Endeavour, The

In 1768 James Cook set out from Plymouth on the first of his great voyages of discovery and charting in a Whitby collier-type vessel, one that he knew only too well from his Yorkshire background. Had he known then that a restaurant with rooms not far from his birthplace would commemorate the name of that vessel over 200 years later he would probably have been quietly pleased.

He would certainly have enjoyed the culinary achievements of Brian Kay and Charlotte Willoughby who are not altogether unaided by the fact that if the local fish jumped the wrong way they would end up in the kitchen - should that be galley?

The creamed fennel soup makes a memorable starter, never mind its humility, and king scallops, dusted in oven-dried coral, seared and served on a rich risotto puts a refreshing new light on that excellent commodity. Main courses are more conventional, like the sirloin steak roulade stuffed with brandied raisins and pine nuts, and so are the puddings that are fiendishly tempting, witness the apple and mincemeat crumble with cream.

Their residential monthly Catch and Cook courses cover all aspects of seafood cuisine from rod to table. Sadly it would have been lost on Cook that TV's Inspector Morse revealed, shortly before his dramatic demise in an Oxford quad, that his other name was Endeavour.