The Hidden Manchester restaurant has been named one of the UK’s best in the prestigious food guide

A Greater Manchester restaurant has been named among the UK’s best in a prestigious food guide. The hidden dining spot run by Manchester’s top chef Eddie Shepherd is the only restaurant in the city to feature in the 360° Eat Guide.

Walled Gardens, based in the Whalley Range, joins other North West restaurants including three Michelin-starred L’Enclume in Cumbria and two Michelin-starred Moor Hall near Ormskirk. The guide celebrates the world’s most sustainable places to eat, and Eddie’s vegetarian restaurant piqued his interest.

The chef, who hails from Stockport, said it was an “honour” and a “huge compliment” to be named alongside Michelin-starred establishments. It comes after the tiny restaurant was named in the We’re Smart Green Guide’s list of the world’s 100 best veggie restaurants last year.

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The global guide says it is the first to look “beyond the plate” and consider both the dining experience and the sustainability of what is served. It recognizes the “pioneers” and “innovators” of “modern” and “transparent” cooking.

Speaking about the accolade, Eddie said: “I’m incredibly honored to be included in the 360° Food Guide’s list of the UK’s best restaurants. To be included among so many Michelin starred restaurants and those who are pioneering sustainability is always the level of food and sustainability I want to offer and it is a huge compliment to have this recognized here again.

There aren’t many restaurants like The Walled Gardens in the Whalley Range. The veggie place is run entirely by Eddie and only seats eight diners at a time as it’s in the chef’s house. The concept has proven so popular that it is known to have a six-month waiting list.

Serving a modern 12-course plant-based tasting menu, the chef’s veggie concept was previously listed as one of the Observer’s Food Monthly’s 20 Best Restaurants, and the chef himself was named the Best Chef of Manchester Food and Drink. Awards.

With nearly 20 years of experience, Eddie has taken his unique and creative cuisine around the world. While his culinary journey began in Marple – where he went to school with fellow Stopfordian and acclaimed Where The Light Gets In chef Samuel Buckley – his flair for experimental plant-based cooking gave him the opportunity to cook in a range of destinations around the city. world including Mexico, Greece and Athens.

Many of his concoctions – such as the scotch bonnet and the fermented passion fruit option – use methods such as distillation to extract the flavors and aromas from the plants, herbs and vegetables he uses. Dishes also include specialties such as fruit pastels with dandelion petals, served with a welcome G&T and topped with lemon verbena.

Four nights a week, the chef cooks for just eight diners in a converted floor of his home, serving guests from an open kitchen. Tickets for the dining experience are released four months in advance at 9am on the first day of each month – and have been known to sell out quickly.

“I absolutely love what I do, working on my own, serving just 8 guests a night, means I am inseparable from every aspect of my food – from foraging wild ingredients, making gin or chocolate from scratch, to greeting and serving guests. finished dishes,” adds Eddie.

“It’s the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done and something I’m passionate about for the long term. It also takes an incredible amount of hard work and very long hours to deliver the tasting menu to the high standard I want it to be, so I think it’s important to celebrate moments of recognition like this, both for the quality food, as well as for the less visible but equally important sustainability.

“Next year will be 10 years since we served the first diners here at The Walled Gardens. I’m not always great at taking the time to celebrate and promote the work I do here, primarily I want to be in the kitchen cooking or in the garden or in a forest working with ingredients, but this kind of recognition from the guilds international brands such as 360° Eat Guide and @smart green guild, along with other restaurants serving food at the highest level, is an achievement I feel very proud of with my unusual arrangement.”