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Those who feel a boathouse cannot be an attractive place to dine should think again, for things are a little different at the Cotswold Water Park Hotel. The Old Boathouse is a charming bar and restaurant that gives guests an opportunity to relax over good food and drink while enjoying picturesque views of the lake.

The menu offers home cooked modern British food created using fresh locally sourced ingredients. Amongst seven starters, look out for a chicory, poached pear, Oxford Blue cheese and walnut Caesar salad with croutons and Parmesan shavings, or enjoy a simple free-range Scotch egg with chilli jam and a mixed leaf salad garnish.

These could be followed by butcher Jesse Smith's curried chicken and mango sausages served with bacon crushed new potatoes and a red wine jus, or Cornish grey mullet and saffron risotto with wilted spinach and blistered vine cherry tomatoes.

The Boathouse serves breakfast until 12 noon, and a lunch menu of baguettes and light main courses is offered up to 6pm.

As Michael Caine might have said, not many people have heard of Ewen, which is all part of its undeniable charm, tucked away in a quiet Cotswold village. The pub's history can be traced back to 1563 and once ensconced in the Post Horn Bar you may well feel that not a great deal has changed. To say 'atmospheric' could be the understatement of the month.

All of these, and more, qualities are alive and well in the restaurant. On offer could be

a pate made from chicken livers and flavoured with wild mushrooms served with bread, a welcome relief from toast that all too often disintegrates upon contact into a thousand pieces. A kebab made up scallops and tiger prawns comes on a cous-cous of lemon and parsley with a crème fraiche dressing of just the right consistency. In the realms of mains there is the Wild Duck platter, an assembly of meats, cheese and roasted Mediterranean vegetables, with olives and bread. Or you could restore your faith in the humble burger with the truly delicious Wild Duck beefburger, made with meat from Michael Hart Family Butchers in Cricklade. Fish comes overnight from Brixham, retaining its very recent and close acquaintance with the sea, knowing which you might be tempted by the wokfried monkfish with lemon and black pepper, sweet potato mash, a rocket and spinach salad with an aged balsamic dressing. Prices are incredibly reasonable for such appealing food.

A wine list of considerable character all adds to the pleasure of this relaxing and thoroughly genuine place.

Barnsley House is an exquisite stone-built Gloucestershire country house, dating from 1697, more recently the home of Rosemary Verey, the distinguished garden designer who gave many years of her life to the gardens before she died in 2001.

Now transformed into a country house hotel, activity at Barnsley tends to focus on the dining room, served by Franco Taruschio, formerly of the Walnut Tree Inn at Abergavenny. Franco has set out to combine Italian tradition with local produce and ingredients, an ambition in which he has succeeded with his customary flair. Starters could include lobster alla sarda, parma ham with pear and coriander or zucchini soup with prawns and olive oil. A pasta course can be used as an additional remove, a starter or even as a main. One of the most notable pasta courses is the vincisgrassi maceratcese, an 18th century origin baked pasta with porcini, ham and truffles. For mains, the rack of lamb with deep fried peas, beans and artichokes makes an interesting blend, not to say a substantial dish. However many fall for the attractions of Lady Llanover's salted duck, cold sliced duck served with pickled kumquat and gooseberry. The mixed ices that follow, tea, rhubarb and strawberry have all the flavour and delicacy of the home made product coupled with ingredients from the garden.

Service and locale are of the high order one might expect, with enough formality to make eating there a special occasion, whilst remaining friendly and attentive. For three courses the price of £46 does not seem unreasonable given the quality and care.

Though this still looks like an old-fashioned pub, in reality it is more a rather upmarket restaurant, though orders have to be placed at the bar, and then the food is brought to the table.

Their talented chef, Graham Grafton has won national recognition and many accolades during the last four years at The Village Pub. Before that he came from the Greenhouse in London where he spent two years as Head Chef. Previously he has worked at other high-class restaurants including Bibendum, The Ivy and Le Caprice.

