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hand picked restaurants

In an age of minimalist approaches to style and food, some restaurants like Shagorika still prefer to go the old way with carpeted floors, cosy booths, and a bright pink interior. What matters is that the comfortable refuge pleases its customers as much if not more than any other contemporary restaurant.

Located in the heart of the market town of Market Harborough, Shagorika is family-run since 1980. The warm staff and good quality food have made it one of the best dining destinations in the area.

A plate of spicy fried Bengali fish wrapped in mashed potato makes for an invigorating starter, while the nuakali special prawn from southern Bangladesh is a good option for the main course. With 24 hours notice, you could enjoy Emperor Akbar's favourite dish of yoghurt and spice marinated ghee-roasted chicken stuffed with minced lamb and served with pilau rice, naan bread, and a hot sauce. Traditional favourites of tandoori, karahi, kurma, dhansak, balti, bhuna, and Madras are always available.

Excellent Indian draft and bottled beers complement the food.

Things seem to move fast at Wagamama - the Asian inspired, noodle restaurant chain that was started in 1992. As soon as you decide what you want to eat, your order is taken via a PDA, and wirelessly networked to the kitchen, so it can be made fresh and served right after. The restaurant chain does not believe in taking reservations, and all customers are seated on a first come, first serve basis. In fact, be aware that most of the tables are long ones and you will often be asked to share them.

The restaurants are modelled on traditional Japanese ramen bars that have been popular for hundreds of years - ramen are Japanese style noodles, served in a meat-based broth, topped with pork, dried seaweed or even corn. Chilli beef ramen, made of noodles in a spicy pork and chicken soup topped with a marinated and grilled sirloin steak and fresh vegetables, is hearty and satisfying.

Apart from ramen, you could opt for the coconut soup based kare noodles or teppan, cooked on a hot, flat griddle. They also offer many rice dishes like katsu curry, chicken fillet deep-fried in panko breadcrumbs, served with a lightly spiced curry sauce and sticky white rice. Vegetarians are definitely not ignored, as they can opt for saien soba, made using whole-wheat noodles in a soup topped with stir-fried vegetables, seasoned with soy sauce, sesame oil and garnished with sliced spring onion.

Meat and vegetable dumplings, skewered chicken, deep-fried prawns and raw salads double as both sides and starters. Steamed green soya-beans, called edamame, go well with drinks - hold them up to your mouth and squeeze the succulent beans from the pod. If you've noticed, Wagamama is more about eating healthy food fast and less about the order. Don't be surprised if you're served the main course before the side dish - order isn't important, the aim is, don't wait - just tuck in and share.

Wash down your meal with sake, plum wine or even a Japanese beer. Wind up your meal with coconut reika - three scoops of dairy coconut ice cream topped with a fresh, tangy mango sauce and toasted coconut flakes or the tamarind and chilli Pavlova, with a crunchy meringue base served with a raspberry and tamarind sauce.

At Wagamama, you can also shop for cookbooks, sauces, ramen bowls and t-shirts. The restaurant is all about enjoying genuine, reasonably priced, Pan-Asian cuisine in a sleek but informal setting.

The word tiffin is believed to have entered the English language when Indian custom superseded the British practice of an afternoon dinner, leading to a new word for the afternoon meal. The word is still used in India to refer to a light snack taken at any time of the day.

Let's move over to De Montford Street in Leicester, where The Tiffin is the name of a traditional Indian restaurant that serves excellent food created with flair, using ingredients of integrity.

A perfect lunch or evening meal there could begin with tangy chicken fried with cucumber and spices, or a plate of Indian cottage cheese barbecued with tomato, and peppers. The tandoori section embraces delicacies such as marinated and grilled tiger prawns or the well known tandoori chicken. Main courses yield specialities like tawa lamb with fresh herbs and spices; pan-fried fillets of salmon served on sizzling bed of onions, and Kashmiri vegetables cooked in cream and fruit.

House wine is available at a pleasantly modest price.

Stapleford Park is a place like no other, one of Britain's finest stately homes set in a relaxing country estate, where the traditional and the contemporary co-exist in perfect harmony. Surrounded by five hundred acres of parkland, lake and woods, originally created by the legendary Capability Brown, this is somewhere to find your perfect retreat.

With 2 AA Rosettes for the quality of its dining, you can enjoy delicious food, unobtrusive service in the uniquely elegant surroundings of the Grinling Gibbons dining room. Evening dinner is a mix of English and French cuisine with traditional Sunday lunch served at £27.50 for 3 courses.

This 18th century hotel with more recent additions is located on the edge of the Charnwood Forest between Leicester and Loughborough and has recently acquired new owners who have brought a fresh approach to the place. A priority has been the creation of the Buddon restaurant, named after a local stretch of woodland renowned for its hunting qualities.

A pressed terrine of local wild duck could reasonably be expected to hold that extra flavour and the apple and pear compote makes a good accompaniment: for those looking for something nearer the sea the smoked haddock and prawn salad or the roast fillets of red mullet with a herb crust make good reading. Not normally one for chicken unless I know its history I might nonetheless be moved to try the panfried breast of chicken filled with a wild mushroom and smoked bacon mousse astride a roasted red pepper coulis or more possibly the roast pheasant, also panfried, on a casserole of its leg. Desserts kick off with a lime custard pie with star fruit, or carambola to give everyone their due, and an interesting choice of Granny Smith apple fritters served with an apple cider soup.

The coffee comes with dainty little petit fours. The wine list is not vast but contains sufficient to cover all but the most demanding, starting with bottles at £11.