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Eden Bar and Restaurant, conveniently placed just off the Coventry ringway in an 18th century cottage, offers smartly produced stylish and contemporary Modern British dishes within an interior setting to match. Outside, against the red brick background of the cottage, a garden with heating and water feature and a courtyard, partly covered by a heated marquee, provides the ideal setting for alfresco dining.

Those looking for a friendly and relaxed atmosphere will take to Eden very easily. Music is totally background and non-competitive, allowing guests to enjoy their evening and feel at home, but without the washing up. Meals are served on two floors in spaces that lack clutter and distraction. Corporate functions, staff parties, weddings and birthdays all find that Eden can provide a convenient and welcoming place in which to do their thing.

We live in an age when the pattern of meal courses are changing, with tapas only one of the pressures being brought to bear. The menu at Eden is at ease with this trend and it is quite possible to create a meal that thinks outside the box, should you so wish. Stove and grill demonstrates around a dozen choices, some of which have a distinct brasserie-ish flavour to them. The English matured ribeye steak served with rustic fries and a rocket leaf salad may not shout its credentials from the menu rooftop, but certainly does on the plate. White fish wrapped in bacon is accompanied by sweet new potatoes and pesto salad, and pesto surfaces again with an accomplished pesto, pine nut and parmesan linguine.

Amongst smaller dishes, two of which could well combine to make a pleasant meal, expect to find fresh deep fried whitebait in Peroni beer batter served with paprika mayonnaise, or Eden's cheese on toast: garlic flatbread with mushrooms, blue cheese and smoked bacon. Thai mussels are, refreshingly, steamed with onions, garlic and coriander, thereby retaining their flavour and consistency more truthfully. Tapas are served on Friday and Saturday evenings until 10pm

A warm chicken Milanese salad served on baby potatoes, with tomatoes, peppers and rocket salad stands well as a dish on its own, and for those who find desserts a little too much, can well make a substitute. But for those who don't, treats await in the form of, for instance homemade cherry Bakewell tart with clotted cream and raspberry coulis, or Belgian waffles served with toffee sauce and caramelised bananas. An English cheese board ably fulfils the needs of those for whom no meal is complete with the entry of cheese at some point.

The wine list at Eden is still at the point of gestation and a recent tasting evening was a useful pointer towards what will undoubtedly be a list from across the world, embracing the fine, well-priced wines such as those emerging from South America and South Africa.

Eden Bar and Restaurant has captured the hearts of locals and visitors and is fast building a diner base of enthusiastic and perceptive followers. For further information reference to their Website will keep you up to date with developments.

Bella Italia is a restaurant that pulsates with Italian style and fashion, where the day starts with breakfast, not least the Inglese, the familiar bacon, sausage, mushroom, tomato and fried or scrambled eggs and sauté potatoes with ciabatta toast so beloved of hearty eaters seeking a good start to the day, particularly when they don't have to prepare it. A vegetarian option is available, along with the bambini of sausages, tomato and scrambled egg, or a strapazzata, scrambled eggs on ciabatta toast. A cappuccino or hot chocolate offers a more gentle awakening and croissant or pastries are welcome at almost any time.

It is always worth remembering that eating Italian is a great opportunity to work away through something rather more liberating than the conventional 3 course English meal. Little and often seems to be the motto but move on to the antipasti and it's immediately obvious this is no easy task, confronted with well over a dozen dishes, not one of which you really have the heart to turn down. The selezione classica assembles a few of the favourite starters; oven baked lemon and rosemary chicken wings, spiced meatballs, calamari, mini garlic butter-filled calzoni and lightly battered courgettes served with flamed pepper and lemon herb dips.

A speck e rucola pizza, added to a traditional margherita brings together two traditions with Italian speck ham providing the second, but it is within the pasta and risotto dishes that you can adapt almost any main ingredient, as well enjoy some of Italy's most traditional treats. Who can deny a well formed spaghetti Bolognese or penne Marco Polo? And not for nothing is a nicely prepared spaghetti carbonara the preferred dish of many.

From a selection of five choices amongst the secondi many will head unerringly for controfiletto ai ferri, a 7oz sirloin steak char-grilled to preference and served with garlic butter, roast field mushrooms, fries and rocket, or the fritto misto, lightly battered prawns, cod fillet, calamari and courgette with fries and a herb lemon and caper dip.