Dishes could include chicken liver and foie gras parfait with fig chutney; cream of fennel, potato, leek and thyme soup or grilled mackerel, courgettes, citrus fruit and olive oil to start. Followed by: poached leg of mutton, carrots, potatoes, leeks and pearl barley with capers; cider braised chicken leg, apples, onions and new potatoes or roast salmon with pasta, clams, tomato and garlic.

Finally to finish, they might offer: coconut tart with lemon curd ice cream; honey roast apple cinnamon toast with crème fraiche; steamed apricot pudding, vanilla custard or chocolate marquise with almond biscuits.

They also have six bedrooms, all with bath or shower.

Please note that the E-Mail Contact is for enquiries only, not for bookings.

Pizza Express remains a hugely popular bedrock of casual eating. Its popularity is testimony to the fact that across the country, they have restaurants where you will always be guaranteed a good nosh, with children's tastes being well catered for.

Pizza Express has gone even more Roman, and following the success of that particular example of listening to their public have introduced Romana pizzas, including the scorching Etna and the hearty Siciliana.

These pizzas are now thinner, bigger and crispier, and if that sounds like a marketing line, it is. However, unlike many such lines, this one is true, and their quality is always consistent, though cleverly they have still managed to retain a homemade feel to their pizzas.

As an alternative to pizza, try their pollo pesto - cavatappi pasta with torn chicken breast, mushrooms, red onions and mozzarella in a creamy gruyere, parmesan and pesto sauce and finished with grana padano - or the niçoise salad with mixed leaves, yellowfin tuna, free range egg, green beans, potatoes and tomatoes with olives, anchovies, capers and house dressing.

Many of the big chains have come a long way, and Pizza Express is certainly amongst them. One of the first to be quoted on the Stock Exchange - in 1993 - Pizza Express is not a franchise operation and retains tight control through its own staff.

Their wine list - though short - contains some surprisingly good offerings, especially their intense Australian Chardonnay, and a big, full-bodied Merlot from Cusumano, Sicilia.

Cirencester is well known for harbouring an Agricultural College of great renown (most graduates would deny there is any other) and at nearby Cirencester Park the noble game of polo is played with all the ferocity and skill that it traditionally demands. It comes as no surprise therefore to discover that one of the most successful restaurants in the area has dubbed itself The Polo Canteen. As befits the title the interior is a touch colonial as well as very jolly and robust, and high standards are demanded and delivered in this, and other, respects, one of which is the wine list - sheer joy.

The menu, of course, is paramount. Starters can be chosen from a lengthy and mouthwatering list that includes warm hash browns made with chicken livers served with pickled beetroot and a frisse salad, grilled tiger prawns with sweet and sour noodles and soy sauce, not to mention a prawn and avocado Caesar salad. There is also much emphasis on garlic bread.

An item mysteriously referred to as Polo Fish Special is available on enquiry, so that treat will be left to you. Lest your courage should fail you there's a confit of guinea fowl leg with creamed sweet potato (memorable), green beans and red wine sauce, or a chump of English lamb, presumably not a reference to a less skilled member of the team, with chive and onion marmalade and rosemary gravy. Puddings are go and one of the most interesting is - once again - the Polo Special and yes, you've guessed, details on application. How we Brits love our little secrets. All in all it's a great place and if you can't reach the bar first go I shouldn't make an issue of it.

A fine old house, formerly the home of a prosperous Cotswold merchant, recently extended but leaving the 17th century façade intact. The atmosphere of calm and quiet order is relaxing in itself and coupled with the fresh English cuisine makes for refreshment of the soul, whether your stay be short or longer.

Start with a buffalo salad, by way of a change, or possibly a gravalax of Scottish salmon, before going on to some panfried prime British sirloin steak, with tasty roast breast of duck as an alternative, though with all those famous Forestdale ducks in the bathrooms a little care might be in order. The tart au citron invariably satisfies with a tia maria parfait as fallback. A good wine list also carries French house wine at £10.60 and New World at £11.50.