A BRIDPORT restaurant is celebrating making the Good Food Guide just 15 months after opening.

Chez Cuddy, in East Street, is one of just 1,300 of the UK's best restaurants to make it into the guide produced by Which? Books.

The restaurant is owned by Badir Hadj-Aissa, a former manager of The Atlantic Bar and Grill and Babylon in London, and his wife Joanne.

He said: "We were in the top 800 or so and are very humbled by it. It is fantastic for us and fantastic for the town.

"Our aim is to be seen as a nice restaurant at reasonable prices and it is working. We would like to thank all our customers for their support."

Chef Adam Rendell, who has been with the restaurant from the start, was head chef at Dartington Hall before Chez Cuddy.

Mr Hadj-Aissa said: "It is all his cooking. We discuss the menu, but he does the creative bit. We have a good camaraderie and work fantastically well together. The challenge for us is to keep improving the standards - and the next challenge will be to go one day for a Michelin Star if possible."

The restaurant, named after Mr Hadj-Aissa's brother-in-law Cuddy, who died in the September 11 attacks in 2001, serves brasserie-style dishes at lunch and a range of European cuisine at night.

To be included in the Good Food Guide restaurants must be recommended by customers before passing an independent inspection. The 2005 edition was published yesterday.