Gordon Ramsay is opening a major new countryside restaurant in northwest England

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay is expanding his culinary empire even further. Just over a week after he announced the opening of his 100th restaurant – in one of London’s tallest towers, no less – he’s confirmed plans for an eatery which will be his first new out-of-town establishment in the UK in decades. 

The iconic Scottish chef’s new resto will open at The Mere, a five-star hotel in Cheshire, and it’ll be his first new British fine-dining restaurant outside London in over 20 years. While Ramsay has opened plenty of chain restaurants around the country (particularly of his ‘Street’ brand) over the last two decades, his fine-dining establishments are rarer: the last British one outside London was The Amaryllis in Glasgow in 2001, which was awarded a Michelin star before closing its doors in 2004. 

Ramsay’s restaurant will be called, appropriately, Gordon Ramsay at The Mere, and it’ll be open to both guests of the resort and visitors. It’ll apparently boast modern cuisine that matches its pastoral surroundings – the hotel sits in 150 acres of Cheshire parkland, overlooking Mere Lake. 

The Mere is a golf resort and spa near Knutsford which has serious historical cred, having been recorded in the Domesday Book back in 1086. It’s currently in the midst of a vast £60 million refurbishment led by UAE-based property developer Select Group, which will see it become a Fairmont property. Alongside fine-dining, the refurb will upgrade the Mere’s spa and boost the hotel from 81 rooms to 116.

This isn’t Ramsay’s first tango with Fairmont. The multi-Michelin starred chef already runs three restaurants in London’s The Savoy, including The Savoy Grill, The River Restaurant and Restaurant 1890.

Did you see that Gordon Ramsay is opening his 100th restaurant this May?