A POPULAR Italian Restaurant has taken the crown for the best restaurant in England in a national business award.

San Pietro in Windermere has won the best restaurant in the country at the England Business Awards for 2021 and 2022.

The restaurant, at Jester Court on Birch Street, is run by husband and wife Jason and Yui Turner since 2018.

Speaking of his business's success Jason said it was an awesome feeling although he was quite surprised.

He said: “A few months ago we had just won best Italian in the county so we were quite surprised to have been crowned overall winners of the best restaurant in all the regions of England, it was really good.

“Since lockdown, we have been lucky that business has been so busy, it’s been phenomenal.

“We are now in our fourth year and we are growing month by month, we evolve the place, continuously, we don’t just sit down and produce something and sit back, we evolve month by month with every element of the business.

“We wouldn’t be here without our fantastic staff. The whole team works seriously hard.

“We run it very differently to other places, we feel like the staff is part of the business, we take really good care of them. They get seven or eight weeks' paid holiday every year and we treat them on staff night outs, we will stay at the Hilton and go to nice Italian restaurants.

“We look after our team because they clearly look after us, we wouldn’t be in this position without them.”

Jason also thanked all of the loyal clients they have received other the years.

He said: “I would like to thank each and every one of our clients who have continued to support us, without your support this would never be possible.