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The Devon Doorway is located on the leafy, rural outskirts of Heswall and looks every inch the quaint English pub, with its thatched roof and air of antiquity. Once inside, the spacious interiors invite diners to relax. Its long history has survived a refurbishment and has evolved into a stylish, open plan restaurant with a roomy bar.

Contemporary pubs such as these usually share a number of characteristics. An important feature is space, preferably a restaurant where you are comfortable, not over-awed, and not sharing elbow space with the next table, however sociable they may be. Good, too, to have a garden, an optional al fresco eating out space with seating for 120 at the front and rear, and by no means least, a roomy and well stocked bar where you can actually get served without undue delay. After all, drinking should be taken seriously.

If a pub offers all of these, and is in a good location, there is little reason in today's economic climate why it should not flourish. But of course there are other factors, not least of which is the food and drink. The term 'gastropub' covers a multitude of blessings and it is possible to see influences of brasserie, bistro, restaurant and even café at work within the great gastro umbrella. So expect to find no one single cuisine, but a blend designed to provide something for everybody, no matter what their treat may be.

To set the right note of fashionable sociability there are sharing plates, garlic pizzette with caramelised onion and rocket, a box baked camembert with stiratta romagna and home made tomato jam, Mediterranean mezze of hummus with roasted vegetables, fregola, tzatziki, feta, spinach and ricotta pâté and warm flatbreads.

Amongst the starters is freshly made soup, gambas with garlic, rocket, aioli and rustic bread, and spiced crab with avocado, prawns, ginger and pink grapefruit. Look, too, for scallops of the day. The salads - sorry, that should read 'leaves' - offer crispy duck, mouli, carrots, hoisin and spring onion with plum sauce, and for the seafood fiends prawn with avocado, pecans, mango, bacon with orange and pomegranate vinaigrette is received with enthusiasm.

These days no self-respecting gastropub can afford to be without its pizza range; expect to find margherita, a classic medley of pomodoro, mozzarella, oregano and basil; piccante with pepperoni, chorizo, tomato and jalapeños or rustica with roasted Mediterranean vegetables, goats? cheese and cherry tomatoes.

The roast rump of lamb with sauce soubise, pancetta, asparagus, button onions and baby potatoes is popular, a welcome sign of the times. For hearty eaters there are rib-eye and fillet steaks, and calves liver with tray baked potatoes, red onion, bacon and sage panagrattato.

A wide range of supporting dishes includes green salad, Belgian chips and mayo, and cabbage, leeks and peas. Desserts are some of the best you'll encounter with apple and blackcurrant crumble with vanilla custard and sticky toffee pudding with vanilla ice cream, and there is also a selection of cheeses to set the buffs alight.

The Devon Doorway stocks a wide range of beers, both well loved draught ales and bottled from further afield. The wine list covers plenty of territory from traditional clarets to Pinot Grigio, and champagne by the glass or bottle is always available. Service is cheerful, brisk and totally in keeping with the friendly nature of a good English gastropub.

A well constructed Website enables you to keep in touch with menu changes or forthcoming events. Please note that the E-Mail Contact is for enquiries only, not for bookings.

When one of the country's most respected and leading critics says that a restaurant in this group is 'the best Italian Restaurant outside London' it is time to take them seriously. Britain's love affair with Italian food is a cause célèbre of long standing and shows no signs of waning, so it is always welcome news when somewhere like San Carlo sets out to reach for the skies.

Located in the heart of Manchester, San Carlo is well suited to catch both day and night time business, and the menu reflects this. There are a wide range of dishes, plus blackboard specials, offering snacks, meals, celebrations, all in true Italian style, dishes that bring Italy into the very centre of life in the city. San Carlo is one of a chain of similar restaurants, yet each one has its own personality.

The San Carlo at Manchester has become one of the busiest restaurants in the relatively short period of time it has been around. In 2006 they won Cheshire Life Manchester Restaurant of the Year award and this demonstrates clearly that a San Carlo is not a theme restaurant but a highly lavish exclusive Italian venue for people who appreciate fine food, good service, luxurious and comfortable surroundings, as well as value for money.

Favourite dishes include sliced prime Scottish fillet of beef with a light dressing of capers, anchovies, garlic and extra virgin olive oil, and that old favourite of connoisseurs the world over, pan fried breast of chicken with white wine, mushrooms and cream sauce, garnished with asparagus. Many of the ingredients to create these dishes are imported from Italy, and it goes without saying that the wine list is unashamedly and spectacularly of the same origin.

