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The Queen's Head has a long and proud tradition of providing for the needs of travellers and locals alike, gathering all the memorabilia and character that is usually associated with a vintage village pub such as this.

The menu changes regularly and travels with the seasons, paving way for delicacies such as the local venison and pheasant in winter and locally smoked Ullswater trout when summer reigns supreme. The specials carte embraces bacon, black pudding and apple stack; chicken breast stuffed with Blengdale blue spinach, and Jaffa orange pudding with chocolate custard. Other dishes include a Queens Cumbrian pie, 8oz St. George's rump and pork steak and black pudding mash with wholegrain mustard jus. A well-travelled wine list at The Queen's Head Inn keeps pace with the quality of the food, with two house reds and three whites.

Those who want to make the evening memorable could stay on in one of their seven well-designed, ensuite bedrooms.

The North Lakes Hotel, conveniently located just off the M6 at Penrith, looks out over the Lake District, offering a comfortable staging post for passing travellers, or an ideal place to go for the rather different night out if you are staying locally. The Martindale Restaurant takes its name from the remote valley that snakes into the hills on the south side of Ullswater, where wild deer, ponies and spectacular birds of prey have their homes.

The restaurant makes the most of the robust Cumbrian approach to food, without in any way lacking finesse. Start dinner with the Cumbrian Hors d'Oeuvres selection, an array of salmon, fresh prawns, herring, cured meats, terrines and salads. Starters of fresh crab bisque with garlic mayonnaise, gruyere and croutons, or Thornby Moor goat's cheese stumpies, served with rocket and sweet chilli dipping sauce. Local produce features widely, as evidenced by Cranston's traditional Cumberland sausage served on mash with onion sauce and apple chutney, or pan-fried fillet of Fellside beef with blue Swaledale cheese and wrapped in bacon with a port wine sauce and thick cut chips.

It would be unreasonable not to find some of the famous sticky toffee pudding with hot butterscotch sauce, perhaps with a side order of Thwaite's "smoothie" ice cream made with the assistance of the local ale.

Though this is a modern building the attention to creating some pretty authentic antiquity is impressive and the hunting lodge feel is never far away. I enjoyed the friendliness, the very local feel and certainly the quality of cooking offered by Mike Haddow and his brigade.

Built solidly, but by no mean ungracefully, to withstand the ravages of northern winter storms, Temple Sowerby House offers a gracious welcome to travellers wishing to stay or those for whom a rather special meal is their main objective.

Head Chef, Ashley Whittaker, offers a monthly changing menu based on the seasons and very much on local produce. Given the quality of the locally sourced materials, some real treats are in store. The flavour of lamb reared on the local fell sides is memorable, pork and beef from specific farms, venison, cheese and, not so far away the seafood from the Solway, all go to reassure, as well as please, the discerning guest.

A typical dinner menu could produce a starter of green tea smoked scallops followed by haunch of venison served with red pepper spatula and a warm redcurrant and port dressing, well rounded off with dark chocolate honeycomb mousse served with lavender ice cream and warm chocolate truffle ravioli. There is an indefinable feel that you are eating in your own, or somebody else's home. The wine list has been compiled specially to be in harmony with the line taken by Ashley's menus.

This is a place to relish and enjoy in temperate mood - no rushing or haste.

Café Rouge has over one hundred branches throughout Britain all offering a wide range of dishes drawn from the French cuisine. Slightly less than half their branches are in or close to London. Almost inevitably the décor and design of each restaurant differs from the others, but there is a general curtsy towards La France.

Many restaurants do an excellent breakfast, or shall we say petit dejeuner, at which such delights as scrambled eggs and smoked salmon on toasted brioche, croque Madame, croissants and pain au chocolate make welcome appearances, and to their credit the English traditional gets top billing.

An array of hors d'oeuvres takes in classic French onion and beef soup with a melted gruyere crouton, classic snails in melted garlic butter, and pan-fried crab cakes with a chilli, lemon and coriander jam. Salads, pasta and quiches feature largely, as do baguettes and croques. Quick dishes, ideal for lunch, include smoked Toulouse sausages with sautéed with new potatoes, caramelised onions and balsamic vinegar on a salad of mixed leaves.

Moving on to more serious stuff we find steaks, an 8oz bavette and thin cut rib eye, with a choice of sauces that include the signature sauce de Café Rouge, prepared specially from over twenty secret ingredients. No French menu would be complete without the demi poulet, or a steak frites before moving on to the crème brûlée, or the tart tatin. Almost invariably the coffee tastes like coffee should, something that sadly can all too often still not be said of our English restaurants, who depend too much upon technology and too little on the acquisition of a certain flair for this important conclusion to a meal.

By now we all know that the French, despite their distinctive habits when it comes to matters of satisfying the inner man, maintain a miraculous longevity of life. This is generally attributed to a number of causes, of which a measured consumption of decent wine is foremost. Café Rouge, you may be pleased to hear, encourages this with a well-chosen selection of French wines. Their prix fixe lunch and meals for children, both at a very reasonable figure, also offer excellent value.

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. Natural yoghurt with granola cereal or apple and blueberry compote 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; bruschetta and formaggio fritto with funghi arrosto, calamari and king prawn skewers.

A speck e rucola pizza, added to a traditional margherita brings together two traditions with northern Italian mountain smoked 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, garlic mushrooms, fries and rocket, or the fritto misto, tempura battered prawns, golden cod pieces and calamari with fries and a side salad.

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 crunch, 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.