A chicken wing chain has been named the best restaurant in Britain after beating off thousands of eateries from around the country.
Wingstop, which has 14 海角视频 branches including in Bristol, London and Birmingham, scooped the overall Restaurant of the Year accolade at the Deliveroo Awards 2021.
The US-founded restaurant sells boneless wings, burgers and chicken tenders which are tossed in flavours such as mango habanero and hickory smoked BBQ.
Wingstop received the overall prize after judges chose the chain over restaurant finalists Coqfighter; White Men Can鈥檛 Jerk; Fat Hippo; Pasta Evangelists; and Proove. The Restaurant of the Year award is the only award selected by a guest panel of experts.
The judges for 2021 included grime artist, presenter and TV chef Big Zuu; food critic, Masterchef judge and columnist Grace Dent; judge of Junior Bake-Off and pastry chef Ravneet Gill; and Deliveroo鈥檚 founder and chief executive Will Shu.
The panel tried food from each restaurant in a London-based cook-off before scoring the finalists against a criteria including: quality of food; environmental consciousness; going the extra mile for customers and the community; and value for money.
Wingstop鈥檚 dish of flavoured wings, Korean tenders, lemon pepper fries and ranch dip, stood out, according to the judges, who also commended the chain for "going the extra mile" for new customers with handwritten welcome notes with meals.
Mr Shu said: 鈥淭he standard of finalists for Restaurant of the Year has been best-in-class. I鈥檝e been blown away by the incredible culinary talent of the finalists, who put everything into the cook-off.
"Well done to all of our winners and finalists in every category, the food we鈥檙e delivering to customers has never been better and that鈥檚 thanks to the incredible restaurants and grocers on our platform.鈥
Tom Grogan of Wingstop 海角视频 said the chain was "absolutely delighted" to win after an "incredibly challenging" year.
"To win this award, which has been judged by some of the biggest names in the 海角视频 restaurant industry, is a testament to the hard work and dedication of the Wingstop 海角视频 team," he said.
"We want to thank our customers for all their support and look forward to serving them our award-winning flavours into 2022.鈥
For 2021, Deliveroo increased the number of award categories to celebrate even more foods and cuisines. More than 100 restaurants were shortlisted for an award with the winners of 21 categories chosen by public vote.
Big Zuu added: 鈥淲ingstop was a stand out. When I tried the signature lemon and pepper wings, all I was tasting was happiness. It was good, big on flavour, just like the ranch dressing. We love a wing to the stop.鈥
First launched in 2019, the annual awards were created to celebrate the best restaurants and takeaways 鈥 and more recently supermarkets 鈥 available on Deliveroo across the 海角视频 and Ireland.
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