AA Rosettes 2026: Ikoyi and five others reach four

The AA has named six restaurants at four rosettes in its 2026 update, with Ikoyi and Hide and Fox among the winners and no kitchen reaching the maximum five.

The list also includes Frog by Adam Handling in London, Inver in Strathlachlan on Argyll and Bute, LI~LY by Aiden Byrne in Knutsford, Cheshire, and The Cocochine in London. All six move up to the AA's second-highest tier, a grade the assessment body reserves for cooking it rates as among the very best in the UK.

Ikoyi, chef Jeremy Chan's West African-inspired dining room in St James's, has held a Michelin star since 2018 and built its reputation on dishes like buttermilk plantain with smoked Scotch bonnet. Adam Handling's Frog, in Covent Garden, holds one Michelin star and runs a British-produce menu built around foraging and supplier relationships.

Four rosettes without a five: British fine dining keeps its ceiling exactly where it was.

Four rosettes, but no five in 2026

A further 21 restaurants took three rosettes this year, including AngloThai, KYND at Hampton Manor, Lofft in Cardiff, Luna Omakase, Orrery by Pierre Minotti, and Tom Brown at the Capital. The AA runs a 25-criteria inspection carried out by anonymous assessors, scoring each visit from one to 20 points; only scores above ten qualify for a rosette at all, and five rosettes remain rare even by the scheme's own admission.

"These awards recognise incredible people in our industry who care deeply about what they do to give their guests the very best experience," said Simon Numphud, the AA's managing director.

Seventy years of the rosette scheme

The 2026 results mark 70 years since the AA introduced rosettes, a scheme that runs alongside the Michelin Guide as a parallel measure of British and Irish kitchens rather than a rival to it. Restaurants can hold both AA rosettes and Michelin stars at once, as Ikoyi and Frog by Adam Handling both do.

None of this year's four-rosette restaurants moved up to five, a grade the AA has awarded only a handful of times in its history. The gap between four and five rosettes has widened rather than narrowed over the past decade, inspectors say, as the top tier increasingly rewards consistency across a full year of anonymous visits rather than a single standout meal.

For diners, the rosette list works less as a discovery tool than a confirmation: three of this year's six four-rosette restaurants are in London, a city that added new openings like Cassette in Covent Garden this month alone.