{"id":445074,"date":"2025-09-23T06:01:17","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T06:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/445074\/"},"modified":"2025-09-23T06:01:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T06:01:17","slug":"the-manchester-restaurant-named-the-best-in-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/445074\/","title":{"rendered":"The Manchester restaurant named the best in England"},"content":{"rendered":"

The restaurant has only been open for a little over a year\"AA top Manchester restaurant has claimed the title of the Restaurant of the Year in England at a prestigious award ceremony<\/p>\n

A Manchester restaurant<\/a> which has been open for just a little over a year has won an acclaimed award hailing it the Restaurant of the Year across the entirety of England.<\/p>\n

On Monday evening (September 22), the prestigious AA Hospitality Awards 2025 were held at London\u2019s <\/a>JW Marriott Grosvenor House and hosted by Vernon Kay. Winners on the night included Michel Roux Jr and Alain Roux, named the recipient of the AA Outstanding Contribution award, and Gareth Ward of Ynyshir Restaurant and Rooms, near Snowdonia, winning the Chef\u2019s Chef of the Year prize.<\/p>\n

For the Restaurant of the Year category, winners were divided into four categories – England, London, Wales and Scotland. The London prize went to French bistro Jos\u00e9phine, whilst Gorse in Cardiff and the Little Chartroom in Edinburgh claimed Welsh and Scottish recognition.<\/p>\n

England\u2019s Restaurant of the Year was named as Skof<\/a>, which is situated in Manchester on Federation Street, near Victoria Station<\/a> and within the NOMA<\/a> district. Led by Tom Barnes, the restaurant<\/a> only opened its doors for the first time in May last year.<\/p>\n

Stay connected with our City Life newsletter here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"ChefChef patron Tom Barnes opened Skof in Manchester last May(Image: Cristian Barnett)<\/p>\n

Tucked inside an old textile building, the restaurant – which is the first solo venue for chef Tom – prides itself on its quality ingredients and simplicity with a focus on modern British cooking, but without any pretences or needs for a specific dress code.<\/p>\n

Offering both a set lunch menu as well as a show-stopping 12-course or 16-course tasting menu, priced from \u00a3130, which features the likes of glazed lobster, miso custard, steamed west coast cod and roasted Sladesdown duck. It was hailed as being ‘the Eiffel Tower of cuisine’<\/a> by one food critic just weeks after opening.<\/p>\n

As well as being named the Restaurant of the Year for England, Skof has also been awarded with a three-star Rosette, which is only given to ‘consistently excellent’ venues which ‘demand national recognition’ thanks to their use of high-quality ingredients and cooking standards.<\/p>\n

Following the recognition, Skof will be mentioned in the The AA Restaurant Guide 2026, which will be published soon and will feature all of this year’s restaurant winners for diners keen to tick off as many of the mentioned places as possible.<\/p>\n

\"ConfitConfit Sladesdown duck from Skof<\/p>\n

But those looking to visit Skof in the near-future will need to come up with a well-executed plan, as the restaurant is already fully booked out for more than two and a half months. The restaurant has not yet opened its bookings from December, but tables are reserved quickly due to big demand.<\/p>\n

In fact, the recent award win comes just seven months after Skof also received the huge honour of a Michelin Star<\/a> – putting it on the national culinary map thanks to the prestigious gastronomic award.<\/p>\n

Tom, formerly of Simon Rogan’s L’Enclume in Cartmel, Cumbria, told the Manchester Evening News in February<\/a> upon Skof being awarded its Michelin Star that he had initially feared that \u2018nobody would come\u2019 to the restaurant.<\/p>\n

“I was really worried at the beginning, would people want to come?,\u201d he explained. \u201cIt was a big risk to leave my old job to do this, but my team has done such a brilliant job. They’re such nice people and that’s what people always comment on, it’s fun, it’s friendly here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SkofSkof has won a number of awards since opening, including a Michelin Star<\/p>\n

Speaking about this year’s winners at the AA Hospitality Awards 2025, Simon Numphud, Managing Director at AA Media, said: “This celebration highlights the passion, creativity and resilience that define UK hospitality. The teams have turned challenges into opportunities, inspiring us with their innovation and dedication.<\/p>\n

“Congratulations to all winners, nominees and new Rosette holders \u2013 your achievements deserve recognition today and set a shining example for the future of our industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other winners at the AA Hospitality Awards 2025 include The Cavendish Hotel in Derbyshire being named England’s Hotel of the Year, Somerset’s The George Inn winning the Inn of the Year award, and Hoar Cross Hall in Staffordshire being recognised as the Spa Hotel of the Year. The full winner’s list can be found here.<\/p>\n

Skof is on 3 Federation Street, Manchester, M4 4BF.<\/p>\n

Join our Manc Life WhatsApp group HERE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The restaurant has only been open for a little over a yearA top Manchester restaurant has claimed the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,4884,2465,8086,8886,86322,280,16,15,46785],"class_list":{"0":"post-445074","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-manchester","12":"tag-manchester-city-centre","13":"tag-manchester-restaurants","14":"tag-noma","15":"tag-restaurants","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-victoria-station"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115252094903258961","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}