| ||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
Product Description
Review
"You can corrupt one man. You can't bribe an army." Raymond Postgate, founder of The Good Food Guide, 1951 "...it's meticulous" The Daily Telegraph"
Product Description
This title includes reviews of the best restaurants in the UK, from country pubs through to cheap eats and high-end city dining. Since 1951, "The Good Food Guide" has pushed the boundaries of British cuisine. Always ahead of the game when it comes to spotting up-and-coming chefs, trends and hidden gems, "The Good Food Guide" retains its unrivalled position as Britain's best-selling restaurant guide. We have travelled the length and breadth of the UK so that inside you will find over 1,200 reviews of the very best dining experiences. There is a huge range of restaurants, pubs and cafes and you are bound to find the perfect venue whether you are searching for a mind-blowing, once-in-a-lifetime meal, a pub for Sunday lunch with friends or a great value option for a weekday supper. The guide is also packed with foodie features including our recommendations for high-end dining on a budget, the best places for brunch and new foodie areas that we have discovered. You will also find interviews with top chefs including Jason Atherton, Marcus Wareing, Michel Roux Junior and Vineet Bhatia. Inside this year's guide you will find information on: over 1,200 restaurants; great value eateries and budget tips; high-end dining and places to treat yourself; foodie features including credit-crunching menus and trends to watch in these tough times; the latest recommendations from our readers; and, GBP 50 of money-off vouchers.
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
44 of 44 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
As usual this guide makes compulsive reading, if you're interested in good food. For the last two years there's been a greater use of colour printing and the whole appearance of the book is more attractive. It's inevitably weighted towards more populated areas with very few entries for far-flung places, where in truth one needs guidance even more. The Guide is limited by he fact that it is alerted to good places by recommendations from the general public to which it then sends inspectors. So, for example, an excellent eating place in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland will have a lesser chance of inclusion if a volunteer inspector is unavailable to travel and stay there (at their own expense) to do the inspection--most inspectors only get the meal reimbursed. In recent years the Guide's entries have been categorized by region rather than by an alphabetical list of towns/cities, which is fine if you know that, e.g., Salford would be under Greater Manchester--not so easy for parts of the UK that one isn't familiar with let alone for foreign visitors. There's an alphabetical list of restaurant names--it would be helpful to have a similarly ordered list for recommended restaurants by the name of the town or city. I think this Guide is the best of the bunch of Guides as the entries are not paid for by the establishments listed and there is a big input from the paying public.
NOTE added October 2011: Please note that the review above is for the 2009 Guide and contains minor criticisms of the indexing of the guide that were rectified in subsequent years. I don't know why Amazon has collected together all the reviews for the 2009, 2010 and 2011 GFGs and posted them under the 2012 Guide. My review for the 2010 GFG, which is somewhere below, is more applicable to the latest edition than the one above.
NOTE added October 2011: Please note that the review above is for the 2009 Guide and contains minor criticisms of the indexing of the guide that were rectified in subsequent years. I don't know why Amazon has collected together all the reviews for the 2009, 2010 and 2011 GFGs and posted them under the 2012 Guide. My review for the 2010 GFG, which is somewhere below, is more applicable to the latest edition than the one above.
30 of 30 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I always look forward to the publication of the Good Food Guide each year even though I eat out less than I used to, I'm still interested to find out if old favourites are still included. As always, the Guide is enjoyable to read and the descriptions of each restaurant give you a good idea of what to expect in terms of price, kind of food and the general ambiance of the place. One may disagree over the precise rating of a restaurant, but if you're looking to eat well in an unfamiliar area you won't go far wrong if you've consulted the GFG. Though many of the same restaurants remain in the Guide over the years you can't always rely on an old GFG as they may have changed hands and the standards plummet.
The layout of the Guide hasn't changed since the recent re-vamp that led to more colour printing and improved layout of entries. A small change is a map of the London Underground at the front of the London section, but you need very good eye-sight to make out the stations. The Guide still categorizes entries in terms of counties which makes it difficult to find a particular town if you're not sure which county it's in. Though an improvement on last year's Guide is that they now have an index at the back of the book which lists towns alphabetically and the eating places in each with a page number. I missed seeing this helpful index at first.
One thing I've noticed over the years is that the publication date has crept earlier and earlier in the year. I can recall in the past it being well into October, but now it's the first week of September. A disadvantage of this earlier publication date is that the dead-line for reports contributing to the Guide is something like May instead of June. So reports submitted during the summer holiday season cannot contribute to the Guide for the following year. This will have a particular impact on restaurants in holiday areas such as the South West of England, Wales and Scotland. A problem if the place has changed hands and the old-of-date entry doesn't reflect the present standards.
Inevitably the big cities and centres of population have far more good places to eat than remoter areas, which is not surprising, and it's noticeable that entries for the Highlands and Islands and West of Scotland are very thin on the ground and change little from year to year. I suspect that there are good places that are not in the Guide because it's too difficult and expensive to inspect them, for example, if they are located in the Scottish Islands.
Despite the quibbles the Guide remains one of the best with entries that are based on spontaneous reports from diners and independent inspectors and, importantly, entries are not paid for by the restaurants, as is the case with some other guides.
