Restaurant
Restaurant is the essential source of news, analysis and information for people working in the United Kingdom's restaurant sector. Founded in 2001 and published by William Reed, the specialist business-to-business media group, it began life as a monthly trade magazine aimed at chefs, restaurant proprietors and catering professionals, and grew into one of the most influential titles in British hospitality. It is the publication that founded the World's 50 Best Restaurants list, runs the annual National Restaurant Awards, and chronicles the UK eating-out scene from fine dining and chefs to quick-service restaurants and street food.
Although the magazine ceased printed publication in 2020, the Restaurant brand never went away. It continued as a daily digital news operation, and in March 2023 the group's daily news website BigHospitality was rebranded as Restaurant, with its home at restaurantonline.co.uk, bringing the title into a fully digital future while keeping the name that chefs and restaurateurs across Britain had trusted for more than two decades.
Founding and early years
Restaurant was launched in 2001 by William Reed Business Media, the food and drink media business whose history stretches back to 1862. The magazine was aimed squarely at the professional kitchen and the businesses around it: chefs, restaurant owners and operators, buyers and senior managers, the decision makers of the UK restaurant trade. It covered the breadth of the industry, from fine dining rooms and celebrated chefs to the practical business of running restaurants day to day.
Published monthly, the magazine combined industry news with practical hints and advice for operators, interviews with top chefs and owners, and in-depth features exploring the key issues facing the trade. By December 2011 its audited circulation stood at 16,642 copies per issue. The Writers' & Artists' Yearbook 2017, published by Bloomsbury, lists the magazine among Britain's established trade titles, with its editor then recorded as Stefan Chomka and its base given as London.
Relaunch and editorial growth
The magazine relaunched in October 2008 with a renewed editorial push, and the years that followed became some of its most decorated. William Drew was among the editors steering the title through this period, with Paul Wootton in the editor's chair when the magazine collected one of its most notable honours: at the PPA Awards 2010, held at the Grosvenor House Hotel on London's Park Lane, Restaurant was named Monthly Business Magazine of the Year, alongside winners including Empire, Time Out and Men's Health.
Tim Brooke-Webb, the magazine's publisher at the time, described the award as a reflection of how far the title had come and of its commitment to addressing the key issues facing the industry. Paul Wootton credited a closely knit editorial team for the win. Stefan Chomka, who would go on to lead the title, had joined Restaurant in 2008 and by the 2023 rebrand had been its editor for almost a decade, with Joe Lutrario serving as deputy editor.
The World's 50 Best Restaurants
Restaurant's most far-reaching creation is the annual list of the world's fifty best restaurants. Launched by the magazine, the ranking was built on the votes of 837 "chefs, restaurateurs, critics and fun-loving gourmands", as The Independent reported in 2005. What began as a magazine feature grew into a global institution, the S.Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants awards, run by brand owner William Reed and now one of the most watched events in world gastronomy.
The 50 Best brand has continued to evolve under William Reed's ownership. In September 2026 the magazine reported that the global rankings and awards brand had rebranded from 50 Best to simply The 50, marking the latest chapter in the life of a list that began as an idea in a British trade magazine and became an international benchmark.
The National Restaurant Awards
Closer to home, Restaurant organises the National Restaurant Awards, the annual celebration of the best restaurants in the United Kingdom. The awards reveal a ranked list of the nation's top one hundred restaurants, as voted for by industry experts from across the country, and hand out a series of special awards to chefs, restaurateurs and outstanding teams.
The roll of honour tells the story of British dining over the past two decades. The Ledbury in Notting Hill was voted the UK's best restaurant for three consecutive years from 2010 to 2012 under head chef Brett Graham. In 2015, Barrafina's Adelaide Street site in London took the top spot, voted by 150 industry experts, while Stephen Harris's the Sportsman in Seasalter, Kent, was named Gastropub of the Year and rose to number two on the list; the following year the Sportsman went all the way to number one, celebrated by editor Stefan Chomka as proof that a "grotty boozer by the sea" could be best in class. The awards have also introduced categories such as the Sustainable Restaurant of the Year, created with the Sustainable Restaurant Association, whose inaugural winner was The Pig at Brockenhurst.
