The Good Food Guide’s Best Local Restaurants 2024

Once a stall at Levy Market, then a pop-up pizzeria above Fred’s Ale House, Cibus took baby steps to get to where it is today – a fully-fledged and much-praised Italian restaurant and bar on Levenshulme high street.

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.

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.

Self-taught chef Renuka Morris opened Indian restaurant A se Anar after working as a teacher in higher education for 23 years.

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.

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.

The Pearl in Prestwich styles itself as a ‘British dining room’, but there’s plenty of French influence here too.

The Rum Fox is a new dining destination with all the charm of an old one, housed in the former village pub. The tap room keeps the feel of the local alive with a good range of ales and the clean decor is that of a posh inn but the food is more ambitious than any pub grub.

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.

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.