A restaurant recently described as a "refectory of awfulness" by one of Britain's star food writers has been named best in Oxford with the publication of The Good Food Guide 2002.

La Gousse d'Ail, in Woodstock Road, receives the city's highest rating - six out of ten - in the handbook generally considered the country's most reliable guide to eating out.

Owners Jayne and Jonathan Wright said the accolade proved the unfairness of the attack in August by Sunday Times critic AA Gill.

He criticised La Gousse d'Ail's decor as "a Penelope Keith memorial show home" and described one dish, with its wide variety of ingredients, as "an appalling blind-man's-deli-shoplifting spree".

But the GFG inspectors hail the "elegant and airy feel" of the place - run as the Lemon Tree until the end of last year - and the haute cuisine touches of Mr Wright's cooking, with its "dedicated workmanship" and "skilful handling" of ingredients.

Their view supports that of Oxford Mail writer Chris Gray, who called Mr Gill's attack "completely over the top" and added: "Taking a deliberate swipe at Oxford's best restaurant is designed to show us all what a wag he is."

Mrs Wright said: "Following 22 excellent reviews and one defiantly opposite one - where we feel A A Gill truly surpassed himself - to receive praise in the Good Food Guide, as well as three rosettes from the AA, within nine months of opening is the perfect end to our first year.

"The GFG is particularly pleasing because they base a large percentage of their scoring on customer feedback.

"They're very strict on the specifications and consistency of a restaurant's food and service and consequentially conduct several visits to be sure."

La Gousse d'Ail (the name means clove of garlic) is one of four Oxfordshire restaurants new to the guide. The others are (with marks in brackets), Jonathan's at The Angel, in Burford (5); The Swan, in Tetsworth (4); and The Greyhound, in Rotherfield Peppard, near Henley (1).

The Cherwell Boathouse, in Bardwell Road, Oxford (3), and the Sir Charles Napier, in Chinnor (4), receive special praise for inclusion in the guide for more than 20 years.

Raymond Blanc's Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons, in Great Milton, remains head and shoulders above every restaurant in the county, with a mark of 9, which is shared by only three others in the country. None receives 10.

Other Oxford restaurants featured are Le Petit Blanc, in Walton Street (4); the Al-Shami, in Walton Crescent (20); the Old Parsonage, in Banbury Road (2); and the White House, in Botley Road (1).

Elsewhere, there are listings for The Beetle and Wedge, Moulsford (5); The Feathers, Woodstock (4); The Goose, Britwell Salome (4); the Chav Brasserie, Chipping Norton (4); the Leatherne Bottel, Goring (4); The Angel, Long Crendon (3); The Lamb, Buckland (2); and The Old Trout, Thame (2).

The Good Food Guide 2002 is published by Which? Books, at £15.99.