A weird thing happened this year. My blog stats – something I rarely check anymore – remained almost identical to last year, with one solid exception; for the first time ever the most popular way to get here was not through social media but through direct searches. A quite significant percentage of you just type this blog’s name into Google and reap the rewards of mediocre restaurant reviews or recipes for chicken and mash. Why, I don’t know, but I would hazard a guess that the people who read this blog; you intelligent, articulate, beautiful, and incredibly tasteful food lovers that you are, have simply become a bit numb to the bullshit of social media. Bored of the bots and bile on X, sick of the false gloss and algorithm chase of Instagram, and done with the banality of Facebook. And if you are turning away from the gradual decay of life online, you are not alone, I am sick of it, too. So I am going to do the natural progression here and talk quickly about a pet peeve of mine on Instagram as a segway into my top ten dishes of the year, and the more popular, arguably more considered, same list from my wife.

So Instagram. I have many, many irks on Instagram, but if I was to narrow it down, it would be the endless lists proclaiming the best, the comment/ like circle of influencers to appear more popular than they really are, and the constant filming of oneself that will surely be studied in the future and identified as an early sign of a failing relationship. But the one that gets me above all is the “a lot of people have asked about this” nonsense that seems to be either a cheap tactic to repost a failing advertorial, or a cheaper tactic of getting a shitty opinion out in the air without looking like the bad person. Nobody is asking you anything. It’s Instagram, not Question Time. And yet, for the first time ever, people have asked about this end of year list. Not loads, maybe a dozen or so, over a mix of email, social media and one over a second bottle of wine in Loki, but it’s nice to know that this list carries a bit of interest outside of the scraps of paper that we update on our drinks cabinet, under the big candle, by the narwhal money bank that Sophie moved in with. One of those people even went straight in with the question of whether a list was coming from my more popular, more considered wife.

It’s been a great year. A really great year. And choosing this list has been nigh on impossible. Three weeks in South East Asia exploring Vietnam and Cambodia for Sophie’s birthday, and then the wedding. A dream wedding set around the things that are most important to us; family, food, friends, food, booze, music, and food. First the most perfect church day for twenty-four that started with a lunch at Tropea, moved on to reception at Harborne Kitchen with His and Hers cocktails, and ended with a good friend exploding a bottle of red on the trousers of my wife’s extremely expensive custom suit. Then, one week later, a lunch for eighty set above the city that saw bread from Simpsons, starter from Aktar, Tom’s fabled Desperate Dan pie, and La Bellezza walking over fourteen trays of tiramisu. Custom cocktails, a five litre negroni barrel, croquembouche, free bar, and WokChi rounded off the best of days, and honestly, if emotions were writing this list it would be filled with our wedding meals. A lovely honeymoon touring the UK, a dream holiday in Crete, and trips to London, Manchester, the Cotswolds, mid-Wales, Bristol, Cornwall, and Bournemouth. That’s a lot of eating, and a list of some serious dishes to look forward to.

10. Szechuan Butternut Squash. The Lighthouse.

I said it then and I’ll say it now, this dish could be the making of Chef Patron Jon Hardy if he can get on something like GBM. A sensory overload centred around a roasted rectangle of nutty squash, the fun bits come from the puddle of cheese sauce cut with herb oil, numbing szechuan pepper, and the cultured heat of yuzu kosho. It would be the ultimate hangover food.

9. Roscoff Onion. Harborne Kitchen.

Technically, it’s not on the menu, but I’ve eaten it three times this year at various special events at HK. It’s a classic. An institution. An icon. They’ve tweaked it very slightly under new head chef Patrick, reducing the acidity slightly and dialing-up the comfort factor. As they move to an increasingly more casual style of service, surely this has room on the A La Carte menu, though maybe that is more selfish wish than considered opinion.

8. Chorizo And Potato Taco. Perro

I ate five of them the first time I tried them. Perro is fucking brilliant. William Sitwell is an embalmed moron who writes with the blithe entitlement of a man who has never once worried that the world may not be arranged for him. I suppose that’s my future article with Waitrose magazine out of the window.