The layout of the Guide hasn't changed since the recent re-vamp that led to more colour printing and improved layout of entries. A small change is a map of the London Underground at the front of the London section, but you need very good eye-sight to make out the stations. The Guide still categorizes entries in terms of counties which makes it difficult to find a particular town if you're not sure which county it's in. Though an improvement on last year's Guide is that they now have an index at the back of the book which lists towns alphabetically and the eating places in each with a page number. I missed seeing this helpful index at first.
One thing I've noticed over the years is that the publication date has crept earlier and earlier in the year. I can recall in the past it being well into October, but now it's the first week of September. A disadvantage of this earlier publication date is that the dead-line for reports contributing to the Guide is something like May instead of June. So reports submitted during the summer holiday season cannot contribute to the Guide for the following year. This will have a particular impact on restaurants in holiday areas such as the South West of England, Wales and Scotland. A problem if the place has changed hands and the old-of-date entry doesn't reflect the present standards.
Inevitably the big cities and centres of population have far more good places to eat than remoter areas, which is not surprising, and it's noticeable that entries for the Highlands and Islands and West of Scotland are very thin on the ground and change little from year to year. I suspect that there are good places that are not in the Guide because it's too difficult and expensive to inspect them, for example, if they are located in the Scottish Islands.
Despite the quibbles the Guide remains one of the best with entries that are based on spontaneous reports from diners and independent inspectors and, importantly, entries are not paid for by the restaurants, as is the case with some other guides.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
I generally buy the guide every year, so reviewing this for Amazon was an added bonus! And to see the guide enjoy it's 60th anniversary in this 2011 edition is a very good thing.
The guide is as comprehensive and well written as usual. The sort of book that you can happily chuck into the bag when travelling around the country and know that you will never be too far away from somewhere decent to eat. I always appreciate the fact that the Good Food Guide never take free meals, sending reviewers in unannounced and thus getting an accurate view of what joe public is likely to experience. And I have more respect for a guide like this that is re-written every year to make sure it is as relevant and useful as possible.
One thing I particularly like is the fact that the guide isn't overly London-centric. Yes, I live down here and there are a wealth of 'good' restaurants to pick from in a concentrated area that you just don't get elsewhere in the UK and I benefit from the guide for that. However the guide is put together in such a way that all of the UK does not feel short changed at all and good coverage is provided on just about every part of these islands.
The writing style is very approachable, not snobbish just well informed about food and providing a good impression of what you can expect in relatively short space. In that respect I always appreciate the fact that despite covering a huge number of restaurants and thus having limited space the reviews never feel cramped or rushed.
All in all this is my favourite guide to the restaurants in this country. I highly recommend it for anyone who likes to travel and dine throughout Britain.
The guide is as comprehensive and well written as usual. The sort of book that you can happily chuck into the bag when travelling around the country and know that you will never be too far away from somewhere decent to eat. I always appreciate the fact that the Good Food Guide never take free meals, sending reviewers in unannounced and thus getting an accurate view of what joe public is likely to experience. And I have more respect for a guide like this that is re-written every year to make sure it is as relevant and useful as possible.
One thing I particularly like is the fact that the guide isn't overly London-centric. Yes, I live down here and there are a wealth of 'good' restaurants to pick from in a concentrated area that you just don't get elsewhere in the UK and I benefit from the guide for that. However the guide is put together in such a way that all of the UK does not feel short changed at all and good coverage is provided on just about every part of these islands.
The writing style is very approachable, not snobbish just well informed about food and providing a good impression of what you can expect in relatively short space. In that respect I always appreciate the fact that despite covering a huge number of restaurants and thus having limited space the reviews never feel cramped or rushed.
All in all this is my favourite guide to the restaurants in this country. I highly recommend it for anyone who likes to travel and dine throughout Britain.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Happy as larry
Ive never owned a single edition of the good food guide before and I'm pleased to say I can understand entirely why it's the most successful of it's kind. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Babbit
Good Grub
The well established and reputable guide has been going 60 years now. Since the beginning reader feedback and recommendations have been invaluable, inspections anonymous and the... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Essex Girl
Best UK restaurant guide
Buy this guide every year as I find it the best restaurant guide available on the UK market, with well written and reliable reviews. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Ballroom39
Food Guide
This book was purchased as a present for someone who is a Chef. He was delighted with the book. I have rated this item by the reaction of the recipient who spent quite of lot of... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Joywin
Received wisdom
I have used the Good Food Guide intermittently over the years and have found it to be a reliable guide as long as your food tastes match the fashions of the day. Read more
Published 17 months ago by cpw
Disappointingly London-centric
Well presented guide to the country's quality restaurants. This book is fantastically useful - IF you're a Londoner. Outside of London it is really rather poor. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Kevin Roche
Fantastic Guide... a true representation of UK dining!
The 2011 Guide is a great edition to celebrate the 60th anniversary. It is my first year using the guide and have become an avid supporter. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Foodie27
Indispensible Guide; perfect Christmas gift
Nicely written volume covering the best eating establishments in the realm. Makes for interesting reading, even when you are reading it knowing you're never going to be going to... Read more
Published 18 months ago by Beansmummy
Well written as always
You either use this type of book or you don't. I found it well written, with enough detail.
I use it for ideas and follow up with internet searches for additional details and... Read more
I use it for ideas and follow up with internet searches for additional details and... Read more
Published 19 months ago by PE
Excellent guide for the keen Foodie
The public plaudits for earlier incarnations of this guide speak for themselves but I would suggest that those living in or around London would find it of the most use given that... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Cheshire Cat
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192198663_.gif){kind=small}
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
