A fine dining restaurant offering a farm to plate experience in the heart of Hampshire has been named among the UK's top 100 restaurants for 2024.
Restaurant AO, which relocated to Sunnyfields Farm in Marchwood at the end of last year, a year after opening on Southampton's London Road in December 2022, has been given the accolade by leading independent restaurant commentator SquareMeal.
Run by Chef Patron Daniel Rogan, the talented son of celebrated chef Simon Rogan, Restaurant AO offers a spectacular tasting menu of seasonal, local produce.
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On receiving the award, Dan told the Daily Echo: “It’s an honour to be ranked in SquareMeal’s list of the top 100 restaurants in the UK. As the only restaurant in Hampshire on the list, we’re thrilled to be putting my home city on the map.
"The list is determined by both professional opinions and real life experiences, so it’s incredible to see AO being praised both by critics and by our wonderful guests. This is just the beginning for us and receiving this recognition early on makes me very excited for AO’s future.”
Marcus Wareing and Gordon Ramsay-trained Dan, who grew up in Southampton, had a long held dream to put the city on the foodie map with this own restaurant and has already been named One to Watch in prestigious industry awards The Staff Canteen Awards.
He was inspired by childhood visits to L'Enclume, his father's three-Michelin-star flagship restaurant in the Lake District, as well as stints at The High Street Kitchen in Lymington and TerraVina in Woodlands.
SquareMeal, who ranked Restaurant AO at number 97 of all the restaurants in the UK, described it as 'an intimate and refined dining experience following a sustainably-minded ethos'. Their entry continued: "AO offers a tasting menu only, elegantly presented and strongly committed to local produce and seasonality."
For almost 30 years, SquareMeal has been the market-leading independent restaurant commentator, with up-to-date reviews of over UK restaurants and bars, written by a team of independent critics with the aid of comments from thousands of restaurant customers.
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