Marcus Wareing at the Berkeley has been revealed as top London restaurant for the second year running in the latest edition of Harden's London Restaurants Guide with Gordon Ramsay Holdings' Italian restaurant Murano nominated best new London restaurant.
Wareing's first solo restaurant, opened on the former site of Gordon Ramsay's Petrus last year, heads a list of London favourites which included Chez Bruce, Le Gavroche and The Ledbury, and was also the winner of best dessert for its custard tart.
Wareing said: "Our customers are our biggest and most important critics so I am delighted for Marcus Wareing at The Berkeley and its team to have maintained the position held last year.”
Murano, overseen by Angela Hartnett, was given the best new restaurant accolade by the majority of the 8,000 diners surveyed for the guide, giving hope to GRH which generally scored badly among diners, according to the guide's co-editor Peter Harden.
“Angela Hartnett is to be congratulated, and Murano’s success shows the Ramsay group still ‘has what it takes'," he said.
"The year’s survey results, though, confirm there are some very deep-seated problems in the group, and we have to hope that Murano’s success marks a real ‘turning point’. All eyes will now turn to Pétrus – Ramsay’s forthcoming fine dining restaurant shortly to be reborn in Belgravia. An undoubted success there would really confirm that the green shoots of a true Ramsay recovery were starting to show through.”
Other restaurants to receive high listings in the guide, out today, include The Wolseley, which was voted best for breakfast/brunch and best for business; La Poule au Pot, tipped as best for romance and The Anchor & Hope, winner of the best bar/pub food award.
Restaurant Gordon Ramsay was voted most overpriced restaurant while diners said the cooking at The Oxo Tower was the most disappointing.