Three Cornwall restaurants have made the top 100 list of best UK dining spots at the National Restaurant Awards - with one even narrowly missing out on a spot in the top 20. Paul Ainsworth at No. 6, in Padstow, Ugly Butterfly in St Ives, and Crocadon in St Mellion were all ranked among the best restaurants in the UK at the prestigious Estrella Damm National Restaurant Awards this week, standing out as the pride of Cornwall on a list in which over half the entries were from London.
And Paul Ainsworth even appears to have surpassed his former mentor, celebrity chef and restaurateur Gordon Ramsay, as No. 6 placed an impressive 22nd out 100 on the list - while Ramsay's flagship restaurant, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, where Ainsworth spent three years working in the early 2000s, only ranked at number 59. Fine dining restaurant , which has held its Michelin Star status for 11 years in a row, was hailed by the Estrella Damm National Restaurant Awards as "dealing in fun as well as fine dining", with its dining room situated inside a "beautiful" Georgian townhouse.
Ainsworth, who has run the restaurant with his wife Emma since 2009, describes it as "my life's work", and states on the No.6 website: "I have never been happier than I am right now in showcasing my love of food and my personality through the best ingredients on the planet. We can't wait to welcome you.
" The menu offers modern British food with a focus on locally-grown produce and Cornish seafood, from wild turbot or cod caug.