Oak Panelled Dining Room at The George Hotel

One of the famous coaching inns on the road from London to Edinburgh, and a haven of all things sound and as near perfect as one is ever likely to get. Nowadays, leave Edinburgh by a comfortable 8.00 am and you can be in the hotel by 12.30, enjoying a preliminary libation to lunch. You can choose between the oak-panelled dining room, the more relaxed garden room or on good days al fresco in the courtyard. All in their own way are excellent. The menus are if anything fairly staid, with more variation in the Garden Room and the classic dishes in the dining room. Service is prompt and genuinely attentive.

In the main dining room the menu choices could include to begin with: salmon and spring onion fish cakes on a red pepper coulis served with herb leaves; chicken liver paté with an orange and redcurrant sauce - with toast; half lobster served cold with a thick mayonnaise; seared sea scallops on a jerusalem artichoke purée or smoked haddock and chive risotto topped with a soft poached egg.

With mains running from the traditional English sirloin of beef, roasted rare to medium, carved off the bone at your table, with Yorkshire pudding and hot horseradish sauce or rack of lamb cooked pink with a garlic and herb crust, served with a redcurrant and rosemary jus to the more inventive calf's liver with braised puy lentils and smoked bacon jus or breast of chicken stuffed with white pudding, wrapped in bacon on a wild mushroom tagliatelle. Desserts are from the trolley, and there is a good selection of cheeses as well.

John Hoskins's wine list is awesome and The George was shortlisted for the AA Wine Award in 2000. Amongst many other delights three old Ports are listed; a 1927 Fonseca, a 1912 Taylor and a 1904 Cockburn. As one would expect many wines can be bought by the glass and house wine starts at a very reasonable £13.95, but they have a good choice at under £20 a bottle; also, as they apply a cash mark-up system rather than a percentage one, it is an excellent place to drink quality wine with their delicious food.