Van Zeller named Good Food Guide Restaurant of the Year 2012

Annual readers' award celebrating independent restaurants using local ingredients heads to Harrogate.

Van Zeller in Harrogate has been crowned the Good Food Guide’s 2012 Readers’ Restaurant of the Year.

More than 44,500 Good Food Guide readers cast votes in this year’s competition. Van Zeller had already walked away with the prize for the beat restaurant in North-East England.

Run by chef-patron Tom Van Zeller, the restaurant’s menu includes the like of saddleback suckling piglet, monkfish from North Shields market and saddle of Yorkshire lamb.

Elizabeth Carter, consultant editor of the Good Food Guide, said: "Tom van Zeller is a likeable chef with no pretensions or gimmicks - his smart, contemporary dishes are full of vibrancy, bold strokes and ambition."

To be in with a chance of winning an award, restaurants must be independently run and offer local or regional produce wherever possible.

Here are the other regional winners:

South-East: Jeremy's Restaurant, Haywards Heath

South-West: The Swan, Wedmore, Somerset

London: Charlotte's Place, Ealing

East of England: Maison Bleue, Bury St Edmunds

Midlands: The Bluebell, Henley-in-Arden

North-West: Grenache, Walkden, Manchester

Wales: Y Polyn, Carmarthen

Scotland: The Ubiquitous Chip, Glasgow

Northern Ireland: Mourne Seafood Bar, Belfast

Orwells at Shiplake in Oxfordshire won last year's award.