A combination of Italian cuisine and fish has always seemed logical - all that coastline - as well as highly attractive to the British taste. The antipasti at San Carlo includes a mixture of squid, prawns and mussels, deep-fried whitebait, and scallops in white wine and garlic. Amongst the main courses expect to find grilled whole sea bass, a mixed grill of fish, special pasta with lobster, brandy, tomato, cream and peas, or giant prawn and scallops in garlic and chilli.

It is customary to look for Italian wines in such places, nor will you be disappointed, but there are a few French inclusions also, with a rather nice Chablis in evidence. House wines, and few off the list, are available by the glass. Service is a good example of that Italian 'just make yourself at home we'll look after everything' manner, when you generally surprise yourself by taking their advice. In Britain we just say 'no problem', which may be succinct, but lacks style.

Groups are welcome at San Carlo, but to preserve the balance between groups, a limit of up to nine people applies on Friday and Saturday, and twenty to thirty on weekdays. Booking will always make for security but in general the arrangements mean there is room for everybody.

Ultimately a restaurant is judged by two main factors, each dependent upon the other. Combine quality food with life's movers and shakers in attractive surroundings and you have a sure fire record for the sweet buzz of success that permeates San Carlo.

Make sure you check out their Website to bring you up to date on special events at San Carlo Manchester.

In the surging city of Liverpool The London Carriage Works restaurant, part of the boutique Hope Street Hotel, is pleasantly near the top of the pile, witness the Remy Restaurant Award for the Region in 2004. Amongst its other accolades have been inclusion in the top ten restaurants outside London in the 2005 Hardens Guide, top scorer for Liverpool's cooking in The Good Food Guide 2006, Best Restaurant in the Northern Hospitality Awards 2008 and 2AA Rosettes for 2010.

The doors open at 7am on weekdays, and breakfast makes a welcome appearance, with Continental breakfast, Spanish Iberico ham and home cured meats with cheeses, cereal, fresh fruit, multigrain toast, pastries and preserves, served with tea or coffee and fresh juice. A different Liverpool breakfast is a sort of healthy take on their more lethal type, with two eggs cooked as you like, served with dry bacon, and lots of other commendable things.

At noon the day menu kicks in, the seasonal restaurant menu demonstrates its leaning but discretionary approach towards local sourcing and starters on show could be king scallop with braised pork cheek and morcilla, char-grilled breast of chicken with lemon and rosemary, served with chestnut mushrooms, courgettes, salad leaves and shoots, croutons, wholegrain mustard and honey dressing, or a fresh and smoked fillet of Loch Duart salmon and avruga caviar. A pair of vegetarian friends could share a platter that includes artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, Kidderton Ash goats' cheese, Cropwell Bishop Blue stilton, vine tomato salad and seasonal crudities.

On then to a prime sirloin or 'pave' carved rump of dry aged fell bred beef, or fresh linguine of 'Perl Las' blue cheese, or breast of Gressingham duck served with caramelised chicory tarte tatin, peas, lettuce, Southport bacon and pommes mousseline.

For many, however, the highlight could be loin of English Rose veal "blanquette" with chestnut mushrooms, pearl onions, new season carrots, tarragon cream with ratte potatoes. Recommended accompaniment is a glass of Macon Charnay. Amongst seafood, natural smoked haddock risotto combines with leeks, spring cabbage, parsley, mascarpone, lemon and parmesan. Truly this is the menu of somebody who has a feeling for food that is precise and sensitive.

Popular wines by the glass do not exactly dim the prospects of a good evening either, with a Chilean sauvignon from Central Valley well on the way towards the same quality as some of the better New Zealand whites.

Make sure some space is reserved for a helping of the Cheshire duck egg custard tart with summer pudding sorbet, or glazed chocolate bread and butter terrine served with marmalade ice cream. However, for sheer magnificence in such matters, let me commend to you the hot chocolate fondant with salted caramel ice-cream.

The London Carriage Works restaurant has, after a long time, realised its dream of being included in the Michelin Guide for 2011. If you want to know about the restaurant - and the Hope Street Hotel - then have a look at their Website.

This is where the renowned chef-restaurateur Paul Heathcote made his name, since when his restaurant empire has spread across the North of England. After being awarded the coveted AA Three Rosettes rating again, The Longridge has moved to a different league altogether and is described as 'one of the best in the world'. This top accolade follows an excellent review in the Good Food Guide and Heathcote's decision to take the restaurant off the property market and work closely with Head Chef and Gordon Ramsay scholarship award winner Chris Bell and his wife, Kath who is also the General Manager.

