A Kent restaurant has added to its many accolades by picking up the title of restaurant of the year at the Good Food Guide awards.

In the prestigious category, the Michelin-starred Sportsman in Seasalter near Whitstable took first place.

The gastro pub came up against four other restaurants for the title, in Cumbria, Oxfordshire, Northumberland and Wales.

It also moved into the guide’s list of “world-class” eateries – one of only four in the UK to make the cut.

Co-editor for the guide Elizabeth Carter said: “It’s still hard to book, it’s astoundingly good value, and it’s as relevant today as when it was the new hot ticket.

“This restaurant is rock solid. They’ve never been out of touch with the local food movement. They’re in touch with their customers.

“They’ve got a take-us-or-leave-us attitude, which is not irreverent, it’s just ‘this is what we do’.”

Brothers Philip and Stephen Harris took over The Sportsman in November 1999 and have held a Michelin star since 2008.

It offers a three-course or a five-course tasting menu and chefs “let the area around the pub dictate what we cook”.

The establishment regularly features in compilations of highly-esteemed restaurants and gastropubs as well as routinely winning awards in its time.

The Sportsman’s entry in the guide says: “More than 24 years on and still as popular as ever, The Sportsman is by far the most relaxed of all the Guide’s top-rated restaurants.

“‘The food is probably the best I've eaten – on pretty much all of the 20-odd times I've been there,’ confided a supporter, who lists the ‘amazing’ staff and a wine list that ‘is unusually fairly priced for so fine a restaurant’ among its attributes.

“Add the appeal of a scrubbed, rustic interior designed to make people feel at ease, open fires, a dash of comfort and, on the night we spotted a McLaren in the car park, a sprinkling of glamour, and it’s easy to see how it can get booked up for months ahead.

“Not bad for a shabby old Kent pub tucked under a sea defence wall, two miles west of Whitstable.”

Elsewhere in the awards, The Goods Shed in Canterbury and The Small Holding in Kilndown, Cranbrook, were represented in the Farm to Table category.

This section celebrates businesses with a strong connection to where their produce comes from.

However, they were beaten to the gong by Our Farm in Cumbria.