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Heathcotes Brasserie offers a range of British and French classics, sprinkled with the celebrated signature dishes of MBE chef, Paul Heathcote. Guests can relax in an elegant setting filled with glistening silverware and spotless white tablecloths.

Made using fresh local produce, the Heathcotes menu offers starters of roast beef salad with leeks and walnuts, lobster risotto with tarragon and coral butter and hash brown of black pudding with Lancashire cheese, mustard butter and caramelized pear. Sumptuous main courses at Heathcotes restaurant range from slow-cooked lamb with creamed flageolet beans and jus, to grilled halibut with duxelle, champagne sauce and fine beans.

Round off with an indulgent treacle tart with marmalade ice cream, chocolate pots with salted caramel or Paul Heathcote's famous bread and butter pudding. A variety of white and red wines complement the food perfectly, whilst a chic cocktail bar serves refreshing mixes.

Set in pretty Winckley Square, Heathcotes Preston is a short walk from Fishergate Shopping Centre.

To gain further information, just visit their extremely comprehensive Website.

Based in Preston's town centre in Winckley Square, facing landscaped parkland, the Olive Press is in a location that is truly beautiful throughout the year. Walking through the door, you are at once aware of the warm, relaxed atmosphere that characterises the restaurant scene in Preston.

On arrival you will find the open fire is complimented by exposed brick, distressed plaster, and muted tones of wood, creating a sense of rustic surroundings.

The blend of young, vibrant staff make this a friendly and welcoming experience. It is a great place for that family gathering, when you can let the children make their own pizza whilst you enjoy an appetiser or a starter from their extensive menu.

You can go into the Olive Press and have a great sandwich for lunch or a simple pizza or pasta as a meal - or you could really let rip and enjoy a three course dinner, including their 21 day old matured rump steak with garlic butter or pepper sauce, with wine in the evening.

So talking of starters, what's on offer? San Daniele Italian cured ham and melon makes a bracing introduction, but then so do spicy lamb and bacon meatballs. Chicken liver pâté with macerated grapes, red wine and charred ciabatta, and for those who can't wait to latch on to that fishy flavour there's deep-fried squid, king prawn and whitebait with celery leaf and Romaine salad.

An Olive Press lasagne never fails to please - a simple dish but a satisfying one. Spaghetti Napoli, or carbonara with poached egg, crispy pancetta, peas and Parmesan all ring the bells too. From the oven or char grill there's a delightful whole grilled sea bream with gremolata, or hand pressed Curwen Hill rump steak burger, fries, sweetcorn and red pepper relish.

The stone baked pizzas have delicacy - none of your superannuated roofing tiles here - the base is an accompaniment rather than a conversation stopper, with the customary well-loved toppings, none more so than the buffalo mozzarella with plum tomatoes and basil.

Olive Press takes the requirements of children very seriously, and their own menu, designed with pleasure in mind, comes complete with some little puzzles to solve whilst waiting for their order to arrive. As well as making up their own pizza, Little Olives, as they tend to become for the duration, can choose from a pasta selection, sandwiches and garlic bread, burgers, or chicken, before moving in on the knickerbocker glory or banana split. Meanwhile parents and favourite uncles can contemplate a vanilla yoghurt with fresh blackberries, honey and crushed amaretti biscuits.

A well balanced wine list rarely strays far from Italy and includes Thesauram Corvina, Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 from Veneto that is big and spicy with rich dark chocolate and blackberry flavours.

For further details, including latest deals, menus and images, their Website should prove invaluable. The menu changes twice a year - for Autumn/Winter in September and in March for Spring/Summer.

The Beefeater Grill range of restaurants, owned by the well established firm of Whitbread has transformed over time into what is now predominantly a cooking platform for chargrill. The restaurants are warm, modern and stylish, with low lighting and contemporary artwork. A comfortable, cosy, mainly booth layout offers guests their own space with no feeling of being hurried at any point. Staff are friendly and helpful if need be - what a difference that can make to a good evening out.

Be it the wide open spaces of Argentina, the intimate setting of a French restaurant, or a busy grill in London's West End, there's no denying the popularity of chargrill. As the production of quality beef, chicken, fish and lamb has grown, prices have come down by comparison, and the simple and traditional art of minimally cooking dishes by chargrill, sealing in the flavours and tastes by intense heat has caught the public imagination.

All the steaks at Beefeater Grill are matured for a minimum of 28 days before being seasoned. Whether it be juicy rib eye, the classic sirloin, that emblem of the Sunday lunch, a tender fillet, or a delicious 7oz rump, all grilled to your own specification, you're never far away from perfection. Even beefburgers have shaken off their dubious image and the highly popular Beefeater burgers are made from 100% beef.

The popular sirloin with giant prawns offers a treat to those for whom an alliance between sea and pasture is a natural attraction, whilst a 16oz steak platter links rump, fillet, sirloin and rib eye into one mouth-watering dish served with chips, battered onion rings, grilled tomato, a flat mushroom and peppercorn and brandy sauce.

Many of us love rib meat, and the rack of ribs at a Beefeater Grill has a meaty rack smoky flavour; maple ribs of pork with a choice of three sauces, mojito, smoked caramel and apple glaze, or Bourbon and black BBQ. And if all else fails and you are totally baffled by the wealth of choices, ask to have a word with the Steakmaster who will help find what is right for you, together with the best cooking method. These guys leave nothing to chance.

On a menu that is a delight to read, let alone choose a meal from, expect to find smaller dishes such as traditional prawn cocktail, whitebait, chicken liver pâté and baked Camembert, or juicy lamb koftas served with yoghurt and mint dip. There's something about a good steak meal that always leaves a gap for a little temptation to sweeten up the scene and from amongst twelve options look for Belgian chocolate cheesecake, treacle sponge pudding or a caramel apple crumble pie.

Throughout the day a wide range of more general dishes are yours for the ordering, sandwiches, jackets, classic favourites like fish and chips, pasta, salads, and sharing dishes of nachos, potato shells and a Beefeater Grill combo. Next door to many of the restaurants are Premier Inns, so staying the night whatever the circumstances need not be a problem.

And what about wine? Endorsed by Matthew Jukes, wine writer in the Daily Mail and bon viveur in his own right, a wine list that marches with the menu completes an impressive and compelling invitation to enjoy whatever takes your fancy at the nearest Beefeater Grill.

Click on their Website for menu updates and special offers.

Occupying a converted underground cellar, Duk Tapas Restaurant aspires to whisk diners to a different world altogether. Unique hand built tables and warm hacienda style décor provide the ideal setting for a laid-back meal.

Flavours from Peru are manifest in most of the dishes and if you'd like to start on a spicy note then Duk's famous Peruvian fruit and vegetable stew brings in that authentic punch and this could be followed by a raspberry pepper chicken.

Machu Picchu may have featured in the list of the New Seven Wonders of the World, but at Duk's it's a much coveted recipe of prime fillet steaks griddled and finished with butter truffle, oil mushrooms, and a blob of venison pâté. The menu also delivers some unexpected surprises such as homemade mango bread, Catalan broth, sticky fig duck, rhubarb pork and a seafood melange of large New Zealand green lipped mussels in a yummy paprika sauce with scallops, prawns and chorizo.