Hotel Restaurant Awards
Where Hospitality Becomes a Plate
The hotel restaurant occupies a singular place in the world of dining. It is the first impression of arrival and the last memory before departure; the room where a business breakfast, an anniversary dinner and a quiet solo supper can unfold within the same hour, each receiving the same considered welcome. To run a great hotel restaurant is to master not one craft but several at once — the kitchen, the floor, the cellar, and the seamless choreography that links a guest’s room key to their table.
The Hotel Restaurant Awards, part of the Dining Experiences group at the International Restaurant Awards, exist to honour the teams who do this exceptionally. These are dining rooms that refuse to coast on captive footfall, that earn their reputation among locals and travellers alike, and that treat breakfast service with the same gravity as a tasting menu. From grand city landmarks to intimate boutique retreats and remote luxury lodges, the finest hotel restaurants have become destinations in their own right.
Recognition matters here precisely because hotel dining is so often underestimated. A win in this category tells the world that your restaurant is not an amenity but an experience — a reason to book the room, to return to the city, to recommend the address. It rewards the executive chef, the maitre d’, the sommelier and the overnight breakfast brigade in equal measure, and it places your property among an international community of hospitality excellence.
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What We Recognise
Six distinct honours within the Hotel Restaurant Awards, each shaped around the particular demands of dining under a hotel’s roof — from flagship signature restaurants to all-day brasseries and rooftop tables.
Hotel Restaurant of the Year
Our headline honour, awarded to the hotel dining room that most completely unites kitchen, service and atmosphere. Judges look for a restaurant that stands proudly on its own merits and would draw a full house even without a single resident guest.
Best New Hotel Restaurant
Celebrating openings within their first two years that have already found their voice. This award rewards bold concepts, confident menus and a clarity of identity that belies how recently the doors first opened to diners.
Excellence in Hotel Dining
For the established restaurant that has sustained outstanding standards over many years. This honour values consistency above novelty — the same exacting quality at the first cover and the last, season after season.
Rising Star Hotel Restaurant
Recognising a property on a clear upward trajectory: a refreshed kitchen brigade, a reimagined menu or a young chef de cuisine bringing new ambition to the table. A nod to momentum and the promise of greater things.
Best Hotel Restaurant Menu
Honouring the menu that tells the most compelling story — whether a tightly edited signature carte, a generous all-day offer or a tasting journey rooted in local terroir. Composition, balance and a strong sense of place all count.
Best Guest Experience
Awarded for hospitality that lingers in the memory: the anticipatory service, the dietary care, the in-room and breakfast touches that make a hotel restaurant feel less like a venue and more like a generous host.
Who Should Enter
If your dining offer lives within a hotel or resort, there is a place for you here. The Hotel Restaurant Awards welcome a broad spectrum of properties and formats.
Grand City Hotels
Landmark properties whose signature restaurants and grand dining rooms anchor a city’s culinary reputation.
Boutique & Design Hotels
Intimate properties where a single, characterful restaurant defines the entire guest experience.
Rooftop & View Restaurants
Elevated dining rooms and terraces that pair memorable cooking with an unforgettable outlook.
All-Day Dining Brasseries
Versatile rooms serving breakfast through to supper, judged on the consistency they hold across every service.
Fine-Dining Hotel Restaurants
Destination tasting menus and chef-led concepts operating within a hotel setting.
Lodge & Retreat Kitchens
Remote and resort properties turning logistical challenge into a celebrated sense of place.
Hotel Culinary Teams
Executive chefs, food & beverage directors and brigades nominating the room they have built.
Bar & Lounge Dining
Lobby lounges and hotel bars where the plate is every bit as considered as the pour.
Benefits of Winning
Elevate Your Property’s Reputation
An award reframes your restaurant as a destination, not a default. It gives sales, marketing and reservations teams a credible, independent endorsement to share with guests, partners and press around the world.
Drive Covers and Room Nights
Recognition draws diners from beyond your guest list and gives travellers another reason to book direct. A celebrated restaurant lifts the whole property, turning a meal into a motive for the stay.
Honour and Retain Your Team
Hospitality talent stays where excellence is seen. A win validates years of effort across the kitchen and floor, strengthening pride, retention and your ability to recruit the next generation.
Join an International Community
Winners enter a respected global network of restaurants and hoteliers, with access to peers, profile-building opportunities and the enduring credibility of an internationally recognised mark of quality.
Judging Criteria
Every nomination is reviewed against a consistent framework by our panel of chefs, hoteliers and hospitality specialists. We weigh the food first, then the full arc of the experience that surrounds it.
- Cuisine — the quality, technique and identity of the cooking, and the integrity of its ingredients.
- Service — warmth, professionalism and the fluency with which the floor reads each guest.
- Ambience — the design, lighting, sound and sense of occasion the room creates.
- Consistency — reliable excellence across every service, from breakfast through to dinner.
- Innovation — menu creativity, sustainable practice and a willingness to evolve.
- Guest Experience — the seamless link between stay and table, and the care shown to every diner.
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Related Awards & Sectors
The Hotel Restaurant Awards sit within a wider family of honours. Discover the related Resort Restaurant Awards for properties beyond the hotel walls, or explore Fine Dining Awards, Casual Dining Awards and Café Awards. Browse every restaurant sector, view the full list of award categories, or see how this recognition extends across our Europe Restaurant Awards programme.
Frequently Asked Questions
Not necessarily. Many of the finest hotel restaurants serve a mix of resident and external diners, and both models are welcome. What we assess is the quality of the dining experience itself — whether or not the room depends on walk-in trade.
The full day counts. Hotel dining is defined by its breadth, so our judges value consistency across breakfast, lunch and dinner. A restaurant that treats its morning service with the same care as its evening menu stands out strongly in this category.
Yes. We have a dedicated Best New Hotel Restaurant honour for openings within their first two years, judged on identity, ambition and the confidence of the offer rather than longevity. Newly opened rooms are warmly encouraged to enter.
Either is welcome. Nominations may come from the executive chef, the food and beverage director, hotel management, or a third party such as a guest or industry colleague. The submission should simply reflect the restaurant accurately and completely.
All nominations are assessed against the same framework — cuisine, service, ambience, consistency, innovation and guest experience. Properties are considered in context, so an intimate boutique room is weighed on its own terms rather than against a grand city flagship.