The R200 and industry events
Alongside the National Restaurant Awards, the Restaurant portfolio includes the R200 programme, a ranking and networking platform for the leading multi-site restaurant operators in the UK, and the World Steak Challenge, an international competition for beef producers and steak restaurants. These face-to-face events form a core part of the brand's offer, complementing its journalism with the gatherings where the industry's operators, chefs, suppliers and investors meet.
The brand also produces sector research, including the annual Restaurant Report, which ranks the top one hundred restaurant brands in the UK by number of sites, detailing ownership, expansion plans and movement over the year. The 2026 edition was produced in partnership with Square, while the Brands to Watch report spotlights twenty UK-based restaurant brands shaping the eating-out landscape.
Going digital
In May 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic forced restaurants across Britain to close, Restaurant magazine announced that it would temporarily go digital only, making its issues available digitally to support the industry through the crisis. The temporary measure became permanent: the magazine ceased printed publication in 2020 and continued publishing information online in the form of daily news, features, business profiles and interviews.
The digital operation had long been anchored by the group's daily news website, BigHospitality, which sat alongside the magazine as its online sister title. On 28 March 2023, William Reed announced that BigHospitality would be rebranded as Restaurant, uniting the website, the daily newsletter and the magazine's heritage under a single name. Editor Stefan Chomka said it was a joy to take the brand into an exciting digital future, promising lively and informative coverage of the UK restaurant world with an even greater focus on the entire sector.
Coverage and readership today
Today's Restaurant describes itself as the essential source of news, analysis and information for those working in the UK restaurant sector, delivering authoritative content across the trade, from quick-service restaurants, street food and multi-site casual dining brands to fine dining restaurants and chefs. Its platforms provide what it calls a trusted and critical voice for owner-operators, chefs, investors, buyers and senior managers.
The site's daily journalism covers openings and closures, expansion plans, chef appointments, financial results, consumer trends and policy issues affecting hospitality. Recent coverage has included Burger and Lobster's focus on international growth amid tough UK trading conditions, Jersey Mike's planned European debut in London, rising UK food-and-beverage hospitality spending tracked through the Barclays Consumer Spend report, and the NIQ RSM Hospitality Business Tracker. Its current reporting team includes writers such as Joe Lutrario and Samira Gover, alongside editor Stefan Chomka.
The William Reed group
Restaurant sits within William Reed, the specialist B2B media, business intelligence and events group dedicated to the food and drinks sector since 1862. The group's portfolio of category-leading brands reaches a global audience of almost five million monthly users, supported by sector-specific insights and research, digital media and customer solutions.
William Reed has offices in Gatwick and London, in Montpellier in France, in Chicago in the United States and in Singapore. Its British hospitality brands include Restaurant and sister title the Publican's Morning Advertiser, alongside a wider stable of food, drink and retail trade titles. The group's long history in the sector gives Restaurant a depth of industry relationships that underpins both its journalism and its events.
Status and legacy
More than twenty years after its founding, Restaurant remains the voice of the UK restaurant sector and the people who work in it. Its journey from monthly print magazine to digital-first brand mirrors the transformation of trade publishing as a whole, but it has carried its authority through every change: the World's 50 Best Restaurants list it launched now shapes global gastronomy, its National Restaurant Awards still crown Britain's best restaurant each year, and its daily journalism continues to be the trade's first port of call.
For chefs, restaurateurs and operators, the brand's significance has always been twofold: it reports on the industry and it brings the industry together, through awards, lists, events and now a daily digital news service. From its 2001 launch to the 2023 rebrand and beyond, Restaurant has kept faith with the people who feed Britain.
