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Brett Graham's two-Michelin-starred restaurant the Ledbury in London has won yet another award after being named the top restaurant in the UK in the Sunday Times Food List.

The award comes after the Ledbury recently topped both the Zagat and Harden's surveys for best food in London and after Graham earlier this year won the prestigious Chef of the Year Catey.

The Sunday Times Food List is based on food quality alone, chosen by 8,000 restaurant goers from across the UK and compiled by Harden's Restaurant Guide in conjunction with Rémy Martin.

Graham commented: "It's a huge honour to top the list, especially as it comes from such a broad base of customers. This is a testament to everyone in the extremely talented and energetic young team here at the Ledbury."

Raymond Blanc's Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons in Great Milton, Oxfordshire, came second in the Food List while last year's winner, Gidleigh Park, placed third. 

Gidleigh Park also won the Rémy Martin X.O. Excellence Award for Best All Round Restaurant, while Marcus Wareing at the Berkeley picked up the Coeur de Cognac Award for Best Dessert, and Heston Blumenthal's Dinner at the Mandarin Oriental received the Rémy Martin V.S.O.P Best Newcomer Award.

Other findings from the Sunday Times Food List, which will publish the top 100 restaurants in Britain in full on Sunday (30 October), include that half of the top 100 restaurants are outside London (up from 40% last year); while Asian restaurants have fallen by half; and there are 31 new entries.

Brett Graham's cooking at the Ledbury has been rated as the best in London by the 2012 Harden's restaurant guide, winning the award just weeks after it came under attack from the London rioters.

The two-Michelin-starred restaurant in Notting Hill beat Marcus Wareing at the Berkeley Hotel, who had previously held it for four consecutive years.

However, Marcus Wareing retained its title for offering the capital's best gastronomic experience.

The new edition of Harden's London Restaurants, which is published today, is based on a survey of more than 8,000 regular restaurant goers. It named Bruce Poole's Chez Bruce Londoners' favourite restaurant for the seventh consecutive year.

Both the Ledbury and Chez Bruce are owned by Nigel Platts-Martin.

Meanwhile Heston Blumenthal's Dinner topped the newcomer list after launching in January.
 
After a 16-year run, Pimlico's Poule au Pot has been ousted as London's most romantic restaurant, with Prince Harry and Chelsy's favoured dinner-date venue, Clos Maggiore in Covent Garden taking the top spot.
 
The Wolseley has retained its poll position for both best for business and best for breakfast, while the Anchor & Hope has again been voted as the best pub.

Held in association with Rémy Martin Fine Champagne Cognac, Harden's voted
Gordon Ramsay at Claridge's as the restaurant with the most disappointing cooking, with the Oxo Tower named as the most overpriced restaurant.

See the full results on Caterersearch.com.

Good news for Heston Blumenthal and Gordon Ramsay: according to the latest edition of the Good Food Guide the celebrity chefs are still at the top of their game when it comes to restaurants.

The restaurant bible has named Heston Blumenthal's three-Michelin-starred Fat Duck in Bray, Berkshire, the best restaurant in Britain awarding it a perfect score of ten out of ten for the second year in a row.

Gordon Ramsay's flagship three-Michelin-starred restaurant on London's Royal Hospital Road in Chelsea scored nine out of ten making it the second most popular UK restaurant in the Good Food Guide 2010.

The awards will no doubt have some critics up in arms.

The Good Food Guide 2010 is published on 8 September priced £16.99.

Ramsay admitted what has been known in the industry for some time - that Gordon Ramsay Holdings was on the verge of administration just after Christmas after breaching covenants on its £10m loan with Royal Bank of Scotland.

The interview, which was of course peppered with swear words and attacks on rival chefs, followed a series of denials from Ramsay's people that the business was in trouble.

"Completely inaccurate," we were told repeatedly.

It is a welcome change - every business goes through troublesome times and half the battle is admitting it.

The Hardens appear to take a little credit for the confession, albeit tongue-in-cheek.

UPDATE:

Phil Hall has just got in touch saying that as much as he'd like to, he can't take credit for Gordon's interview with the Sunday Times. "The interview was set up by his PR agency before I was appointed," he said. Fair play to the PR agency, maybe they're learning that complete denials aren't a long-term strategy after all.

Gordon Ramsay was in the headlines again today and unsurprisingly it was bad news again for the chef.

For last night saw the announcement of the San Pellegrino 50 Best Restaurants Awards and Gordon Ramsay's three-Michelin-starred flagship restaurant on London's Royal Hospital Road wasn't on the list. In fact, despite being in 13th place last year, it didn't even make it into the Top 100.

The consensus among the 800-strong judging panel of food writers, restaurant critics and chefs was apparently that Ramsay is "spreading himself too thin" to be included.

The national media has unsurprisingly jumped at Ramsay's exclusion (especially given that erstwhile protégé and former best mate Marcus Wareing made a dramatic entry at 52 winning the Breakthrough Award) and I can't help but wonder whether he hasn't been used to grab the necessary column inches to promote the awards. 

The launch of the 2009 Michelin guide has been the topic of many a foodie blog this week. Here's a round up of what's been said.

Come Dine With Me highlights the launch of the 2009 guide for Great Britain and Ireland, while Cheap Eats points out Ireland's new Bib Gourmands and gen.u.in.ness lets its readers know that Alain Ducasse has been listed as a rising three-star restaurant. Eat Out gets excited about Casamia, Bristol's only Michelin-starred restaurant.

The Guardian's food editor, Matthew Fort, was one of the first to notice the results had leaked and he was quick to give his opinion on the winners and losers, while The Observer's Jay Rayner ponders whether Michelin has a bias towards French chefs and French cuisine.

The Independent's Rob Sharp finds that after Scotland is awarded four new Michelin stars, there's more to Scottish food than innards, stodge and deep-fried Mars bars.

The Metro's Marina O'Loughlin describes the award of two stars to Ducasse as "ludicrous" in her latest review. while the Hardens brothers are outraged not just at the results but also the fact that some of the food critics seem to value Michelin's judgement more than theirs.