The décor calls on creams, greys and blacks skilfully blended in to what started life as a 19th century cottage. A private dining room seating 14 increases the versatility of what has always been a forward looking range of events and happenings in this attractive restaurant. The ability to spread the word has been enhanced by the addition of a cookery school, created by designer Karen Brierley.

Much of Chris's food has an earthy base to it, using local products like excellent black pudding, but is then elevated either by being served in interesting combinations or by the sheer flavour and technical expertise deployed. Puddings have always been praised, with one of the finest bread and butter puddings in the country, served spoilingly with a compote of apricots and clotted cream.

Menus at any Heathcote restaurant, whilst exploring interesting backwaters, and keeping faith with British cuisine, could be expected to offer a duck terrine with rare wood pigeon, seared Scottish scallops with roasted foie gras, and ham hock and Lancashire cheese hash brown. A risotto of pea and mint, Cumbrian ham and slow cooked duck egg makes a real treat of a starter, but even simple dishes such as salmon gravadlax are given new meaning with marinated cucumber, ratte potatoes, warm shrimps and cress.

Bowland beef enjoys a reputation that appeals to the increasingly concerned and steadily growing minority who like the ingredients used in creation of their dishes to have a credible background. Here a roast fillet is served as a main course with fondant potato, creamed and roast parsnips, Savoy cabbage, green peppercorn and thyme. Pan roasted sea bass with creamed cauliflower, spinach, new potatoes, shrimps and parsley is also worth every penny.

Leaving on one side the renowned bread and butter pudding, the sheer artistry of coffee and bay leaf crème brûlée with white chocolate sorbet and peppercorn meringues is hard to ignore. Don't even try!

Those seeking value will find the lunch menu an attractive proposition, competitively priced and offering the sort of selection more commonly associated with a top notch à la carte.

The wine list is superb, but very little dips beneath the £20 mark. Console yourself with the thought that food of this quality should not be associated with anything less.

For more information, including their latest menus and details on any special offers, do visit their Website. The menu changes seasonally - three times a year - for Spring in February, Summer in June for and October for Autumn/Winter.

Dimitris is a well-established Greek restaurant with a strong Mediterranean influence, exercising a strong hold over the contemporary café society of central Manchester. Its location at the lower end of Deansgate in a clever conversion of an airy glass and iron arcade, is inspired and tends to encourage a feeling of exhilaration before the eating and drinking even starts.

The interpretation of the cuisine is joyfully elastic and some wonderful variations on traditional dishes appear from time to time. The Greek tapas are particularly pleasing and help towards creating the right atmosphere in this buoyant restaurant.

For ease of choice, the menu is split into a number of sections, dippy, meaty, fishy, cheesy and veggy and chilli. Each dippy comes with two hot pitas, and could be taramasalata or tapenade. From the meaty selection, the char-grilled lamb chops or salt and pepper spare ribs are popular, whilst octopodi, octopus slowly cooked with onions in a red wine sauce, and mariscos, mixed seafood in a tomato and wine sauce seem to reach the parts that others may not.

The ever-popular dolmades, stuffed vine leaves with a tomato sauce, and halloumi, grilled Cypriot cheese invoke well the flavours of the region, underlining the high quality of the food throughout, while the chorizo bravas with potatoes in salsa gives the intended modern twist.

Other substantial main courses include the char-grilled lamb chops, or sirloin steak, and the kebabs of chicken, lamb, pork, fish or vegetables, served with Casablanca rice, salad and spicy sauce. Spaghetti and other favourites such as moussaka and tagine make their presence felt in the vividly designed menu while smaller portions of pasta and other dishes help children end their meal with a smile.

This is a restaurant where eating is made simple through ease of choice and food that is undemanding on the palate, leaving the challenge to come from the company and some agreeable drinking. If you like dessert wine, do not miss their Dulce de Pasas from Spain, described with some justification as liquid raisins.

Dimitris is easy to reach, with Deansgate Railway station a few minutes away and the Metrolink tram running close by. Round the corner is the Castlefield Visitors Centre.

They have a particularly comprehensive Website, with full details of their menu and all their special offers.

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.

The Monro, arguably Liverpool's most notable gastropub, flies in the face of fashion to produce surroundings which have more than a flavour of home about them, unless of course you happen to inhabit a stately home in which case you'll feel entirely at ease. The question is asked "are you really comfortable eating or drinking under the glare of halogen spotlights?" Which when you come to think about it not infrequently evinces the answer "no".