Could anything be more appropriate than The Godfather, for 1 or 2 naturally, with nutty chocolate fudge brownies, vanilla and toffee ice cream with chocolate sauce, fresh cream and wafer curls, and rest assured the coffee will do justice to the meal.

With a wine list that makes few concessions to other countries - and why should it - good Italian food can receive an equally national baptism by wine. For further enlightenment, news about their on-line shop and special deals, a click on their lively Website will reveal all.

With quality food, friendly staff, quick service and excellent value for money, Nando's is a great place to eat. Don't expect identikit, pre-fab restaurant interiors which are usually a staple of the larger chains; each restaurant is tailored to its local surroundings and customers, offering up a unique restaurant experience to go with the equally unique taste of legendary, Portuguese, Peri-Peri chicken.

Your peri-peri chicken, when the chips are down so to speak, is a fresh A grade chicken that has never seen the inside of a freezer, but having made the supreme sacrifice is butterfly-cut, marinated for 24 hours in a secret brew called - you've guessed - peri-peri, and is then cooked to your choice over an open flame.

There are, of course, many variations on this broad theme, numerous plays on words such as Nando's experi-perience, peri-peri good reasons why you should eat at a Nando's, and all one hopes is that for their sake chicken never goes out of fashion. New Nando's are opening all the time, peri-peri quickly in fact, the spicy bastes become hotter and more daring, and the full platter offers a whole chicken, large chips or spicy rice and Nando's salad or coleslaw.

Since chickens are vegetarian it seems logical you can order veggie or bean burgers and patties, and still feel the heat from the peppers. All in all, Nando's is hotly recommended for those occasions when you have a large following of permanently hungry children, or adults even, to keep happy - the only thing taken really seriously is the quality of those peri-peri good chickens.

Nando's is a place for bright people who love to laugh and love to eat, and is guaranteed to spice up your taste buds. Their fun approach to life means that when you visit Nando's you can fully relax without the airs and graces associated with more starchy dining out.

For the location of your nearest Nando's restaurant and a host of details about menus, parties and drinks, a click on their Website will reveal a Pandora's box of information.

With quality food, friendly staff, quick service and excellent value for money, Nando's is a great place to eat. Don't expect identikit, pre-fab restaurant interiors which are usually a staple of the larger chains; each restaurant is tailored to its local surroundings and customers, offering up a unique restaurant experience to go with the equally unique taste of legendary, Portuguese, Peri-Peri chicken.

Your peri-peri chicken, when the chips are down so to speak, is a fresh A grade chicken that has never seen the inside of a freezer, but having made the supreme sacrifice is butterfly-cut, marinated for 24 hours in a secret brew called - you've guessed - peri-peri, and is then cooked to your choice over an open flame.

There are, of course, many variations on this broad theme, numerous plays on words such as Nando's experi-perience, peri-peri good reasons why you should eat at a Nando's, and all one hopes is that for their sake chicken never goes out of fashion. New Nando's are opening all the time, peri-peri quickly in fact, the spicy bastes become hotter and more daring, and the full platter offers a whole chicken, large chips or spicy rice and Nando's salad or coleslaw.

Since chickens are vegetarian it seems logical you can order veggie or bean burgers and patties, and still feel the heat from the peppers. All in all, Nando's is hotly recommended for those occasions when you have a large following of permanently hungry children, or adults even, to keep happy - the only thing taken really seriously is the quality of those peri-peri good chickens.

Nando's is a place for bright people who love to laugh and love to eat, and is guaranteed to spice up your taste buds. Their fun approach to life means that when you visit Nando's you can fully relax without the airs and graces associated with more starchy dining out.

For the location of your nearest Nando's restaurant and a host of details about menus, parties and drinks, a click on their Website will reveal a Pandora's box of information.

Should you feel an American moment coming on, get straight into the mood at a TGI Friday's. First thought of in New York in 1965, introduced to Birmingham, UK in 1986, they now, like so many other American concepts, are to be found on a global basis and have 48 outlets in the UK alone. According to Newsweek and The Saturday Evening Post, the opening of the first Friday's restaurant heralded the dawn of the singles age.

In many ways, TGIs are more representative of the American approach to eating out than some of their imitators. Their food is fresh, the portions generous and the cocktail list exhaustive. They also tend to represent the all-American classlessness that can produce a meal at any time, for any social group, for any reason, under the same roof, without a problem.

