a panel of Good Food Guide judges choosing the most outstanding for their overall winner, which this year is The Miller of Mansfield in Goring, Oxfordshire.
Elizabeth Carter, Waitrose Good Food Guide Editor, said:
This award is a celebration of small, independent restaurants that specialise in amazing quality food, often at great value prices. While trained inspectors carry out all our reviews, we rely on readers to let us know about eateries that might otherwise be overlooked. They are incredibly sophisticated when it comes to eating out, so it makes sense to listen to their opinions.
There’s no standing on ceremony at Matthew Lockwood’s thriving café-bar and restaurant. There’s something for everyone, with cooking that is hearty, fun and wholesome. Big brunches, sandwiches, and colourful choices such as Asian noodle salad by day, morphing to full restaurant mode in the evening. The atmosphere is always buzzing. There should be one in every town.
The regional winners and overall winner have been announced today (30th July 2015). Now in its ninth year, the award attracted 18,000 nominations after calling on diners to name their favourite local eatery in March 2015.
The regional winners are as follows:
North West, Lunya (Liverpool)
South East and Overall Winner, The Miller of Mansfield (Goring, Oxfordshire
London, Boqueria Tapas (Brixton, London)
North East, Lockwoods (Ripon, Yorkshire)
Northern Ireland, James Street South (Belfast)
Scotland, The Gardeners Cottage (Edinburgh)
Wales, The Gallery (Barry)
Midlands, The King and Thai (Broseley)
South West, Ben’s Cornish Kitchen (Marazion, Cornwall)
East England, The Leaping Hare (Stanton, Suffolk)
