The Good Food Guide 2022: Birmingham named ‘most exciting food destination’ - from Wilderness, Carters & more

Birmingham has been named Britain’s ‘most exciting food destination’ in the Good Food Guide 2022 - and many Brummies will wholeheartedly agree.

The guide has also named two Birmingham restaurants and one of Solihull in its top 20 list, which includes five London venues.

Birmingham’s Michelin starred Carters of Moseley and The Wilderness in the Jewellery Quarter made the best restaurants listing along with Grace & Savour at Hampton Manor in Hampton-in-Arden, Solihull.

Being named the ‘most exciting food destination’ was an additional award made at the ceremony. The judges also praised Aktar Islam’s Michelin starred Opheem on Summer Row in the city centre and Harbone Kitchen.

Here’s the full Good Food Guide 2022 Top 20 listing

1. L’Enclume, Cumbria

2. Ynyshir, Ceredigion

3. Moor Hall, Lancashire

4. The Raby Hunt, Co Durham

5. The Sportsman, Kent

6. Outlaw’s New Road, Cornwall

7. Osip, Somerset

8. Pollen Street Social, London

9. Inver, Argyll & Bute

10. Wilderness, Birmingham

11. Restaurant Story, London

12. SY23, Ceredigion

13. Pine, Northumberland

14. Annwn, Pembrokeshire

15. Condita, Edinburgh

16. Grace & Savour, West Midlands

17. Da Terra, London

18. Carters of Moseley, Birmingham

19. Kol, London

20. Endo at The Rotunda, London

What did the Good Food Guide judges say about Birmingham’s dining scene in their own words?

“No other English provincial city is as well served with such a range of unique and frequently exceptional restaurants right across the price range.

“At the top of the scale, three exceptional places from the Birmingham area feature in our 20 most exciting restaurants in Britain – an extraordinary feat.

“But getting the balance just right extends to others including Opheem, with its unmistakably curry-based but uniquely modern-British approach, and Harborne Kitchen, where Jamie Desogus pulls off a real coup, making the restaurant a bit of a holy grail in terms of packing mass-appeal into posh nosh.

“Nowhere but in Britain – and perhaps even more specifically in Birmingham - could this cooking occur.”

About The Good Food Guide

The Good Food Guide was first compiled by Raymond Postgate in 1951. Appalled by the British post-war dining experience, Postgate recruited an army of volunteers to inspect restaurants anonymously and report back.

His aims were simple; among them, ‘to raise the standard of cooking in Britain’ and ‘to do ourselves all a bit of good by making our holidays, travels and evenings-out in due course more enjoyable’.

Although much has changed since the very first edition of The Good Food Guide, the ethos of the original book remains.

The Guide is about empowering diners, helping readers to find the very best places to eat and encouraging restaurants to offer the best possible food, service and experience.

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