Gidleigh Park in Devon has been named Britain’s best restaurant according to The Sunday Times Food List, to be published this weekend (November 3). The list of the top 100 restaurants is compiled by The Sunday Times in association with Harden’s. It is now in its fourth year, and is based on 80,000 reviews from 9,000 consumers, 2,000 of which are Sunday Times readers.

This year’s Sunday Times Food List sees a return to the top spot for Gidleigh Park, the restaurant run by Michael Caines, which was number one in 2010. The restaurant, which serves modern British cuisine and dishes such as Dartmoor lamb with boulangere potato, fennel puree and tapenade jus, has taken the top spot from Andrew Fairlie in Gleneagles, Scotland, which is second in this year’s list.

In third place is The Yorke Arms in Ramsgill-in-Nidderdale, North Yorkshire. Its head chef is Frances Atkins, making her the highest ranked female chef since the list was first published in 2010. She is one of just a handful of female chefs to be included on the list – the next highest ranked is Angela Hartnett at Murano in London, in 46^th position – while The Yorke Arms is the only Yorkshire restaurant to feature in the list.

In fourth place is Restaurant Nathan Outlaw in Rock, Cornwall, making it the best for fish and seafood in the top 100. Restaurant Martin Wishart in fifth position is the second Scottish restaurant to feature in the top five. In sixth place is the list’s highest re-entry, Fraiche in Oxton, Cheshire, which last featured in the list in 2011.

Raymond Blanc’s Manoir Aux Quat’ Saisons is in seventh place, while London’s only representative in the top ten is eighth-placed The Ledbury in Notting Hill. L’Enclume in Cartmel, Cumbria and Restaurant Sat Bains in Nottingham complete the top 10.

London is home to 51 restaurants in the top 100, by far the most of any British city – Edinburgh has the next most, with four – but London can only claim four of the top 20. Joining the Ledbury are: Le Gavroche in 15^th place, One-o-One in 16^th, and Pied A Terre in 17^th. Birmingham is the next best represented English city, with three entries: Simpsons (28^th), Purnells (56^th) and Lasan (91^st), while a Manchester restaurant makes the top 100 for the first time, The French, which opened earlier this year, sits in 68^th place.

The list offers a snapshot of fine dining trends in the country – 26 of the restaurants on this year’s list serve French cuisine, down from 30 in 2012, while modern British cuisine now accounts for 39 of the eateries featured, compared to 34 last year. The next most popular cuisine is Japanese, with nine restaurants, the highest ranked of which is The Shiori in Queensway, London, in 30^th place, while there are seven specialising in fish and seafood.

Five restaurants serve Indian cuisine, led by 25^th placed Rasoi in Chelsea. Of the four Chinese eateries to feature, the highest ranked, in 24^th place, is new entry HKK, in the City. Just three Italian restaurants feature in the list, the best of which is Murano in London, ranked 46^th. There are two restaurants offering traditional British cuisine, and one each serving Scottish, Scandinavian, Modern European, Middle Eastern and Fusion.

There are 20 new entries to the list this year, including Story in Bermondsey, whose head chef Tom Sellers is 26 years-old, one of the youngest in the top 100. There are also 10 re-entries, including The Latymer, in Pennyhill, Surrey, in 26^th place, and Read’s in Faversham, Kent (41^st).

Prices on the list range from £237 per head at Heston Blumenthal’s Fat Duck in Bray, Berkshire, to £43 at Sushi-Say in Willesden Green, London. Despite the capital’s reputation for expense, the top five most expensive restaurants are all outside London. Sushi Tetsu in Clerkenwell ranked 31^st overall, can boast the best price to rank ratio in The Food List – a typical meal there costs £52 per head.

Editor of The Sunday Times Food List, Karen Robinson, said: "The Food List is essential reading for food lovers. It's a fantastic achievement for chefs to make it into our top 100, because our scores are based on the opinions of thousands of diners, mostly spending their own money. This makes the Food List an unbiased and definitive guide to the finest restaurants in the country."

The full top 100, including rankings and overall score will be revealed in The Sunday Times Food List on November 3. The Food List exemplifies The Sunday Times’ rich heritage and commitment to investing in its journalism to continue offering readers of its papers world-class, unique and unrivalled content. The list is also available online at thesundaytimes.co.uk/thefoodlist.

The Top 20 restaurants in The Sunday Times Food List

The prices quoted in The Food List are for the typical cost, per person, of a three-course dinner with half a bottle of house wine, coffee, service and VAT.

The Sunday Times Food List is the first in The Incredible Edibles Food Series dedicated to food and dining. The Food List will be followed on Sunday November 10 by The Sunday Times Cheap Eats, the guide to Britain’s top 130 restaurants for less than £50 per head.

The following week will see the release of the first part of The Sunday Times’ Ultimate Cookbook – a pull-out-and-keep, four-part guide to the finest recipes of the celebrity chef era, beginning with Sunday Lunch, and followed by Quick Meals on November 24, Brunch and Baking on December 1, and Dinner Party on December 8.