About The Good Food Guide
The Good Food Guide was founded by Raymond Postgate in 1951 and today it remains the longest-standing and best selling guide to dining out in Great Britain.
To cover the best establishments across the country, we look to our discerning reader’s tip-offs and suggestions (you can submit your feedback here). Whether there’s a promising new chef in town or a remote country pub that’s upped its game, we’ll send one of our 30 inspectors to give their expert assessment on the food, hospitality and whether it’s worth making a trip for.
All inspections are paid for by the Guide and are conducted anonymously to ensure no preferential treatment is received. No establishment can pay for inclusion to the Guide and we do not accept free meals, so you can be confident our recommendations are offered with the utmost impartiality. For consistency we allow a new restaurant, cafe or pub to settle in for a period of three to six months before we send an inspector to review.
To keep pace with the dynamic nature of today’s hospitality industry, we have brought the Guide into a new digital era. By becoming a member of The Good Food Guide Club, you have access to The Good Food Guide app, which means hundreds of trusted reviews are at your fingertips and always up to date.
The Guide is constantly evolving to offer Good Food Guide Club members the most reliable assessment of the British dining scene. Club members also have access to restaurant news, features and useful location guides full of on-the-ground knowledge.
The inspectors
While it’s an enviable task, the role of an inspector requires a wealth of knowledge and professional experience. The current team includes ex-restaurateurs and chefs as well as experienced editors, food writers and critics.
At the moment, we aren't actively recruiting for new inspectors. However, we always welcome your feedback on establishments you have recently visited. It is not unusual for prolific reviewers to be quoted in entries to the Guide.
The team
Elizabeth Carter, editor
Elizabeth has been at the helm of the Guide since her appointment as editor in November 2007. She has been an active restaurant inspector and contributor to the Guide since the 1990s, and has extensive experience in restaurant-related publishing and media. Previous roles have included editor of Les Routiers UK and Ireland Guide (2002-2004) and editor of the AA Restaurant Guide (1997-2000).
Elizabeth has considerable media experience including television and radio appearances, and is available for interview or expert comment on restaurant and food-related issues. Contact us for further information.
Adam Hyman, publisher
Adam acquired The Good Food Guide in October 2021 and is the publisher. After a brief stint working in commercial property, he followed his true passion and started working with hospitality, founding CODE Hospitality in 2013. CODE champions the hospitality industry through its media platform that provides offers, perks and a network for hospitality professionals.
Adam is a regular commentator on the UK hospitality industry.
Chloe Hamilton, content editor
Chloe works closely with editor Elizabeth Carter on producing and editing The Good Food Guide. She brings more than five years’ experience working with the hospitality industry to her role and specialises in communications, copywriting, and brand strategy. She also runs flagship awards for sister publication CODE Hospitality, including 30 Under 30 and 100 Most Influential Women in Hospitality.
Josh Barrie, editor, Knife & Fork Media
Josh oversees editorial output across the company’s two brands, The Good Food Guide and CODE Hospitality. He works with a growing in-house team and more 30 restaurant inspectors to produce local guides, features, news, and weekly newsletters. He is also a contributor to the Guide. Josh previously covered food and drink at the i newspaper, and has written on the subject for the likes of Spectator Life, The Telegraph, and Prospect magazine. He has a recipe column in The New European.
History of the 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.
One change for the better over the years is the industry’s efforts to move on from bullying kitchen cultures that reigned in many fine-dining establishments. We take a strong view on kitchen abuse and in order to encourage positive working environments we will temporarily remove any restaurant that is shown to neglect the welfare and mental health of its staff until we are satisfied that the necessary steps have been taken to change.
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