Booking a table for a business lunch can be a bit of a minefield, so any awards must surely help sort the wheat from the chaff? But does a smattering of stars or restaurant rosettes ensure pleasant surroundings, great service or even topnotch food? What do AA and Michelin inspectors expect of the restaurants they visit, and crucially for consumers, what do their accolades promise diners?

“Restaurant rating schemes in hotels are essential for customers to be able to differentiate different levels of food quality with confidence,” says Len Louis, CEO of hotel consortium Classic British Hotels. “Every hotel, without exception, will claim that they serve delicious food, but customers today are very savvy and prefer a reputable independent assessment of food quality. Certainly the AA Rosettes rating is the best recognised hotel restaurant scheme in the UK,” he adds. “Most of our member hotels have anything from one to four AA Rosettes and even a Michelin star,” he says. From a hotelier’s point of view, “it certainly does influence the number of customers that select a hotel to stay in and/or dine at as a result”.

Hotels can be awarded anything from one to five AA Rosettes for their food quality, and judging is focused on the food, so don’t judge a restaurant by its décor! “AA restaurant awards are about the food on the plate, not the service, atmosphere or even wine list,” affirms Peter Birnie, Chief Hotel and Restaurant Inspector for the AA.

The more AA rosettes a restaurant has, the greater is the quality of ingredients and more consistently good the cooking across all dishes on all menus, in all seasons. Thankfully the days of serving tinned Heinz soup Fawlty Towers-style are fast fading. As consumers become more sophisticated, so the trend for fresh, locally produced, seasonal produce is catching on in good hotel restaurants. And let’s not forget restaurants cannot rest on their laurels, since they can gain, as well as lose, rosettes each year, keeping standards up.

Proof of the pudding

Hotel group Macdonald Hotels’ attention to its restaurants in the past three-four years, has paid dividends. Three years ago, the group had 15 rosettes, and this has now more than doubled to 35. “For us it is not just about getting rosettes, it is about tidying up the quality of the food,” says award-winning Catering Director Alan Swinson. “We have always been passionate about ingredients,” he says.

The hotel group’s dedication is illustrated by the Rosette Academy, developed two years ago with the AA. Macdonald hotel chefs must go through the academy, which includes workshops on how to create dishes and menus from freshly prepared food. ‘Vision’ and ‘focus’ are buzzwords, and no menu is created without being thoroughly tried and tested first. The Dean Timpson restaurant at Macdonald’s popular hotel The Compleat Angler in Marlow has an impressive Three AA Rosettes. “Our aspiration for 2008 is to achieve a Michelin star,” says Swinson.

In for a penny, in for a pound...

Award-winning The French at The Midland Hotel (QHotels) in Manchester has a very respectable Two AA Rosettes and a loyal following, according to Regional Director of Sales, Peter Shrigley. “We are in the city centre and the rosettes give the place an extra draw,” he says.

“However, we do have to get people past the perception it will be expensive. The pricing of The French sits well with its competitors and we actually offer a great-value set menu from Tuesday to Thursday.”

Shrigley has aspirations for The French. “We recently sent a research team to London to restaurants with Michelin stars, to see what we can develop,” he says. The restaurant is not short of accolades – it was recently awarded Restaurant of the Year by Marketing Manchester. In addition, Maître D’ Bruno Lucchi won a lifetime achievement award from Cheshire Life magazine for his 32 years’ dedication to The French and the hospitality industry in the North West.

One of The Midland’s competitors is Radisson Edwardian Manchester, where Opus One also has Two AA Rosettes. “We would like to push for Three Rosettes,” says Executive Head Chef David Sharp, whose menu offers 12 main dishes. “If we were going for that, I would cut it down to eight. The higher you go, the more work is needed on dishes, and at the last minute too. However, awards can lead people to think you are expensive,” he says. “Opus One looks expensive, but is inviting and the bar has a good reputation.”

“There has been a definite improvement in the standard of restaurants in both urban and rural locations, so it is vital our hotels set standards that are as high as these, if not better,” says Marketing Manager for Mercure Hotels, Ian Butlin. “AA Rosettes help us demonstrate that the food offering in our hotels is of the very best quality and that there is no need to dine elsewhere.” Eight Mercure properties have AA Rosettes.

Michelin magic

Like AA Rosettes, Michelin stars reflect the quality of the cuisine rather than restaurant décor, and boil down to five key criteria: Quality of ingredients, skill in preparing them and in combining flavours, level of creativity, consistency of culinary standards and value for money. Both AA and Michelin institutions employ professionals who visit restaurants anonymously.

Despite guests being deterred by the misguided perception that restaurants with rosettes or Michelin stars will be prohibitively expensive – in actual fact, a meal needn’t cost cost an arm and a leg (see Brasserie Roux’s excellent-value menu in Dial’s Food & Drink section if you don’t believe us).

Indeed, booking a table at your hotel’s award-winning restaurant could be the best-value blow-out you ever made if a fantastic working lunch seals that deal you’d been hoping for