They're the perfect bar snacks and healthy competition has kept London's restaurants keeping up their A-game for serving the best scotch eggs.

Many, many eggs were judged - but only a few could be winners. Here's what happened at the 2019 Scotch Egg Challenge.

The Scotch Egg Challenge has become one of the highlights of London's food calendar. If you've somehow been unaware of it until now, let us educate you. Essentially, it sees some of London's top chefs descend on a pub for one night to produce what can be argued are the very best scotch eggs in London. These are all put to a jury who decide upon who to give one of London's most sought-afterawards. 

Previous winners have

Ever read about the Scotch Egg Challenge and thought that you'd like to try it - but maybe with slightly fewer eggs? Well, The Jugged Hare in The City is here to help. They're introducing an Egg Flight just for Easter which will let you taste a whole range. This will be a basket of goose, hen,

Islington pub The Canonbury Tavern was packed out last night with chefs and foodies all keen to discover who would be turn out this year's winning entry in the 8th Scotch Egg Challenge.

23 restaurants and gastropubs were in the running this year and the judging panel facing all those eggs were new Sunday Times Magazine food editor Lisa Markwell, Guardian and New Statesman writer Felicity Cloake, Restaurant Magazine

Last night, the competition to REALLY test the judges taking part was unleashed as Scotch Egg Challenge 2017 took place. Those judging had to wade through 15 different scotch eggs in order to crown this year's winner - with beef, prawn, veggie, haggis and more scotch eggs being thrown into the mix.

But of the 15 - only three went away with prizes and those were....

• 1st place - The Drapers

Updated 19/1/17 with shortlist

After six years, the Scotch Egg Challenge is now one of the key dates in the London food calendar. This year's event will take place at The Canonbury in Islington on 8 February.

Confirmed judges for the event itself include Fay Maschler from the Evening Standard, Ben Chapman of Smoking Goat and Kiln and Bob Granleese of the Guardian, while the evening will be compered by Joe

Twenty two Scotch Eggs. That's an awful lot of Scotch Eggs. This was the daunting, yet glorious prospect at this year's Scotch Egg Challenge, involving chefs from some of the country's best restaurants and gastropubs competing to come up with the finest result.

An expert panel of judges, Fay Maschler, Groucho Club executive chef Henry Harris, the Guardian's Bob Granleese and restaurant PR Hugh Wright, had the

For the past few years, the Scotch Egg Challenge at the Ship has been a huge deal (and last year Hot Dinners was on judges' table too when The Cornwall Project won). But as the Ship's landlord moved to take over The Canonbury Tavern, the challenge has also moved to its new Islington home.

So if you're a

After donut burgers it was, we suspect, the next logical step. This is the scotch egg burger - being launched by Yeah Burger, who have a couple of residencies set up across town. It is, yes, a burger