Higher Ground has been shortlisted in the Best New Restaurant category at the 2024 Good Food Guide awards.
The hit city centre spot, just on the edge of Chinatown, will go head-to-head with some of the best new restaurants in the UK, including Noble Rot in Mayfair, Lark in Suffolk and Tommy Banks’ The Abbey Inn in North Yorkshire.
The coveted awards will be handed out on 30 January in a ceremony at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London.
The restaurant was opened in February last year by chef Joe Otway, Richard Cossins and Daniel Craig Martin, who are also behind Flawd on New Islington Marina in Ancoats.
Joe, who is in the middle of hosting a Higher Ground residency at Meuse Farm in Cape Town, told Manchester’s Finest: “The Good Food Guide is a historical institution and it’s really cool to be recognised by them in our first year of being open. We’re looking forward to seeing what exciting things our second year has in store.”
Meanwhile, fighting it out for Restaurant of the Year will be Simon Rogan’s L’Enclume, Raymond Blanc’s Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, Pine in Northumberland, The Sportsman in Whitstable and the celebrated Ynyshir in Wales.
Elizabeth Carter, the guide’s editor of 17 years, said: “New ownership, a modernised Good Food Guide. It’s a new era and, along with a revamped rating system, our awards have been overhauled to reflect the fast-paced changes in Britain’s current gastronomic landscape.
“The Good Food Guide Awards 2024 are all about the sheer pleasure of good food in all its diversity. Our shortlisted restaurants are setting the standard by which all others should be measured.”
The guide has been running for 73 years, and finds its team of inspectors travelling the UK to review and assess restaurants anonymously.
Here’s the full list of nominees:
Best New Restaurant
Dorian, London
Higher Ground, Manchester
Lark, Suffolk
Mountain, London
Mýse, North Yorkshire
Noble Rot Mayfair, London
The Abbey Inn, North Yorkshire
Best Front Row Seat
Aulis London, London
Barrafina Dean Street, London
Behind, London
Harrods Dining Hall, London
The Sea, The Sea Chef’s Table, London
Best Farm to Table Restaurant
Coombeshead Farm, Cornwall
Crocadon, Cornwall
Osip, Somerset
Our Farm, Cumbria
The Goods Shed, Kent
The Small Holding, Kent
Drinks List of the Year
Allium at Askham Hall, Cumbria
Furna, Brighton
Noble Rot, London
The Kitchin, Edinburgh
Chef to Watch
James Carn – Lark, Suffolk
Max Coen – Dorian, London
Kasia Piątkowska – Tropea, Birmingham
Rob Sachdev – Upstairs at Landrace, Bath
Wesley Smalley – Seasonality, Maidenhead
Jamie Smart – Cadet, London
Restaurant of the Year
L’Enclume, Cumbria
Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, Oxfordshire
Pine, Northumberland
The Sportsman, Kent
Ynyshir, Wales
