National Pub Food Challenge winners announced

Eight winners across nine categories will attend a winners’ lunch at the Michelin-starred Royal Oak at Paley Street, Berkshire on Monday 18 March. Two special awards for Best Dish of the Competition and Best Business Innovation will be announced on the day.

Three finalists were selected in each category following paper judging before being visited by judges. The visits included an interview with the licensee about their pub’s food offer, a tour of the pub and kitchen, a dish tasting and a mystery ingredient challenge. The main ingredients were supplied by the category sponsors.

The awards recognise the best in traditional pub dishes and were judged by a panel including Martin Bates, CEO of the Craft Guild of Chefs; Elizabeth Carter, consultant editor of the Good Food Guide; and David Hancock, editor of the Alastair Sawday’s Pubs & Inns Guide. The awards are organised by the Publican’s Morning Advertiser.

The winners are:

•Best Fish & Chips: St Austell’s the Ship, Plymouth, Devon

Highly commended: the Harbour Inn, Southwold, Suffolk

•Best Steak & Chips Offer: the Woodman, Battersea, south London

Highly commended: Peach Pubs’ the Richard Onslow, Cranleigh, Surrey

•Best Desserts Offer: the Crabtree, Lower Beeding, West Sussex

Highly commended: Ye Old Sun Inn, Colton, North Yorkshire

•Best Sandwich Offer: So! Bar & Eats, Harrogate, North Yorkshire

•Best Curry Offer: the Noel Arms, Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire

•Best Burger Offer: Benson Blakes Bar & Grill, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

•Best Pie Offer: Forum Cafe Bars’ the Broadfield Ale House, Sheffield, South Yorkshire

Highly commended: the Black Bull Inn, Balsham, Cambridgeshire

•Best Bar Snacks Offer: the Woodman, Battersea, London

•Best Roast Offer: the Red Lion, Britwell Salome, Oxfordshire

Highly commended: Anglian Country Inns’ Hermitage Road, Hitchin, Hertfordshire