7. Guinea Hen. Simpsons.

An early stand-out from a quite brilliant lunch with Andreas that showcases Simpsons knack of world class saucing. Breast stuffed with truffled mouseline, more truffles, confit leg, gratinated macaroni, and the most incredible sauce Albufera to tie everything together. What a dish.

6. Crab Muhammara. Barnaby’s

The best food we ate in Cornwall and looking back it’s not even close. Not just the brash use of flavour and spice, but the generosity too of the seafood. This was my favourite course; an orgy of white crab meat, pokey red pepper, and walnuts on toast. The beautiful vineyard setting is a bonus.

5. Thai Lobster. The Warwick at Mallory Court.

Stu Deeley has an instant classic at The Warwick and this list could easily have had three of his dishes on. My favourite was the barbequed lobster tail, with thai sauce, and black pudding; something of a signature for Deeley but here elevated with the most premium of ingredients and a rather naughty claw tempura. I predict a star for The Warwick, sooner rather than later.

4. Sausage Raviolo. Cuubo.

The dish I’ve eaten more than any this year, helped significantly by its proximity to my front door, but also that it is just flavour, flavour, flavour. Tuscan sausage raviolo is central to the dish, with a fast and caramelised ragu and an espuma of aged parmesan. I adore the way Cuubo is progressing and there can’t be many restaurants going to the lengths that Dan is to source ingredients of this quality.

3. Cornish Turbot Jubilee. Woven by Adam Smith.

Worth the journey. Worth having to go via Reading. Worth the £60 rushed taxi back to station after we mistimed our lunch. Well worth another star from Michelin (at least). Buttery turbot with a layer of mousseline and glazed in truffle. That dreamy sauce, the opulent additions of lobster and caviar, and the quite genius addition of salted grape. You have the feeling that this dish will be omnipresent as they continue to gain stars. It’s unremovable.

2. Langoustine. Row on 5.

I went to Row on 5 twice in five weeks, a fact I’ll be happy to ram down the throats of anyone once they are rightly talked about as being the best in the country. It’s all pitch-perfect cooking, but none more so than the just-cooked langoustine with tomato jelly, calamansi lime, curry leaf, and duck egg sabayon. It’s a dish of gentle suggestion, full of nuance and skill. Luca gave me one of the best meals of my life and then I went a few weeks afterwards with my new wife. I’m already itching to get back and experience it again.

1. Scallop with almond korma, apple, and XO. Opheem.

Maybe I’m biased given that Opheem is the jewel of Birmingham. And maybe I’m biased towards this dish given I tried it when it first came on to the menu and told Frosty it was never leaving the menu. And I think I’m right, maybe the new signature of the restaurant, replacing the humble Aloo Tuk. But it has everything and the jumbo scallop works off the korma and XO to produce the best scallop dish I have ever eaten. Much like the restaurant itself, it has been refined to a position where three stars could be achievable in the next few years. Maybe even bigger news is this is the first time that the same dish has topped my list two years in a row.

And now for Sophie Carlo’s Top Ten;

10. Wedding Lamb with Tropea Onions, Jersey Royals and Salsa Verde. Tropea.

9. Peach. Ivoire. (HCM)

8. Strawberry and Cava. Wilsons.

7. Pea Gazpacho. Cuubo.

6. Lobster with Tomato and Lobster Butter Sauce. Folium.

5. Scallops with Chilli Pickle Butter. Barnaby’s.

4. Stuffed Courgette Flower. Row on 5.

3. Thai Lobster. The Warwick at Mallory Court.

2. Turbot Jubilee. Woven by Adam Smith,

1. Crab Crumpet. Opheem.

Thanks for reading. See you in 2026.

• 2025,
• Aktar Islam,
• Barnaby’s,
• best of,
• Birmingham,
• Cuubo,
• Harborne,
• Harborne Kitchen,
• London,
• Mallory court,
• opheem,
• Perro,
• row on 5,
• row on five,
• Simpsons,
• Sophie Carlo,
• the lighthouse,
• top 10,
• top ten,
• woven,