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Located in the Westholme Estate 'leisure resort' in Kettlewell in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales, Henderson's is an elegant and fine-dining restaurant that caters for the estate's guests as well as visiting tourists and local residents. Constructed from timber, the stylish conversion of a former clubhouse features much use of honey-coloured wood, neutral-toned rugs and, in the bar area, low tables and comfy chairs arranged around a pristine wood-burning stove. The interiors are bright and shiny, typical of Scandinavian simplicity and decorated in neutral tones.

The a la carte menu places great emphasis on local produce and includes dishes of Wensleydale lamb crumble and Swaledale pork sausages while vegetarians are well catered for with wild mushrooms cooked in white wine and garlic in a filo pastry case topped with stilton or char grilled halloumi served with spicy red cabbage coleslaw. Homemade desserts, which are served in elegant Martini-style glasses, include date and walnut sticky toffee pudding, tiramisu and a raspberry Eton mess.

Although the Foresters Arms might be described as a pub for drinkers, the new owners, Mike and Claire Chambers have very clear aspirations towards making the provision of good food as a major priority.

This former 18th century farmhouse in the Yorkshire Dales is now a well established hotel with restaurant, offering the well-known and traditional Yorkshire hospitality to an ever widening audience, as more people become aware of the delights on their own doorstep.

Our concern here is with the restaurant, where Kevin Wigglesworth, Nigel Stevens, and Jimmy Stevens offer menus that embrace the best of the local produce with traditional dishes that have many a twist amongst them.

Their menus follow the seasons and starters can include deep fried prawns with sweet and sour sauce, or savoury onions and mushrooms with garlic sauce served on crusty bread.

A braised jarett of pork is served with sauerkraut roasted garlic potatoes served with a pork jus, and other main courses involve chicken, lamb and ham shanks, and calf's liver, the latter served with lentils, pearl onions and smoked bacon with port gravy.

A riot of steaks, all sourced from butcher Nigel Hammond of Bainbridge confronts the determined carnivore with some pretty fiercesome choices, including the Chicago Beast described as a "rump to die for". A fresh fish of the day dish is available.

Desserts come not out of a freezer pack, but are all homemade and wholesome, and José Loarté will tend to all front of house requirements, such as advice on wine from their well travelled wine list.

If you accept that Yorkshire is one of the natural havens of good eating in England, look no further than The Sandpiper, where Jonathan Harrison's personalised cuisine continues to attract from a wide area those who appreciate fine food.

Within a dining room that conveys the intimacy and good taste of a family home it is possible to feel totally relaxed and, yes, at home. There are three main menus, lunch, dinner and, this being Yorkshire, where such matters are taken seriously, Sunday lunch.

The dinner menu fields six starters, with smoked mackerel and salmon rilette, accompanied by a green bean and pine nut salad, or caramelised belly pork with braised lentils and foie gras, as two regulars. Follow with beef fillet and wild mushrooms, leeks and black bacon, or Moroccan spiced chicken with cous cous. Vegetarians are not overlooked, with grilled haloumi on a salad of roasted vegetables.

A triumphant conclusion to the meal could be mango vacherin and raspberry sauce or a terrine of three chocolates with a pistachio sauce followed by an impressive range of coffees, teas and liquors.

A former Yorkshire Life Dining Pub of the Year, it is not difficult to see why. They have two rooms for the accommodation of those who wish to spend rather longer than the duration of one meal in this scenic location.

For sheer Yorkshire-ness you would have to go a long way before finding anything better than the market square at Middleham. The White Swan plays its part in projecting that settled, sturdy image which is so much a part of the county. Inside, the atmosphere shouts of antiquity, sheep drovers who have called there, owners and landlords who have made do, and in so doing have unwittingly preserved part of our heritage every bit as well as the National Trust, sometimes better.

You can eat in the bars or for other occasions in the gently shadowed dining room. Meals are of a straightforward nature, unfussed well-prepared food, where a sighting of Masham sausages is certainly not unknown. A starter of black pudding and bacon risotto could be followed by a crisp duck leg confit or a char-grilled rib-eye of beef with some blue Wensleydale cheese to wind up proceedings.

It is pubs like these, with rooms to let as they always used to have, that are very much the backbone of the increased enjoyment of eating out. In so many ways we are discovering how to use places and buildings in the way that they used to be; and in many cases were designed to be.

A traditional Yorkshire pub in the heart of Wensleydale, situated in the most perfect unspoilt village. As Les Routiers say: "Since his arrival in 1990, Paul Klein has successfully created one of the finest inns in North Yorkshire, offering twelve comfortable and individually furnished en suite bedrooms and quality modern pub food that draws the crowds from miles around."

The bar meals are of a high quality but it is the a la carte restaurant, where meals are served every night and Sunday lunch, this is where the chef really comes into his own.

With starters like roast king scallops with lemon risotto and Gruyere cheese, crispy fried squid with chilli and coriander salsa, or marinated vegetable bruschetta. While equally appealing, main course options might range from pan-fried cod with seafood risotto, and sea bass with vegetable noodles and black bean sauce, to roast chump of lamb with Mediterranean vegetables and pesto mash. Puddings could include a wonderful dark chocolate tart with orange sorbet.

Whilst the coaches may no longer rattle up to the door plenty of other people do, particularly on Sundays when that wonderful English art form, The Roast Sunday Lunch is offered up to an eager and appreciative clientele. Why is that as a nation, when we have something good we tend to mess about trying to find alternatives when what we really want is under our nose ends? Excellent draught beers like Black Sheep and Theakston's on tap and a decent wine list with over 100 wines.