Blackpool sister restaurants among most highly rated in the UK

OpenTable, one of the world’s leading online restaurant reservation platforms, announced its most highly rated restaurant of 2021 and the Blackpool pair were on the list.

Michael Wan's Mandarin, on Clifton Street, and sister restaurant Michael Wan's Wok Inn, on The Promenade, both got the nod after judges assessed more than 960,000 verified reviews submitted in the last year by OpenTable diners at restaurants across the UK.

The Mandarin and Wok Inn were the only two restaurants listed from Lancashire, helping boost representation from the North West - which managed just 14 of the top 100 spots - the majority being in London.

The latest accolades follow the Mandarin being voted the best Chinese restaurant in Europe, beating others in capital cities from Paris and London to Budapest and Copenhagen, in the 2019 Big 7 Travel website review.

Owners Pauline Lai-Thomas and husband Gareth were delighted with the honour.

Pauline said: "It’s been a tough 12 months for the hospitality industry, having to introduce new safety measures whilst also dealing with shortages in supplies and staff.

"It’s a real credit to the teams we have at our restaurants that they have managed to not just cope but excel at their work! Being featured in OpenTable’s Top 100 list shows that our team’s efforts are really recognised and appreciated by our customers.

“All we ever want is to provide the best food and service we can to make our customers happy, if we can do that successfully then we’re happy too.”

The Mandarin was founded by Hong Kong-born Michael Wan in 1961. He sold it to his goddaughter Pauline in 2004.

It was described by Jay Rayner as “one of Britain’s most venerable Cantonese restaurants” in The Guardian in 2018,and was voted UK’s Number 3 Chinese restaurant by TripAdvisor in 2014.

The couple opened the Wok Inn noodle bar on the Promenade near Talbot Square in 2018 to offer a more eclectic Asian food experience.

OpenTable is one of the largest global restaurant reservation platforms, now hosting over 10,000 restaurant in the UK, including 400 plus venues in Lancashire.