UK's best pub has been named as top 100 for 2025 unveiled
Ella Scott
Featured Image Credit: Instagram/@thehighlandladdie
The Good Food Guide has revealed the institution topping its inaugural 100 Best Pubs in the UK list: a north English haven that’s been serving up pints for more than a century.
In 2024, 412 pubs closed up shop, leaving fewer than 39,000 in operation in England and Wales. 56 closed permanently in Scotland last year, too - spelling a dire time for the hospitality industry.
But it isn’t just the UK that has suffered. Pub closures in Ireland increased to 128 annually between 2019 and 2024, as per a report commissioned by the Drinks Industry Group of Ireland (DIGI).
In an attempt to revive the humble pub and drive punters back through their local’s doors, The Good Food Guide has published its first-ever Best Pubs list.
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The team behind the handbook has scoured England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland for the cream of the crop - and the results are finally in.
Backed by Timothy Taylor's Landlord, Tracklements, and Koffmann's Potatoes, the first prize has been awarded to Leeds’ The Highland Laddie.
Situated on Cavendish Street, close to Hanover Park and Leeds City College, the West Yorkshire establishment is billed as a Scottish-inspired ‘drinkers pub with a dining room’.
First launched way back in 1925, The Highland Laddie reopened in April 2025 under new owners Sam Pullan and Nicole Deighton.
“The Highland Laddie is a pub of two halves – turn left into the bar and be greeted by brass fittings twinkling in the sun and the red glow of a vintage Guinness tap box on the bar, echoing the red and black colour scheme of the textured-wallpapered walls and ceiling,” the Good Food Guide explained.
“Small round tables line the triangular room where you can fit about four people and their pints, empties, and a couple of bar snacks (possibly six if you're close acquaintances, or one of them is telling a particularly good story).”
Chloë Hamilton, the editor of The Good Food Guide, said that its 100-strong list was compiled after extensive research.
"We went searching for the pubs that nail the drinking and dining side of the equation," he said.
"It turns out the harder you look, the more you find, and they're not all hidden away in the Cotswolds. The Highland Laddie – a city-centre slam dunk – is a very good case in point.”
Speaking about their win, the proprietors said: "We are all absolutely over the moon to be recognised as The Good Food Guide's No. 1 pub in Britain! We are even more thrilled to be flying the flag for Leeds and Yorkshire.”
The Highland Laddie is the only Leeds-based pub to make the list, but it is in good company with other Yorkshire favourites such as The Abbey Inn, The Pipe & Glass, and Harome’s The Star Inn.
London institutions like The Tamil Crown and The Camberwell Arms have been honoured, as well as Devon favourites such as The Bull Inn, situated in Totnes, The Cornish Arms in Tavistock, and Lydford’s The Dartmoor Inn.
A handful of Northumberland pubs have made the Good Food Guide 100 Best British Pubs List - The Rat Inn, a gastropub north of Hexham, The Kirkstyle Inn & Sportsman’s Rest near Slaggyford, and The Ship Inn, an 18th-century village local situated just 50 yards from the North Sea, among others.
Other highlights include runner-up, Fife’s The Kinneuchar Inn, The Radnor Arms in Kent, and Inn at The Sticks, based in Carmarthenshire.