Tasty St John scores double top

An old fashioned English eaterie last night took the two top prizes at the London Restaurant Awards. St John , within yards of Smithfield Market, prides itself on serving meat, particularly offal - and oddities including squirrel. It was awarded the top prize of London Restaurant of the Year as well as best British restaurant at last night's ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel.

Chef Fergus Henderson said the foot-and-mouth crisis had so far made little impact on his menu. "We still get lovely meat but we know its name and which field it's been in," he said.

He added: "The only thing the crisis has affected so far is our Middle White pig man, who hasn't called, so we are not calling him. And bone marrow, which is one of our trademark dishes, is hard to get hold of. I am sure it will hit us eventually but quite when and how, we shall see. It's best to stay chirpy and remember there are lots of rabbits and pigeons."

Other top prizes at last night's sixth Moet & Chandon awards included the prestigious trophy for outstanding London chef, presented to Italian restaurateur Giorgio Locatelli, proprietor of the Belgravia eaterie Zafferano .

There were two prizes for long-standing favourite Le Gavroche , which won the London Restaurant Academy Award of Excellence and another award for outstanding front of house service.

Best Indian restaurant was Mela and best Oriental restaurant the Mandarin Kitchen , with the Lebanese eaterie Al Waha winning the new award of best Middle Eastern restaurant.

Best Italian was Assaggi and best French was The Square , despite having a British chef, Philip Howard, a qualified biochemist. Nico Ladenis's latest West End venture, Incognico , was the best new restaurant of the year. The Tate Gallery restaurant was awarded for its wine list and the Evening Standard Londoners' Award, chosen from a short list of local value-for-money eateries chosen by our readers, was Mesclun in Stoke Newington.

The awards were presented by actresses Emilia Fox, Michelle Collins and Amanda Redman, singer Gabrielle, comedian Ronnie Corbett,and master chef Raymond Blanc. Backstage, Sophie Anderton took co-presenter Roland Rivron to task about his onstage joking at her expense. In the audience heads were turned by the arrival of Jemma Kidd and Lady Victoria Hervey.

Other celebrities included Paul and Stacy Young and TV presenter Beverley Turner.

Restaurants in Britain were valued at more than £20 billion last year and the panel of judges included Fay Maschler of the Evening Standard and Charles Campion of ES magazine and the Rough Guide to London Restuarants.

Other judges were AA Gill of the Sunday Times, Matthew Fort of the Guardian, Caroline Stacey of the Independent and Bill Knott of Class magazine.

THE AWARDS WINNERS IN FULL