Good Food Guide winners in Manchester and Liverpool

The Sparrows serves up a variety of fresh, handmade continental pasta and Central and Eastern European dumplings in an unexpectedly airy space underneath a railway archway in Red Bank.

10 Tib Lane was one of the brave new openings of summer 2021; a time when securing staff and supplies, never mind diners, was an ongoing challenge for everyone. If you can launch a new restaurant in that environment, you must be doing something very right – so it’s no surprise that three years later, it’s still going strong.

There is quite some experience behind owners Julian Pizer and Max Yorke at Another Hand, including time spent at Cottonopolis, The Edinburgh Castle and Hispi. In this intimate restaurant on Deansgate Mews, they put it to excellent use on an ever-changing, seasonal menu that takes advantage of some of the best suppliers in the region.

Following punchy reviews in the local and national press, it has been hard to secure a table at Liverpool’s Belzan.

The philosophy behind Bombay to Mumbai is simple: they want you to feel like a friend. It’s there in the nothing-is-too-much-trouble service but mainly it’s there in the food. It’s Indian home-cooking. Not restaurant food, but the sort of food you’d find on the streets and on dinner tables all over Mumbai.

Covino Restaurant and Wine Bar is a small, owner-run establishment located in the heart of Chester.

The Edinburgh Castle is a fortification for fortifying yourself, full of hearty British fare. This defence against hunger has two parts. No, not motte and bailey, but an upstairs restaurant and a downstairs pub. Upstairs, downstairs and all the connotations that go along with that.

The downstairs is a traditional old pub with a welcoming drinking zone and a separate eating area. Traditional pub or not, this is much more than just some Scampi Fries. In fact, this is some of the very best pub food in the city.

You won’t find blackbirds baked in a pie at this Penrith bistro, but you will find a small menu of excellent local produce and some great wines. Four & Twenty is the best sort of neighbourhood restaurant. It’s friendly and intimate, the sort of place you gladly go back to time and time again, but with ambitious cooking that makes it a good choice for special occasions.

Higher Ground, the permanent restaurant from the team behind Flawd, opened its doors in February 2023. Taking up residence in Bruntwood’s Faulkner House on Faulkner Street, it offers a chilled bistro experience with a focus on championing the finest North West produce.

Lily’s Indian Vegetarian Cuisine is an unassuming restaurant in Ashton-under-Lyne that happens to serve some of the best South Indian food in the UK.

The Parker’s Arms is a homely pub, serving and baking extraordinary, modern European food.

Thought it’s only been open a short while (since March 2023 to be exact), The White Horse in Churton is no rookie when it comes to good quality country pub food. It’s from Gary Usher’s Elite Bistros, the team behind the award-winning, crowd-sourced Sticky Walnut, amongst others.

The Lake District is almost as well-known for its fancy Michelin-star establishments as it is for its fells. The Yan is not quite like that. It’s a down-to-earth, hearty bistro. That doesn’t mean it’s not worth a visit, though. In fact, Grace Dent is a fan of its big flavours and so are we.