British cuisine reigns as OpenTable names Top 100 Best Restaurants 2014 based on diner reviews

- British cuisine dominates Top 100 list with a third of places

- 'Restaurant Story' named best restaurant by diners, with a menu inspired by the history of British food

- Top 100 compiled from more than 340,000 OpenTable diner reviews from across the UK in the last 12 months

LONDON, Dec. 16, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- OpenTable, the UK's leading online restaurant booking service, today marks a year of world class dining by releasing its annual list of Top 100 Best Restaurants in the UK, based on reviews left by diners. The award ranks the Top 10 as well as giving an alphabetised list of the Top 100.

It seems that the rise of the staycation has led to a renewed appreciation for British fare, as home-grown cuisine dominates the list – securing a third of the Top 100 places, and seven of the coveted Top 10 spots.

Taking the number one spot is London's Restaurant Story, created by celebrated chef Tom Sellers with a menu inspired by the history of British food and featuring exclusively British produce paired with fine wines and British craft ales.

London continues to dominate the UK's culinary landscape, as eight out of the Top 10 restaurants can be found in the capital. The Top 10 list features established favourites such as The Ledbury and The Grill at The Dorchester, as well as new hotspots including Pond Dalston.

After British cuisine, European fare was the second most popular holding almost a quarter of the Top 100 places, followed by French cuisine with 17 restaurants making it onto the list.

The OpenTable Top 10 Best Restaurants 2014, in rank order, are:

Mike Xenakis, Managing Director, OpenTable, comments "The Top 100 list represents the best of UK dining. At OpenTable our aim is to enable diners to discover the perfect restaurant for every type of occasion and provide great dining experiences. The reviews left by diners on our site are an invaluable resource for those seeking culinary inspiration, and it is this expert feedback that we mine to compile the Top 100 list. We're proud to celebrate with these restaurants, and give them and their head chefs the recognition they deserve."

The Top 100 Best Restaurants 2014 list is generated from more than 340,000 reviews collected from verified OpenTable diners between 19^th November 2013 and 18^th November 2014. All restaurants with a minimum number of qualifying reviews were included for consideration. Qualifying restaurants were then sorted according to a score calculated from each restaurant's average rating in the "overall" category along with that restaurant's rating relative to others in the same metropolitan area and the average number of restaurants reviewed by diners who reviewed that restaurant.

The full list of restaurants, listed in alphabetical order, is included below. The complete list may also be viewed at http://www.opentable.co.uk/m/best-restaurants-in-united-kingdom.

Full alphabetical list of the UK's Top 100 Best Restaurants 2014

Notes to editors:

About OpenTable Reviews

The OpenTable reviews program helps diners find restaurants that best fit their dining occasions. Diners who recently honoured an OpenTable reservation are invited via email to submit restaurant feedback using an online form. Visitors to OpenTable can access reviews for thousands of OpenTable restaurant partners across the UK. The OpenTable reviews program has generated more than 2.5 million reviews by verified diners in the UK establishing OpenTable as one of the largest and most trusted sources for restaurant reviews.

OpenTable

With over 4,200 bookable restaurants, OpenTable is the leading consumer destination site for restaurant bookings in the UK. OpenTable, part of The Priceline Group (NASDAQ: PCLN), is the world's leading provider of online restaurant reservations, seating more than 15 million diners per month via online bookings across more than 32,000 restaurants. The OpenTable network connects restaurants and diners, helping diners discover and book the perfect table and helping restaurants deliver personalized hospitality to keep guests coming back. The OpenTable service enables diners to see which restaurants have available tables, select a restaurant based on verified diner reviews, menus, and other helpful information, and easily book a reservation. In addition to the company's website and mobile apps, OpenTable powers online reservations for nearly 600 partners, including many of the Internet's most popular global and local brands. For restaurants, the OpenTable hospitality solutions enable them to manage their reservation book, streamline their operations, and enhance their service levels. Since its inception in 1998, OpenTable has seated more than 700 million diners around the world. The Company is headquartered in San Francisco, California, and the OpenTable service is available throughout the United States, as well as in Canada, Germany, Japan, Mexico, and the UK.

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