Harden’s Top 100 UK Restaurants: The Five Fields named London's best in list that defies Michelin stars

Restaurant guide Harden’s has named Michelin-starred The Five Fields as London's best restaurant and the second best in the country – but overall the list shows a very different picture of London dining to the 2020 Michelin Guide.

The Chelsea restaurant was pipped to the post by Marc Wilkinson’s Fraiche in Oxton, which reopened after a brief closure last year. It was joined in the top 10 by fellow London restaurants The Ledbury, Kitchen Table at Bubbledogs and Core by Clare Smyth, which were ranked at seventh, eighth and ninth respectively. Harden's named The Five Fields as its "top gastronomic experience" in London at its awards earlier this year.

None of London’s three-starred restaurants made it into the Harden’s list of 100 top restaurants in the country. The only restaurant to almost bridge the gap is former three-star spot The Araki – the nine-seater sushi restaurant is placed 21st on the Harden’s list, but lost all of its stars in this year’s Michelin guide.

This means that Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay and newly crowned Sketch Lecture Room and Library were all omitted from the Harden’s list, along with two-starred restaurants Claude Bosi at Bibendum, Dinner by Heston and Hélène Darroze at The Connaught. The Five Fields holds just one star, as do 19 more of the 41 London restaurants on the Harden’s list.

The Roux family's Waterside Inn in Bray was the only three-starred restaurant on the list, ranked at 14. Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck was formerly ranked as the best restaurant in the world, but the Inn's Berkshire neighbour and fellow three-star spot also missed out on a place on the Harden's list.

Among the notable inclusions are Mana – the first restaurant in Manchester to be given a Michelin star in 40 years – which places third on the list, and Moor Hall in Aughton, which rockets 25 places up the list to fifth, after topping the National Restaurant Awards ranking earlier this year.

British Modern food came out on top by far, being represented by 52 restaurants on the list. Its closest contender was French food, served in 16 of the restaurants, while one in 10 restaurants on the Harden’s list specialised in Indian cuisine.