Good Food Guide: Bavette Britain’s Best Local Restaurant

An unprecedented 60,000 votes were cast for the hugely popular awards, a benchmark for brilliance in the industry for the last 70 years.

French bistro Bavette, which only opened earlier this year, claimed the top prize from a field of 100 restaurants.

French dishes with big Yorkshire flavours, including venison pork pate en croute and Cantabrian anchovies, combine to create stunning dishes. (Image: Oliver Lawson) Owned by experienced husband and husband team Sandy Jarvis and Clément Cousin, Bavette quickly won the hearts of Horsforth locals, as well as diners from all over the local area, when it opened in February.

Bavette’s customers and The Good Food Guide’s anonymous inspectors were impressed with the "natural ease and warmth of hospitality at the lively French bistro, backed up by Jarvis’ menu of authentic, beautifully executed French classics".

The consensus was it has "raised the game in this corner of Leeds and beyond, presenting the model of the perfect local restaurant".

Inside the restaurant (Image: Oliver Lawson) Also featuring in the Top 100 was Brook's Restaurant on Bradford Road in Brighouse.

Brook's offers a range of sharing plates that focus on modern British food, taking inspiration from countries around the world.

Bavette's namesake: Bavette a l'echalotte, frites, Bearnaise sauce and baby gem salad. (Image: Oliver Lawson) Reflecting on their win, Sandy and Clément said: "We are completely gobsmacked about winning the Best Local Restaurant Award.

"To be included in the top 100 in our first few months would have been a great achievement but to be the overall winners is such a huge honour and testament to all the hard work of the team since day one, so this is for them.

Sandy and Clement are serving a taste of French heaven in Horsforth (Image: Oliver Lawson) "Our sign above the door says “a neighbourhood bistro” and being a great local restaurant is everything we wanted Bavette to be.

"Thank you to everyone who has come through our doors over the past five months, you’ve made Bavette what it is."

Rhubarb loveliness from the dessert menu. (Image: Oliver Lawson) Chloë Hamilton, co-editor of The Good Food Guide, added: "With Sandy and Clément’s backgrounds in some of London’s top establishments (Terroirs, where they met, is a strong influence), opening a restaurant together in an outer suburb of Leeds looked great on paper.

"But the way they’ve brought it to life – excellent bistro cooking, an adventurous, engaging wine list (including bottles from Clément’s family of organic winemakers in the Loire), and the energy and warmth of the team – make it irresistible.

"They’ve had 1st birthday parties and 90th birthday parties here. It has lit up the community."