Restaurant above London pub named best in UK

Restaurant above London pub named best in UK - as capital dominates the top 20

A French bistro above a pub in Clerkenwell has been named the UK’s best restaurant at a top industry awards.

Bouchon Racine, which opened in 2022, pushed the grand two Michelin-starred The Ritz into second place at The National Restaurant Awards 2026.

The restaurant is led by Henry Harris and Dave Strauss. Harris previously oversaw Racine in Knightsbridge and the Coach, also in Clerkenwell.

Stefan Chomka, the editor of Restaurant, the industry outlet that runs the awards, praised the bistro as “utterly charming … serving some of the best traditional French food in the country”.

The restaurant, which has received rave reviews from the critics, is inspired by the bouchons of Lyon and the bistros of Paris, with the menu hand written in chalk each day.

In its praise of the restaurant, the awards said: “What is most charming about Bouchon Racine is the manner in which it has come about. Harris and business partner Dave Strauss opened the restaurant on a shoestring, without the employment of a PR machine to launch it and with much of the refurb done themselves.

“The downstairs pub Three Compasses remains just that, a boozer for the after-work crowd, while the upstairs restaurant feels like a secret dining room (albeit a terribly kept secret) that whisks you away from London to the back streets of France. You might never want to leave.”

The Ritz, in Mayfair, which won the coveted top spot last year, was joint second this year alongside Osip, in Bruton, Somerset.

An impressive 55 of the top 100 UK restaurants were in the capital. Sixteen of the top 20 were in London.