It is no coincidence that Norfolk has more than its fair share of top of the range restaurants and places where they eat, to paraphrase the Prayer Book. There is just something subtly different about the county that reflects in so many ways, and the provision, preparation and serving of largely unpretentious but superb quality food says much about Norfolk itself.

Hunstanton, blessed with the title of the driest place in Britain, is naturally a place of sunshine, good cheer, fine golf, magnificent land and seascapes in a county that has impeccable credentials in antiquity. Sunny Hunny as it is affectionately called, has been mercifully by-passed by rail, road and air in any major way over the centuries, as has most of the rest of Norfolk, making Heacham Manor a haven of peace and sanity.

Accommodation at the Manor is an exercise in the way things should be done, with an enviable variety to suit all tastes. The eponymous Manor Suite has all the luxury of the other de-luxe four poster rooms, but with added space and a spacious bay window from which the gardens, drive and pond are part of the view as you relax in the sofa with a glass of something. Well equipped bathrooms en suite carry more than a whiff of the fresh lavender oil harvested close by from the purple fields of Heacham, and fluffy towels, wonderfully welcoming beds and all the little things that count, make all the rooms special.

Which brings us to The Mulberry Restaurant at Heacham Manor, though that is built in the local Carr stone, sitting prettily with its tall decorated chimneys and large welcoming windows, the restaurant is actually sited in a conservatory attached to it. Behind the scenes Head chef Neil Rutland and French pastry chef Fabien see to it that standards are set and kept, both constantly on the lookout to improve and learn.

The menu is alive with local names and sources, and guests are impressed to find that their sirloin steak is cut from the Queen's special reserve beef at the nearby Sandringham Estate, served with potato and gruyère pie,red onion roasted with garlic and thyme, garlic roast button mushrooms and a blue cheese sauce made from Mrs Temple's award winning Binham Blue, created in the Stilton style.

That king of dishes, roast lemon sole, supplied by Cole's of Kings Lynn who also look after the royal household at Sandringham, is served on the bone with courgette ribbons, lemon and Norfolk cockle butter, caper berries and a char grilled lime wedge. The Manor has its own vegetable garden and it is there that the beetroot which provides the relish to go with sauté Holkham Estate pigeon breast is grown.

The name of Arthur Howells, the widely respected butcher from nearby Wells-next-the-Sea provides such delicacies as warm smoked sweet cure bacon lardons to go in a bacon poached egg salad, and fine Norfolk bred pork. From a star-studded cast of desserts I would commend the mille feuille, made from fine English berries supplied by Coldham Fruit of Wisbech, stacked with Chantilly cream and layered with fine puff pastry sheets, served with shredded fresh mint. As for the selection of English cheeses, served with sliced Marsala poached figs I try hard to remain the objective observer and escape by saying 'just go there'.

A wine list that combines relative brevity with an uncommonly good relationship with the menu offers towards 30 wines that gallop around the world to give more or less everyone a chance. Few exceed the £30 mark and several are by the glass. Guy Saget tops the list with a good white Burgundy whilst a Palesa Pinotage demonstrates the sort of reds that are coming from South Africa these days at prices which wine for wine run rings round some of the European bids. Lanson Black Label leads the champagnes.

Like everything else at Heacham Manor, their Website is in good taste and informs lucidly and with a quiet discretion.