Family-run Glasgow restaurant pips Ramsay and Roux in awards

A FAMILY-run Italian restaurant in Glasgow has been named among a host of Michelin starred eateries as one of the best in Britain in a poll which saw Scotland claim three of the top 10 places.

Piccolo Mondo, on Argyle Street, in Glasgow, was second only to Restaurant Martin Wishart in Leith in the poll of more than half a million diners across the UK.

They achieved the highest ratings on the online booking website Toptable, which claims to conduct the largest survey of diners in the UK, ahead of eateries run by celebrity chefs like Albert Roux, Gordon Ramsay and Alain Ducasse.

Users of the website awarded restaurants scores out of 10 based on the likes of the quality of the food, service, ambience and value for money.

The honour for Piccolo Mondo comes 25 years after its owners won the Les Routiers "Best Value Restaurant in Britain" award in a previous location.

Piccolo Mondo started life as a neighbourhood restaurant in Renfrew in 1974 when it was launched by Tony and Giuliana Pierotti, who emigrated from Barga, in Tuscany, more than a decade earlier.

After selling it in 1989 they went on to open a number of other celebrated Italian restaurants in the city, including La Fiorentina and La Riviera, before reviving their original restaurant on Argyle Street in 2005. A second Piccolo Mondo opened up just a few months ago back on the original site in Renfrew.

Martin Wishart claimed top spot for the second time in three years with his Michelin-star rated Leith restaurant. Also in the top 10 was upmarket India restaurant India Quay, on Glasgow's riverside.

The survey results will be a major boost for Glasgow's culinary scene which suffered another blow earlier this year when it emerged the city's restaurants had again been left without a Michelin star.

Andrew Grasso, co-owner of Piccolo Mondo, said: "It's a fantastic honour for us to do so well in this survey. It obviously shows we have a very good relationship with our customers.

"We think the main formula for our success is being a family-run restaurant. We do everything from the heart and we like to create a friendly atmosphere."

Other restaurants in the top 10 included Gordon Ramsay at Claridge's, Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester, and Le Gavroche at Marble Arch.

Scotland had 13 restaurants in the top 100, with others including Number One at the Balmoral Hotel and Ondine in the capital, The Living Room in Glasgow, Kerachers in Perth, and Monsoona in Aberdeen.

Mr Wishart said: "I'm over the moon to sit at the top of the list again this year.There are so many very good restaurants in the list that it is deeply satisfying to be amongst them and to be consistently highly rated by my customers.

"It is fantastic to see so many Scottish restaurants in the top 100 alongside some of Britain's most well known and reputed restaurants. To see Piccolo Mondo rated the top Italian and India Quay rated top Indian restaurant in the UK is a real achievement.

"These kind of surveys are very important as they are based on the first-hand experience of customers and their ratings of things like the food, ambience, the quality of service and the value for money they think they've had."

Lucy Taylor, head of restaurant relations at Toptable, said: "Our diners have spoken and Scottish restaurants have fared extremely well.

"It is great to see the diversity of this list which sees Martin Wishart at the top but also local heroes Piccolo Mondo and India Quay nestled in alongside other culinary superstars such as Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester and newer critically acclaimed London restaurants such as Gauthier Soho and William Drabble at Seven Park Place. "This reflects both the breadth of restaurants featured on toptable and our customers' passion and enthusiasm for dining out."