The Good Food Guide names the Pelican as London's best pub

The Good Food Guide has announced its list of the top 100 pubs in Britain, with Notting Hill celebrity hangout The Pelican named as the best in London.

The west London hangout — which is known for its celebrity draw, with regulars said to include Dua Lipa, Princess Eugenie and Olivia Wilde — placed seventh on the list, followed in the capital by The Eagle (number 11), considered to be one of the country’s first gastropubs; the Kerfield Arms (14); the Parakeet (22); the Devonshire (28); the Waterman’s Arms (30); the Canton Arms (43); the Camberwell Arms (46); the Anglesea Arms in Hammersmith (55); the Anchor and Hope (58); the Tamil Crown (69) and the Surprise (90).

Top overall on the list, which was published today, is the Highland Laddie in Leeds, a century-old boozer that reopened in April after being bought by Sam Pullen and Nicole Deighton, who also own the city’s popular Empire Cafe. The pub, which describes itself as a “drinkers pub with a dining room”, is small and cosy, with four local cask ales kept on draft, as well as Guinness and 1970s hit Double Diamond.

“We are all absolutely over the moon to be recognised as The Good Food Guide’s No.1 pub in Britain,” said Pullen and Deighton. “We are even more thrilled to be flying the flag for Leeds and Yorkshire.”

Chloë Hamilton, the guide’s editor, said: “We went searching for the pubs that nail the drinking and dining side of the equation. It turns out the harder you look the more you find, and they’re not all hidden away in the Cotswolds. The Highland Laddie — a city-centre slam dunk — is a very good case in point.”

Elsewhere, the Broad Chare in Newcastle picked up the Readers’ Choice Award. “We all enjoy a little recognition,” said owner Terry Laybourne, “and this one is extra special as it comes directly from our customers — the people at the very heart of what we do.”

There is one pub outside Britain on the list, the Red Lion on the Isle of Wight.

The list, which is a first for the guide, was created in partnership with Timothy Taylor’s Landlord and supported by Tracklements and Koffmann’s Potatoes. The full entries are below, with those in London in bold.

The Good Food Guide’s 100 Best Pubs 2025

1. The Highland Laddie, Leeds
2. The Kinneuchar Inn, Fife
3. The Merry Harriers, Surrey
4. The Beckford Arms, Wiltshire
5. The Radnor Arms, Kent
6. Greyhound Inn, Pettistree, Suffolk
7. The Pelican, Notting Hill
8. The Abbey Inn, North Yorkshire
9. Inn at The Sticks, Carmarthenshire
10. The Pack Horse, Hayfield, Derbyshire
11. The Eagle, Farringdon
12. The Barrington Boar, Somerset
13. The Sun Inn, Dedham, Essex
14. The Kerfield Arms, Camberwell
15. The Broad Chare, Newcastle – Readers’ Choice Award
16. Church House Inn, Devon
17. The Killingworth Castle, Oxfordshire
18. The Felin Fach Griffin, Powys
19. The Gunton Arms, Norfolk
20. The Plough, Rye, East Sussex
21. The Bath Arms at Longleat, Somerset
22. The Parakeet, Kentish Town
23. The Rat Inn, Northumberland
24. The White Hart Inn, Essex
25. The Pipe & Glass, East Yorkshire
26. The Bull Charlbury, Oxfordshire
27. The Farmers Arms, Devon
28. The Devonshire, Soho
29. Hop Pole Inn, Somerset
30. The Waterman’s Arms, Barnes
31. White Horse Holme, Norfolk
32. The Olive Branch, Rutland
33. The Old Wharf Inn, West Midlands
34. The Star Inn, Harome, North Yorkshire
35. The George at Burpham, West Sussex
36. Fox & Hounds, Hertfordshire
37. Tichborne Arms, Hampshire
38. The Bull Inn, Totnes, Devon
39. Parkers Arms, Lancashire
40. The Woolpack Inn, Gloucestershire
41. The Double Red Duke, Oxfordshire
42. The Cat Inn, West Sussex
43. The Canton Arms, Stockwell
44. The General Tarleton, North Yorkshire
45. The Anchor, Walberswick, Suffolk
46. The Camberwell Arms, Camberwell
47. The Brisley Bell, Norfolk
48. The Swan, Suffolk
49. The Riverside at Aymestrey, Herefordshire
50. The White Horse, Brancaster Staithe, Norfolk
51. The Kirkstyle Inn & Sportsman’s Rest, Northumberland
52. The Grove Inn, Devon
53. The White Hart, Fyfield, Oxfordshire
54. The Silver Cup, Hertfordshire
55. The Anglesea Arms, Hammersmith
56. Heathcock, Cardiff
57. The Feathers Inn, Northumberland
58. The Anchor & Hope, Waterloo
59. The Taybank, Perthshire & Kinross
60. The Queens Arms, Somerset
61. Hare & Hounds, Glamorgan
62. Applecross Inn, Highlands
63. The Punch Bowl Inn, Cumbria
64. The Clachan Inn, Dumfries & Galloway
65. The Bull Freehouse, Troston, Suffolk
66. The Exmoor Forest Inn, Somerset
67. The Ship Inn, Northumberland
68. The Bell at Selsley, Gloucestershire
69. The Tamil Crown, Islington
70. The Millbrook Inn, Devon
71. The Drunken Duck Inn, Cumbria
72. The Bull’s Head, Herefordshire
73. Dylan’s at The Kings Arms, Hertfordshire
74. St Kew Inn, Cornwall
75. The Pilgrim, Buckinghamshire
76. The Howard Arms, Warwickshire
77. The White Horse, Churton, Cheshire
78. The Alford Arms, Hertfordshire
79. The Plough, Bolnhurst, Bedfordshire
80. The Cotley Inn, Somerset
81. The Cornish Arms, Tavistock, Devon
82. Kilchrenan Inn, Argyll & Bute
83. The Red Lion, Isle of Wight
84. The Greyhound Inn, Letcombe Regis, Oxfordshire
85. The Halfway at Kineton, Gloucestershire
86. The Crown, Hastings, East Sussex
87. The Bonnie Badger, East Lothian
88. The Owl Hawnby, North Yorkshire
89. The Blind Bull, Little Hucklow, Derbyshire
90. The Surprise, Chelsea
91. The Leicester Arms, Kent
92. The Old Eyre Arms, Derbyshire
93. The Dartmoor Inn, Lydford, Devon
94. The Longs Arms, Wiltshire
95. The New Inn, Herefordshire
96. The Duck at Yeoford, Devon
97. White Horse, Lincoln, Lincolnshire
98. The Gurnard’s Head, Cornwall
99. The Manor House Inn, Somerset
100. The Bunch of Grapes, Rhondda, Pontypridd

For more information, visit thegoodfoodguide.co.uk

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