The Good Food Guide has named the Fat Duck in Bray, Berkshire, as the UK’s best restaurant in its inaugural gastronomic top 40.

Heston Blumenthal’s three-Michelin-starred restaurant beat Gordon Ramsay’s eponymous Chelsea eaterie and Raymond Blanc’s Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons to second and third places respectively.

For Ramsay it is the third time his flagship restaurant has come second best recently, after London guides Harden’s and Zagat recently named Chez Bruce as the capital’s top restaurant.

Good Food Guide editor Elizabeth Carter said: “Ramsay and Raymond Blanc's restaurants are unmissable experiences, but the Fat Duck has produced truly stunning food this year. Congratulations to Heston Blumenthal for daring to push at the boundaries of modern cooking.”

Top 40 rankings, with marks for food in brackets:

1. Fat Duck, Bray (9)
2. Gordon Ramsay, Royal Hospital Road, London (9) 
3. Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, Great Milton (9) 
4. Winteringham Fields, Winteringham (8)
5. Le Champignon Sauvage, Cheltenham(8) 
6. Le Gavroche, London (8) 
7. Pétrus, London (8)
8 Waterside Inn, Bray (8)
9. Vineyard, Stockross (8)
10. Square, London (8)
11. Pied à Terre, London (8) 
12. Restaurant Nathan Outlaw, Cornwall (8)
13. L’Enclume, Cumbria (8)
14. Tom Aikens, London (8) 
15. Restaurant Martin Wishart, Edinburgh (8)
16. The Capital, London (7)
17. Restaurant Sat Bains, Nottingham (7)
18. Gidleigh Park (7), Devon
19. Anthony’s, Leeds (7)
20. Juniper, Leeds (7)
21. Andrew Fairlie at Gleneagles, Perthshire (7)
22. Hambleton Hall, Rutland (7)
23. Holbeck Ghyll, Cumbria (7)
24. Fischer’s Baslow Hall, Derbyshire (7)
25. Tyddyn Llan, Wales (7)
26. Harry’s Place, Lincolnshire (7)
27. The Creel, Highlands (7) 
28. Mr Underhill’s, Shropshire (7)
29. Bohemia, St Helier, Jersey (7) 
30. Castle Hotel, Taunton (7) 
31. Chester Grosvenor, Cheshire (7)
32. Old Vicarage, Ridgeway, Derdyshire (7)
33. Midsummer House, Cambridge (6)
34. Maze, London (6)
35. Club Gascon, London (6)
36. Simpsons, West Midlands (6)
37. Bath Priory, Somerset (6)
38. Kitchin, Edinburgh (6)
39. The Greenhouse (6), London
40. Ledbury, London (6).

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By Kerstin Kühn

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