A 14th-century Yorkshire pub, a Thai-meets-British dining room in Marylebone and a slick modern Indian kitchen in Glasgow are among the restaurants crowned the UK's best at the AA Hospitality Awards 2026.
The four winners were announced at a ceremony at Grosvenor House in London on 21 September, and the timing is notable: 2026 marks 70 years of the AA Rosette, the award that flags restaurants serving food of a superior standard.
The most atmospheric of the bunch is The Star Inn at Harome in North Yorkshire, a country pub with roots in the 14th century. The AA inspectors praised its finely tuned cooking, local ales and hyper-local sourcing. The menu runs from broth of roasted hand-dived Isle of Mull king scallops to A5 Wagyu beef Rossini with foie gras, morels and black spring truffle — ambitious stuff for a village dining room, and the inspectors reckon it is worth a detour.
In London, AngloThai in Marylebone picks up its award for blending traditional Thai recipes with British seasonal produce. Standouts cited by the AA include a peppercorn curry with asparagus and a strawberry, coconut and pandan dessert that reportedly rounds off a meal very well.
Wales flies the flag via The Walnut Tree near Abergavenny in Monmouthshire, honoured for classic cooking in a legendary venue. The daily-changing menu earns high praise for being rock solid — proper technique, real understanding of ingredients, no gimmicks — all served in a relaxed, informal setting in the Welsh countryside.
Completing the four is Swadish by Ajay Kumar in central Glasgow, which plates up contemporary Indian food in a sleek room of marble, mirrors and dark wood. Traditional spicing and cooking techniques meet high-quality seasonal ingredients on a menu the AA describes as modern Indian food done with polish.
For travellers, this is a ready-made shortlist. The winners are spread across England, Scotland and Wales, so there is a credible excuse to build a trip around any of them — a North York Moors weekend with dinner at The Star, a Glasgow city break anchored by Swadish, or an Abergavenny getaway with the Brecon Beacons on the doorstep. Because the AA Rosette scheme is one of the UK's longest-running and most trusted benchmarks, these picks carry real weight when you are deciding where to spend a special-occasion dinner budget.
Booking ahead is wise across all four, especially the smaller village spots where tables are limited and demand from award coverage tends to spike quickly.