So at The Monro there is subdued lighting, no beech or laminates and a replacement of chic with comfortable and reassuring décor that does not shout for attention. Lunch is served from 12 until 3pm, with the evening meal starting at 5 until 10pm.

Unlike some gastropubs - and others - where reliance is placed upon pre-packed ingredients, The Monro depends very much upon fresh supplies, some of them organic in origin, and their names read like a roll-call of honour with smoked salmon with asparagus and poached duck egg and hollandaise sauce, caramelized pear and celery tartlet with creamed goats? cheese, served with fresh salad leaves and balsamic dressing, crisp belly pork with Lyonnaise potatoes, red snapper with jersey royals, and butterflied lemon sole stuffed with prawn.

The net, truly, is widely cast. The result of all this is that people have an implicit faith in what is presented on the table, chefs take increased pride in their work and everybody is happy.

For the evening meal starters will include a fresh soup, changed every day, and creamed leek and artichoke tartlet with watercress salad and tomato dressing. Mushroom madness represents a new angle on the humble fungus, with a unique combination of it with pan-fried duck livers in bacon, and cooked in a red wine jus.

10oz rib-eye steak comes with wild mushrooms and peppercorn sauce and homemade chunky chips whilst Cajun spiced monkfish tail comes with beetroot salsa, braised rice and a rocket and parmesan salad. The fish range from red snapper to halibut, again dependent upon the market, and include what is breezily listed as "posh fish and chips" which is essentially cod and chips in beer batter, or, if you really insist, they will batter and deep-fry whatever other fish is on the menu. The tartare sauce is, of course, home made, the chips are chunky.

From all of which you will deduce that there is no possibility of perishing from gastronomic boredom at The Monro. The wine list is short and punchy and designed for honest drinking. Do not look for the great clarets here, but do be prepared for house champagne at less than £23 a cork and a range of very drinkable wines under the £20 mark. It is places like The Monro that give gastropubs a good name. However, their Website would give you an even better idea of the place, so do visit that.

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.

Situated in the Harvey Nichols store in Exchange Square, with panoramic views of Manchester's skyline, The Second Floor Restaurant, Bar and Brasserie has quickly become one of Manchester's leading destination dining - for its superb modern European food - and drinking venues. The Second Floor Restaurant, Bar and Brasserie provides three very different venues which open independently from the main store: a formal 92 cover restaurant and a more informal 102 cover brasserie, and an adjacent stylish bar.

This top floor space encompasses a number of cutting-edge design features created by award-winning architects Lifschutz Davidson to provide a stylish environment in which to eat and drink. The mood of the Second Floor Restaurant, Bar and Brasserie is dramatically transformed from day to night by an integrated lighting system using illuminated glass tanks and coloured, ceiling lighting. By day, the space takes on a cool white appearance, while at night it is transformed with more theatrical, coloured lighting.

A striking black, white and pink colour scheme with polished, black granite flooring, red 'pin cushion button' detailing on the bar, and clean white walls complements these modern design elements.

Second Floor Restaurant:

An à la carte lunch menu is served in the Second Floor Restaurant from 12.00pm until 3pm. The à la carte dinner menu is available from 6pm until 10.00pm; while afternoon tea is available between 3pm and 6 pm (5 pm on Sunday).

A Modern European menu using the finest local ingredients has been created by Head Chef Stuart Thomson. Each course carries around six choices, with starters of, say, shellfish lasagne, salad of lobster, apple and potato; pig's cheek, black pudding, pickled carrots and truffle dressing, or sweetbreads, Cheshire bacon, mushroom bhaji and onion purée.

Main courses could include Morecambe brill, pea tortellini, clam chowder and bacon foam, whilst the more traditional may feel drawn to the fillet of Cheshire beef, truffle mash and shallot purée. But for something refreshingly, in every sense, different do not lightly dismiss the compression of aubergine and red pepper, saffron risotto and balsamic jelly.

Some legendary names appear amongst the cheese selection, but with a roasted peanut parfait with rice crispy crunch and Guanaja chocolate amongst the options, it's an open field.

One of the great virtues of The Second Floor is the views from the large windows which, whilst not exactly on to open countryside, give the same sort of feeling of wellbeing that comes from riding in a well-off-the-ground 4 x 4. And that's before you even start on the pretty faultless food.

There is a separate entrance on Cateaton Street to access the Second Floor Restaurant, Bar and Brasserie, which is served by two express lifts. This allows customers the convenience of direct entry during the day and after the store has closed.

For more details please visit the Harvey Nichols Website.

Photographs - Copyright Chris Gascoigne.