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Away from the hustle and bustle of the town centre but with close proximity to Chester, the Days Hotel is situated on the North Wales border and provides a host of facilities for guests travelling on business and leisure. Forty well designed and stylish bedrooms offer wireless internet connections, LCD televisions and luxury bathrooms as well as a leisure club with a heated swimming pool, jacuzzi, steam room and sauna.

The imaginative menus offer dishes that are created fresh from locally sourced ingredients; start your day with breakfast and end it with a relaxed evening meal. A bowl of piping hot soup or flavoursome salt and pepper chicken wings with cucumber and spring onion raita could give you a good start.

Among main courses a retro mixed grill of chicken breast, bacon chop, minute steak, sausage, and black pudding with fried egg and chips vies for attention with honey marinated tuna kebabs, and Thai green chicken curry with jasmine scented rice and prawn crackers. Lighter bites take in baked potatoes, panini, sandwiches, and ploughman's lunches.

Blackhouse Restaurant and Bar as the name suggests, is a fulsome nod to that classic grill preoccupation - the glorious steak, along side of which runs a healthy obsession with the freshest of produce from our seas. They make no apology for offering a combination of popular requests and old favourites.

No ultra-nouvelle cuisine or chef's mad experiment in minimalism here, you will not be sent away with a tasting menu rattling against your rib-cage and in desperate need of a dictionary and a proper meal.

The key to Blackhouse is in the quality of the ingredients; all of their beasty-based foods are sourced only from farmers whose wellies are splattered in honest, hormone-free muck, and are in possession of a healthy, ruddy-glow, a clear indicator of time spent chasing live stock around the pasture. Similarly, their sea-produce, while not exactly required to be still jumping up and down on the plate or intoning 'ahoy there matey' as proof of provenance is as fresh as the proverbial daisy. The quality of the meal is in the base produce - the chefs will lightly threaten the produce with a little heat and then arrange it - simply.

However, simplicity and restraint in the kitchen need not necessarily mean Calvinistic frugality in the choice of ingredients, indeed, the menu, written in plain-speak - lists such blatant temptations as; lobster, ostrich, suckling pig and oysters and that almost mythical, super-pampered delicacy of the meat world - Kobe beef.

And while the atmosphere is reassuringly lively and yet comfortably decorous the underlying mantra remains; restraint in the kitchen, care and thought in the choice of produce, and a desire to be recognised as an honest refuge for the restrained hedonist.

They were nominated and won the Best Large Restaurant at the annual Chester Food and Drink Festival Gala Dinner in 2008.

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.

The Crystal restaurant has a reputation for fine food, and only uses fresh seasonal produce. The restaurant has been awarded with three rosettes by the AA, has been voted twice as 'County Restaurant of the Year' by the Good Food Guide and 'County Hotel of the Year' by Cheshire Life Series. The south facing Crystal restaurant overlooks the sunken gardens, a wonderful venue for al fresco dining throughout the summer months. An informal barbecue is served every Sunday evening, from May until September.