Arbutus Restaurant: Another excellence award

Which restaurant in the UK is the best this year? According to diner reviews, it’s Arbutus, which is the winner of the 2007 Remy Martin Excellence Award. Arbutus is located in the Soho district, making it the first time in after three years that a London restaurant has won the award.

Owned by Will Smith (no, not the Hollywood actor) and Anthony Demetre, Arbutus has won other awards in the past for its service and European cuisine, including the Evening Standard Fay Maschier’s 2006 Award for Restaurant of the Year and the BMW Square Meal Award for Best New Restaurant Autumn 2006. Arbutus can seat 60 customers in its dining room and about 12 people at the bar (I wonder how cozy their bar room furniture is?). The restaurant’s décor, unsurprisingly, highlights the arbutus or strawberry tree in its design. The use of natural materials and colours make for a refreshing, lighthearted ambiance.

Thousands of restaurant patrons submitted their reviews to the Harden’s UK Restaurant Guide 2007, from which the award recipients were culled. Here is the list of 2007 Remy Martin Award winners:

London:

• Arbutus, Soho

• Galvin at Windows, Mayfair

• Wright Brothers, Borough Market

• Yakitoria, Paddington

• Upstairs, Brixton

North West: The Dining Room, Rawtenstall, Lancs

North East: Jesmond Dene House, Newcastle

Central: Cotto, Cambridge

South West: The Sticky Prawn, Falmouth, Cornwall

South East: Pebble Beach, Barton-on-Sea, Hampshire

Wales: Lawton’s at No. 16, St. David’s, Pembrokeshire

Scotland: Urban Grill, Glasgow

Also highlighted were the ten top cities to dine outside London, based on restaurants reviewed in the Harden’s 2007 UK Restaurant Guide:

1. Edinburgh
2. Brighton
3. Leeds
4. Manchester
5. Nottingham
6. Liverpool
7. Birmingham
8. Newcastle
9. Glasgow
10. Bristol

With all the hype and publicity the awards bring, it shouldn’t be any surprise if Arbutus as well as the other restaurants honored in the 2007 Remy Martin Awards become even busier.