216. Purnell’s Ranked No. 2 Best Restaurant In The Country By Harnden’s

 

  The dining guide, Harnden’s, has just released its top 100 British restaurants listing and in the number 2 position, just behind the East Midlands restaurant Restaurant Sat Bains, is our very own and much loved and respected Purnell’s, quite rightly rising from last year’s number 52 position (see Blog 213).The Nottingham restaurant has been hovering in the top five and has pleasingly pushed aside several London restaurants to take the title and Glynn Purnell’s restaurant’s superb success now also highlights the excellence of Midlands cuisine in the face of the the favouritism shown to London and Home Counties restaurants by such institutions as the BBC and Michelin which has resulted in the capital’s dining establishments often receiving more attention and praise than they deserve.

  Ratings in the Guide are based on an annual survey of 30000 reviews by 3000 regular diners. In all, nine Birmingham restaurants are featured in the top 500 list, well ahead of Manchester, much loved by BBC luvvies, and a little way behind Edinburgh with its host of tourists and Brighton with its well-heeled population of socialists who have nothing better to do than lounge around in restaurants. Hence Birmingham is now the premier British dining ‘real’ city where people go out to work for a living. Let us hope that Michelin recognises this advancing West Midlands gastronomy scene when it announces its 2022 awards in the coming days. Our chefs deserve their reward.

  The other Birmingham and West Midlands restaurants to feature in the top 100 are Adam’s (no. 29 the same place as last year) (see Blog 165), Lumière in Cheltenham (46, last year at 20), Le Champignon Sauvage, Cheltenham (55, was 147) (Blog 160) and Opheem (100, was 43) (Blog 152).

  One little point to note that may make up for Purnell’s being placed just behind Restaurant Sat Bains is the memory of Glynn Purnell beating Sat Bains in the 2008 Central heats of the third series of Great British Menu and then going on to win the national finals so that he served his stuff of dreams Egg surprise dessert at the 2008 Banquet. And by that occurence the world discovered the Egg Surprise, Glynn Purnell became more widely known and I myself paid my first visit to Purnell’s. The rest, as they say, is history.