So what's on offer? The quick answer is, it depends rather on where you are, as menus do vary from one restaurant to another, but the essential message stays the same - American grub, fella! Appetizers - no starters please - could include Jack Daniel's wings, chicken wings coated in Jack Daniel's sweet 'n' smoky glaze, or spinach and artichoke hearts coated in a rich and creamy cheese sauce, served with crisp corn tortillas.

For a group assault try the Times Square big share, more of Jack Daniel's wings, cheese and bacon skins to the very brim, with crispy breaded mozzarella dippers and served with a battery of accoutrements.

The steaks are awesome, topping out with a 12oz rib eye. A range of burgers, ribs, chicken, fish, sandwiches, fajitas, salads and pasta embraces virtually every known twist in the repertoire of American cuisine. Chocolate fudge fixation perhaps sums up best, but by no means exclusively, the TGI approach to desserts.

From a list of over 500 cocktails, all mixed with exuberant charm, let's take just one. You thought Long Island Iced Tea was something polite Americans sipped after some gentle sailing? Think again. Vodka, gin, rum and orange liqueur, topped up with Coke, spin and pour. The popular drink was in fact, invented by TGIF. As with all cocktails you can choose between regular or ultimate, no questions asked. Beer, wine and soft drinks cover enormous range and they also offer good coffee.

It is not important which outlet of TGIF you visit, for if you enjoy the American style of eating, just look out for red and white stripes and you are likely to be happy.

To locate a Friday's nearest to you and get the world famous Friday feeling on any day of the week click on their Website.

Brewer's Fayre restaurants offer a warm welcome to those who want a reliably tasty meal in pleasant surroundings, with plenty of choice, minimal fuss and friendly service. With a reputation going back 25 years they should have a fair chance of doing that, but don't take our word for it. Give them a try and see if you agree that this is how good quality pub food should be served.

Whether it's snacks, grills, pub classics, fish, Sunday roasts or side dishes they think their way through the options, talk to their guests, and then come up with the goods. Not everybody wants a full meal so they've considered the needs of those who want to keep the gap filled and the children contented, perhaps on a journey or a day out.

Hot filled baguettes are always popular be it sausage and red onion or a classic chicken club sandwich. Jacket potatoes are good on their own but filled with mature cheddar cheese and beans they take on a new dimension.

More paced occasions demand a wide menu, perhaps with starters of breaded butterfly prawns, chicken goujons or breaded camembert bites. Grills are there for the hungry and whole rack of meaty BBQ pork ribs served with extra sauce, chips and coleslaw can be very welcome. The days of the mixed grill are back - or did they ever go away - a 4oz rump steak, two pork sausages, and a gammon steak topped with a fried egg served with all the trimmings will remind you if they did.

Salmon and prawn fishcakes are served with buttered new potatoes, tartare sauce and a lightly dressed salad. A combination of sea and land comes with a rump steak, whole grilled chicken breast and breaded breaded butterfly prawns, served with chips and a side salad or garden peas.

The rise of eating out in pubs has brought into our daily lives a whole legion of what might be termed 'pub classics'. Many of them have their roots in what used to be called 'good home cooking' and include such dishes as sausage, egg and chips, beef and ale pie, chicken and mushroom pie and for the very daring a beef lasagne. Well, all of them and many more are on the menu at Brewer's Fayre, supplemented by such new regulars as vegetable Goan chicken curry, pork chop, chilli con carne and grilled chicken and bacon salad.

It has often been said that chicken tikka masala is now the most popular dish in Britain. Some may not really want to believe that, much as they love curry, but travel, population movement and other factors have widened our scope and they are probably pretty keen on fish and chips in Timbuktu.

What is certain is that the great British Sunday roast is exclusive to these islands, though copied maybe elsewhere or in ex-pat outposts. No surprise therefore that it's on the Brewer's Fayre menu. A trade of three roasts with an opportunity to trade up to a mega roast for a modest sum. With it come two Yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes, fresh seasonal vegetables and that important element - gravy.

A fine list of immensely tempting desserts may well bring the most ardent weight-watcher to their knees. A short but well thought out wine list offers all choices, except champagne, by the glass. Staying the night - check to see if there's a Premier Inn next door - chances are you'll be lucky.

A quick click on their Website is always worth while. The only thing that stays still permanently is the quality which is helped by a changing menu, and some very special offers.