Restaurant-Guide.com
hand picked restaurants

The distinctive Grade II Grosvenor makes a very good match for the historic town that it serves, with a rambling ground floor of tremendous character and a slightly old-fashioned, in the best sense, approach to such matters as personal service and care of their guests.

The Hotel is part of the Best Western group, almost always an indication of professional attention to detail. This is particularly the case in the restaurant which has a truly international flavour backed by well-starched table settings that include sparkling glassware.

Starters set the pace with an oriental duck salad on mixed leaves with an oriental dressing, salmon and crab fishcakes on roquette salad with a light Thai cream, any of which can be followed with a refresher course of lemon, blackcurrant or mango sorbet.

Pan-fried medallions of beef with a Stilton cheese rarebit on a potato rosti and drizzled with port wine and tomato concasse reduction open up the mains selection, with steamed lemon sole fillets stuffed with prawn mousse, set on crushed herb potatoes, with roasted cherry tomatoes and dill butter cream doing ample justice to the restaurant's approach to fish.

The treacle tart served with warm vanilla custard brings a touch of classicism to the desserts, along with the Normandy crêpes, filled with apples and cinnamon and laced with toffee sauce and ice cream.

With New World wines once again beating the French in blind tastings it is time to pay close attention to the wine list, especially one as well travelled as this version. A comparison between the Californian Hidden Falls Merlot and the French Beaujolais, Domaine Pavillon de Chavannes, as served in French Embassies throughout the world, should make for some interesting observation.

Carluccio's was started by Antonio and Priscilla Carluccio as a small café and shop stocking Italian food and ingredients in 1991, and grew into a restaurant serving authentic cuisine at sensible prices in 1999. Antonio is an expert on food and has been a wine merchant, restaurant manager and owner, cookery expert on television and author of twelve cookery books. It is therefore not surprising, that today Carluccio's has over fourty-nine outlets across the UK.

Antonio believes Italian cookery involves minimum fuss and maximum flavour. This is exactly what his restaurants try to do by using fresh produce, and working largely with families who make things the traditional way - with care. Their passion also translates into special events like hands-on cookery classes and recipe sharing, Antonio and his team regularly organise for interested guests. They also offer takeaways and a catering service.

The breakfast menu offers croissants and breads served with butter and preserves or honey and free range eggs, either scrambled or fried and served with pancetta or ciabatta. They also have long cured Parma ham and healthier options like muesli and fruits. These are best had with coffee, tea or freshly squeezed juice. Carluccio's offers an impressive list of white, red, rosé and sparkling wines which complement your meal.

The restaurants offer a range of soup and salads which give your meal a nutritious start before moving on to the mains. If you like pasta, enjoy the small filled parcels served in a ham and cream sauce, or sample the Neapolitana spaghetti with whole fresh clams, garlic, herbs and chilli. The branzino con salsa e patate, fillet of pan fried sea bass served with tomato salsa and sautéed potatoes and Somerset rib-eye steak with rosemary potatoes, called bistecca di bue con patate, are good options too. If you are looking for something lighter, you could opt for the numerous sides called contorni and panini.

In the Tuscany region of Italy, meals end simply with almond biscuits dipped in a sweet local wine, Vin Santo and eaten. You can enjoy that experience at Carluccio's, or settle for a more conventional dolci of tiramisu, warm chocolate and kahlua pudding, your choice of Italian cheeses or gelatos in different flavours.

If you fancy eating and drinking in the place that is reputed to have served as William Shakespeare's off licence, The Vintner is for you. The fine timber-framed building has been little altered since it was built in the late-1400s and provides a handsome setting for the café bar, a restaurant and private dining in the Banquet Room.

Handy for the Royal Shakespeare Theatres and open seven days a week, the cuisine ranges from traditional English cooking through to pan European, and draws on fresh, local produce. Visitors and locals mingle cheerfully, assisted by a wine list that will take you on a challenging journey round the globe, all of which helps towards creating the high zing factor that rings around the ancient beams.

The Vintner has to be one of the busiest places in town. After some five hundred years, it's still privately owned. In 1600, John Smith traded here as a wine merchant and it's reputed that William Shakespeare came here to buy his wine. If the list which he was able to choose from then bears any resemblance to the one on offer to those who eat and drink there now, then Will certainly knew a thing or two!

The Vintner offers a modern café bar and a handsome restaurant. The Private Dining Room is an ideal setting for a wedding breakfast, a reunion, that special birthday party or a meeting of the Board perhaps?

Around 450 years ago William Shakespeare presented the first performance of his new play, Midsummer Night's Dream, at Alveston Manor. Nowadays the Manor is more geared to providing good food for earnest attenders at conferences and The Manor Grill offers a wide-ranging cuisine to appeal to most tastes. In the balmy days of summer one can enjoy more informal meals on the terraces and before the play, for which the Manor is conveniently located.