Jonathan Nunn's Critique and Personal Approach to London's Restaurant Lists
Jonathan Nunn, a London food and city writer and co-editor of Vittles, published a Guardian opinion piece on December 13, 2025, discussing the meaning and value of 'best of London restaurants' lists. After dining on about 3,000 meals over seven years for Vittles, Nunn created a 99-restaurant list to reflect London's diverse hospitality, aiming to connect both peripheral and central dining scenes rather than reproducing a global consensus.
The piece traces the origins and influence of The World's 50 Best Restaurants, which began with Restaurant magazine and judges including Gordon Ramsay, John Torode, and Aldo Zilli. Nunn notes its rise as a prominent rival to the Michelin Guide but critiques the World’s 50 Best for becoming homogenising and unrepresentative, unable to easily compare very different dining experiences—such as a Ritz establishment versus a fish-and-chip shop.
Nunn highlights the restaurant-list ecosystem today, referencing Michelin’s guide announcements including stars in Saudi Arabia and digital-driven formats like Topjaw’s short-form list prompts to chefs. He argues that personal, non-committee lists better reveal subjective values and context. He cites influential critics like Richard Collin and Jonathan Gold as precedents for passionate, rigorous, and opinionated lists that enhance individual notions of quality.
To illustrate that 'best' is highly personal and rooted in lived experience rather than a universal standard, Nunn shares a personal anecdote about his father’s list containing Ognisko, Survivor, and a pie-and-mash shop. This underscores the variety of criteria people apply when naming their favorite restaurants.
