The ‘best restaurant in the world’ isn’t where you think it is – Stephen Jardine

I’ve just discovered the best restaurant in the world. As you might expect, it is a little off the beaten track but I don’t want you to miss out on the experience so you might want to write this down. Go to Cornwall and take the B3301 from the tiny village of Gwithian. After half a mile, park safely at the side of the road. You then need to walk over the sand dunes and, with a bit of luck, that should bring you directly to the spot. If in doubt, look out for the converted horsebox on the vast beach. The Hungry Horsebox only really serves mackerel pate or hummus but both come with bread and you can enjoy a local cider or a coffee with it, sitting at one of the two picnic tables. They don’t have a Michelin star yet but that didn’t matter this week when I was hungry and on holiday. At the moment when I needed it, the Hungry Horsebox appeared out of the heat haze and, at that precise moment, for me it was the best restaurant in the world. If that sounds a far-fetched claim, is it really more so than declaring Mirazur on the French Riviera to be the best restaurant in the world, which also happened this week? From a quick look at the menu, they don’t serve hummus or mackerel pate so what made it so deserving of the title? According to the judges, “unrivalled views of the French Riviera, three levels of cascading vegetable gardens churning out the sweetest produce and a team of outrageously talented cooks and front-of-house staff” made it better than anywhere else on the planet. Says who? The thousand-strong voting panel is made up of industry experts. That means chefs are often voting for their peers, so it is no surprise that the list is always roundly condemned for being Eurocentric, male-dominated and based around expensive tasting menus. But the main problem with it is that you cannot seriously identify one establishment as being the best place to eat in the world over and above everywhere else. How can you possibly compare a top sushi joint in Tokyo with a seafood restaurant in Sydney, a Scandi farm-to-fork place in Stockholm or a horsebox on a beach in Cornwall? Inevitably, choosing one restaurant over another is always going to be an entirely subjective business. If you want to know where is best to eat, you need to look close to home. The recent UK National Restaurant Awards offers a credible list based on actually comparing like with like. With five Scottish restaurants in the top 100, it also sounds much more believable and those being honoured are exactly who you would expect them to be. In other words, they deserve it. Look beyond the UK and comparisons just become absurd. At the end of the day, the best restaurant in the world depends on too many factors to come down to any one place. Chefs can supply food and service but the rest of it comes down to us and what we want at a particular moment in time, based on who we are with and what happened that day. With restaurants and with life, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.