17 Oct 2022
On Monday 17th October, Britain’s leading chefs and restaurateurs gathered at The Groucho Club in London for the announcement of The Good Food Guide: Top 20 Most Exciting Restaurants of 2022. In a major departure from the previous scoring of 1-10, entries to The Good Food Guide were rated ‘Good’, ‘Very Good’, ‘Exceptional’, and ‘World Class’.
Just three restaurants in the country were honoured with a ‘World Class’ rating, including Moor Hall Restaurant with Rooms in Lancashire.
‘World Class’ rating – The Good Food Guide says:
Once derided for its lack of food culture, Great Britain today boasts one of the most eclectic dining scenes in the world. At the very top a few extraordinary chefs are having a seismic impact on British dining. These astonishing restaurants are redefining the profession, pushing the boundaries of what eating in a restaurant is all about. It’s the stuff of bucket lists, the vision and talent drawing not just national but international recognition – especially from chefs world-wide. In any given year, there will only be two or three chefs and restaurants operating at this level. The best of the best.
Elizabeth Carter and Chloe Hamilton, Editors of The Good Food Guide, explain what makes Moor Hall so special:
There is no ignoring the fact that Moor Hall is a really extraordinary restaurant. Mark Birchall has always shown an incredibly controlled and precise approach to cooking. He never overreaches – his fantastic repertoire of signature dishes is refined over the year – and the thrills here come from the spectacular level of thought and detail at every step. As a concept it is perfect, an undoubtedly world-class restaurant.
Chef Patron of Moor Hall Restaurant with Rooms, Mark Birchall, said of the announcement:
I’m delighted to hear that Moor Hall has been ranked as World Class by the Good Food Guide. Hearing the news was a career highlight, I cannot tell you how happy it made me. What we offer at Moor Hall is a team effort, and I’m so lucky to be supported by a team, who in my opinion, are themselves, ‘world class’. We will continue to give our guests the best of the best!
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.
The Good Food Guide is back under new ownership in its 70th year, providing modern diners with a much needed, up to the minute, authoritative and genuinely independent guide on the best places to eat across Britain. Having been published as a printed guide since the early 1950s, their unrivalled content, produced by a team of hand selected experts, is now available as an app, with The Good Food Club having recently launched, offering local guides, member perks and unlimited access to their editorial content on a monthly subscription basis.
The Good Food Guide remains the longest-standing and bestselling guide on dining out in Great Britain, and now, in a landscape of social media, myriad TripAdvisor reviews and armchair critics, is more essential to the savvy diner than ever before. The Good Food Guide is independently published, and provides recommendations from anonymous inspections, where every meal is paid for in full, ensuring integrity and impartiality with each review.
About Moor Hall:
Moor Hall sits proudly within five-acres of picturesque scenery in West Lancashire, surrounded by stunning, historic landscapes stretching towards the market town of Ormskirk and beyond.
Aiming to bring together the very best surroundings with an unrivalled dining experience, Lancastrian Mark Birchall has developed a relationship with each gardener, grower and farmer, working at source to craft and select the very best seasonal ingredients, to present an intimate, dynamic and fresh approach to traditional British gastronomy.
Alongside Andy and Tracey Bell, Moor Hall Restaurant with Rooms opened in March 2017. Within six months, the Restaurant at Moor Hall was awarded its first Michelin star, with a second star following the year after. In June 2022, Moor Hall was named the ‘Best Restaurant in England’, after being crowned the UK’s Best Restaurant at The Estrella Damm National Restaurant Awards, in both 2019 and 2021, consecutively. It also achieved five AA rosettes in the AA Restaurant Guide 2020.
Just last month, Mark Birchall was voted ‘Chefs’ Chef of the Year’ at the 2022 AA Awards. Mark was born in Chorley, Lancashire and trained at Runshaw College. He won the Roux Scholarship in 2011. For a timeline of achievements please click here.