The Good Food Guide’s 100 Best Pubs 2025, in partnership with Timothy Taylor’s Landlord, is arriving this autumn, and the Guide is calling on you to help uncover the very best dining pubs across the country.

While pub closures continue to hit the headlines – shutting at a rate of one a day in 2025, according to the British Beer and Pub Association – there’s a groundswell of optimism where top-tier dining pubs are concerned. As appetites turn to more approachable and informal ways to eat out, some of Britain’s best chefs, from Tommy Banks to Sally Abé, are turning their talents to reviving the spirit of community-driven pubs through thoughtful, seasonally led cooking.

Use of the term ‘gastropub’ was banned by The Good Food Guide in 2011, having been widely co-opted by operators serving sub-standard pub fare. In the decade or so since, the search has been on to find an adequate replacement to describe proper pubs with great cooking. Diners are encouraged to send in their suggestions to [email protected] by Tuesday 9th September.

Nominations are now also open at www.thegoodfoodguide.co.uk/feedback for readers to share their favourite pubs with food, and will close on Tuesday 9th September. The pub with the most nominations that makes the list will be handed the Readers’ Choice Award when Britain’s 100 Best Pubs is revealed on October 29.

To qualify for the 100 Best Pubs, The Good Food Guide is looking for the places where brilliant cooking is paired with the spirit of a proper pub. Drinkers should be able to relax over a good selection of real ales or pick over a menu of top-notch bar snacks, while diners can drop in for a one-dish dinner or celebrate with great wines and a seasonal menu featuring quality local produce. There might be crisps behind the bar and crowd-pleasing cheeseburgers, but there will be originality and interest. A healthy dose of community spirit is at the heart of it all.

Editor of The Good Food Guide, Chloë Hamilton, said: ‘What is more appealing than eating well in the laid-back, convivial atmosphere of a British pub? While the national narrative is down on pubs, we’re seeing that in 2025 they’re home to some of the best cooking in the country. We’re here to celebrate that’.

Adam Hyman, publisher of The Good Food Guide added: “2025 has been another very tough year for hospitality. Similar to our 100 Best Local Restaurants, we want to fly the flag for the best pubs with food, as well as capture the zeitgeist of how people are choosing to dine out around Britain.”

Jane Jenkins, marketing director at Timothy Taylor’s said: “We are delighted to be partnering with The Good Food Guide’s 100 Best Pubs campaign. We believe celebrating and championing the great British pub is so important as pub culture, and a perfectly conditioned pint of cask ale, holds a special place in people’s lives.”