The restaurant in Kings Cross, which opened in July, achieved the highest score and beat 100 restaurants after the SRA rated its sourcing, water, waste and energy saving initiatives, as well as its commitment to treat and engage responsibly with its staff, customers and community.

Grain Store gives vegetables equal billing with meat and fish and the SRA found all the food to be “impeccably sourced”. Where possible, the meat served is organic or free range and it adheres to a strict sustainability policy when it comes to fish.

The restaurant has state of the art technology that monitors and controls the performance and energy consumption of its kitchen equipment and half of the profits from sales of filtered water go to local charities chosen by the staff.

President of the SRA, Raymond Blanc, whose restaurant Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons received the third highest rating, praised Grain Store for its commitment to operating responsibly across all areas of the business.

He said:”The Grain Store has proved that you can open one of the best new restaurants in the UK and do it extremely sustainably and at the same time, be a successful restaurant which embraces all the rules of sustainability and good ethics.”

Highlighting those leading the pack, SRA managing director, Mark Linehan, added: “All of the top 25 SRA rated restaurants reached at least the standard required for a Two Star SRA rating, demonstrating not only that sustainability is a core ingredient of the very best restaurants, but that the very best restaurants are also taking it increasingly seriously.”

The Grain Store beat last year’s winner, The Pig, located in the New Forest, which finished second this year.

Leigh Stringer

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